Screening tool
ACEs — the adverse childhood experiences questionnaire
The ACE questionnaire counts ten kinds of adverse experience before age 18 — abuse, neglect, and household stress — from the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study. It was built as a population research measure. It produces a count from 0 to 10, not a severity band and not a prediction about any one person's health. Some clinics ask about childhood adversity; this page explains the research measure behind that conversation.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire, based on the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study (Felitti et al., 1998). Not copyrighted; no usage fee.
Who is this for?
Adults 18 and older reflecting on their own childhood who want to understand what the ACE Study measured. It is a research measure, not a diagnosis and not a forecast — and it deliberately leaves out the strengths and relationships that protect people.
This page is educational. It reproduces the published questionnaire and its published scoring so you can see what it asks and how clinicians read it. It does not diagnose any condition, recommend treatment, or replace a clinician’s evaluation. If you complete it here, your answers stay on your device and are not stored unless you choose to save the result to your own Gale record.
Before you begin
A population research measure — not a diagnosis and not a prediction. Only a licensed clinician can interpret what it means for you. Some clinics ask about childhood adversity; completing it here is for your own understanding and preparation. Intended for adults 18 and older reflecting on their own childhood. The result is a count, not a score to be labelled. Your answers stay on this device unless you choose to save them. 10 questions · about 3 minutes.
These ten questions ask about difficult experiences before age 18 — abuse, neglect, and household stress. Some people find them hard to sit with. You can stop at any time, and nothing is recorded unless you choose to save. The result is a count, not a prediction.
How the ACEs is scored
While you were growing up, during your first 18 years of life:
| Question | No | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt? | 0 | 1 |
| 2. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured? | 0 | 1 |
| 3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever… Touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? or Attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you? | 0 | 1 |
| 4. Did you often or very often feel that… No one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? or Your family didn't look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other? | 0 | 1 |
| 5. Did you often or very often feel that… You didn't have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? or Your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it? | 0 | 1 |
| 6. Were your parents ever separated or divorced? | 0 | 1 |
| 7. Was your mother or stepmother: Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife? | 0 | 1 |
| 8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic, or who used street drugs? | 0 | 1 |
| 9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill, or did a household member attempt suicide? | 0 | 1 |
| 10. Did a household member go to prison? | 0 | 1 |
The total is the number of items answered "Yes", from 0 to 10.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire, based on the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study (Felitti et al., 1998). Not copyrighted; no usage fee.
What your score means
The ACE questionnaire produces a count from 0 to 10 — the number of the listed experiences a person reports. There are no severity bands, and this tool shows no threshold on or near the count, because a personal count placed next to a group-level cutoff invites people to read a number as a diagnosis.
The original study found, at the level of large populations, that a higher count was associated with more health risk on average. That is group epidemiology, not a prediction about any individual 1Ref 1Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, et al. (1998).Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.The original CDC-Kaiser ACE Study; a population-level, graded association between the count of adverse childhood experiences and adult health risk. A population research measure, not an individual diagnostic or predictive test., and the score's own authors caution against applying it to individuals 2Ref 2Anda RF, Porter LE, Brown DW (2020).Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience score: strengths, limitations, and misapplications.An ACE Study co-author's caution that the ACE score was designed to describe patterns across populations and has poor accuracy for predicting any individual's outcomes; it should not be used as a diagnostic or screening cut point for individuals..
How accurate is it?
The ACE questionnaire was built as a population research tool. Its count describes patterns across large groups and has poor accuracy for predicting any one person's health 2Ref 2Anda RF, Porter LE, Brown DW (2020).Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience score: strengths, limitations, and misapplications.An ACE Study co-author's caution that the ACE score was designed to describe patterns across populations and has poor accuracy for predicting any individual's outcomes; it should not be used as a diagnostic or screening cut point for individuals.; a 2024 critical appraisal cautions against using it to screen individuals 3Ref 3Austin AE, Anderson KN, Goodson M, Niolon PH (2024).Screening for adverse childhood experiences: a critical appraisal.A 2024 critical appraisal cautioning against routine individual ACE screening on evidence and equity grounds; supports the trauma-informed, count-only, no-threshold presentation used here.. It reports a count, not a diagnostic accuracy, and this tool shows no threshold on or near the count.
Bringing your results to your provider
A screening result is most useful in a conversation with a clinician who knows you. It is not a verdict and it does not decide a diagnosis or a treatment — only a licensed clinician can do that, after a fuller evaluation. What a result can do is give you a concrete, structured way to describe what you have been noticing.
When you complete the ACEs above, Gale drafts a short set of talking points from your answers — the number, the published interpretation, how long the symptoms have been present, and a few questions to ask. You can read them out at a visit, or save the result and bring it along. The point is not the label; it is that you walk in able to advocate for yourself with something specific to say.
Common questions
Does a higher ACE count mean I will get sick?
No. The ACE score was designed to describe patterns across large groups. It has poor accuracy for predicting any one person's health, and a 2024 critical appraisal cautions against using it to screen individuals. It is a research measure, not a forecast about you.
Why is there no severity label?
Because a personal count next to a group-level threshold invites people to read a number as a diagnosis. The ACE questionnaire counts experiences; it does not rank them, and this tool deliberately shows a count with no band.
What about the things that protected me?
The ACE questionnaire only asks about adversity. Protective relationships and positive childhood experiences matter a great deal and are not counted here — which is one reason a count cannot describe a whole life.
Is this the questionnaire my provider will use?
Not always. Some clinics ask about childhood adversity and some use this exact research measure, while others ask in their own words or not at all. This page explains the measure behind that conversation so you can understand it if it comes up.
Read next
- ACEs explained — what adverse childhood experiences are →
- Protective factors that buffer childhood adversity →
- Healing from childhood trauma later in life →
- Trauma and PTSD — symptoms and care →
Browse more behavioral health articles →
Other screeners: PC-PTSD-5
Sources
- 1.Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4): 245-258. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8 ✓The original CDC-Kaiser ACE Study; a population-level, graded association between the count of adverse childhood experiences and adult health risk. A population research measure, not an individual diagnostic or predictive test.
- 2.Anda RF, Porter LE, Brown DW (2020). Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience score: strengths, limitations, and misapplications. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 59(2): 293-295. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2020.01.009 ✓An ACE Study co-author's caution that the ACE score was designed to describe patterns across populations and has poor accuracy for predicting any individual's outcomes; it should not be used as a diagnostic or screening cut point for individuals.
- 3.Austin AE, Anderson KN, Goodson M, Niolon PH (2024). Screening for adverse childhood experiences: a critical appraisal. Pediatrics, 154(6). doi:10.1542/peds.2024-067307 ✓A 2024 critical appraisal cautioning against routine individual ACE screening on evidence and equity grounds; supports the trauma-informed, count-only, no-threshold presentation used here.
3 sources, numbered by first appearance. Every entry verified 2026-06-11 against PubMed / PMC / publisher pages (214 in the full bibliography).