Chelsea Yang Psychology
Raquel Lopez Associate Professor of Psychology
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Abstract
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as childhood maltreatment, are potentially traumatic experiences or prolonged stressors that occur before the age of 18 (Smith & Pollak, 2021). Childhood trauma can hinder physical, emotional, social, and developmental growth and progress. High levels of childhood stress have altered responses to the actual receipt of rewards (Birn et al., 2017). Understanding how adversity during childhood affects development into adulthood is important in order to properly address how to prevent negative outcomes of exposure to childhood maltreatment. This correlational study currently consists of a survey questionnaire with a sample size of 76 participants. The 76 research participants were within the age range of 18 through 30 years old with a standard deviation of 1.56 with a mean of 20.09. In the survey questionnaire the Cowart-Pollack Scale of Sexual Experience is included to assess the heterosexual experiences of the participant. Certain questions in this research also assess the participant’s self-reported sexual risk behavior. Additionally, the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) test is used to measure exposure to potentially traumatic experiences before the participant turned 18 years old. The results are split into three groups: those with an ACE score of 0, ACE score of 1-4, and an ACE score of 5 or more.
