Assessing Community Violence as an Adverse Childhood Experience Primarily in Suburban and Urban Communities
Mentor: Dr. Heather Larkin, University at Albany
I am studying adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs, and the commonality of community violence as an ACE type. Adverse childhood experiences are stressful or potentially traumatic events that occur before the age of 18. Numerous adult health conditions and behaviors have been linked to poor childhood development and it was found that ACEs are extremely common. My goal in pursuing this study is to bring awareness to the importance of childhood development and to diversify the questionnaire that is used to assess adults for childhood adversity. By diversifying the questionnaire, people could potentially understand the importance of their childhood and seek treatment if necessary. In order to do this, I have modified the original ACEs-Questionnaire and added community violence as an ACE type and will be distributing the surveys digitally to anyone who wishes to participate. In the Demographic Questionnaire, people are asked to check whether their childhood community was suburban, urban, or rural to see if community violence has a correlation with certain communities.