Prevention Column-Adverse Childhood Experiences Study Offers Insight Into Lasting Effects

Staten recalls that it has been 15 years since V. J. Felitti et al. (1998) published the landmark research on the relationship of adverse childhood experiences and adult health status. This study supported what many had suspected, that growing up in difficult family environments was linked to lasting adult health problems. Since then, additional research has connected 10 adverse childhood experiences to a multitude of problems children experience throughout childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and beyond. Here, she stresses that this body of research gives strong credibility to what people have long known: that children growing up in difficult environments do experience lifelong consequences. Dr. Felliti and colleagues brought this awareness and need for change in the questions that are asked by primary care providers and specialists and to change how they care for individuals with these experiences.