Adverse Childhood Experiences Reported by Adults—Five States, 2009

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include verbal, physical, or sexual abuse, as well as family dysfunction. To examine whether a history of ACEs was common in a randomly selected population, CDC analyzed information from 26,229 adults in five states using the 2009 ACE module of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Here, Bynum et al present a report describing the results of that analysis, which indicated that, overall, 59.4% of respondents reported having at least one ACE, and 8.7% reported five or more ACEs. A CDC editorial note is included.