Citation

Gette JA, Gissandaner TD, Littlefield AK, Simmons CS, Schmidt AT. Child Maltreat. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/10775595211043122

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are related to a host of deleterious physical and mental health outcomes. The ACE-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) was developed to assess categories of ACEs (e.g., sexual, emotional, and physical abuse) in internationally representative samples. Though the ACE-IQ has been used world-wide, little work has examined the structure of this measure. Further, much of the modeling techniques implemented lacked theoretical rationale. The present work used two principal components analyses (PCA) to evaluate the ACE-IQ structure using both the identified ACE categories as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and using the ACE-IQ items as individual indicators. Using the WHO method, a two-component structure was indicated. Alternatively, a PCA of the individual items yielded a six-component structure.

RESULTS highlight the importance of theoretically grounded measure evaluation and the potential distinctions amongst types of ACEs. Implications and future directions for research and practice are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

adverse childhood experiences; principal component analysis