TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting the use of adverse childhood experience screening in healthcare settings
AU - Danese, Andrea
AU - Asmussen, Kirsten
AU - MacLeod, Jelena
AU - Meehan, Alan
AU - Sears, Jessica
AU - Slopen, Natalie
AU - Smith, Patrick
AU - Sweeney, Angela
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature America, Inc. 2024.
PY - 2024/11
Y1 - 2024/11
N2 - Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are key modifiable risk factors for mental illness. The potential to detect and mitigate ACEs to improve population mental health has led to large public health efforts. However, basing public mental health decisions on ACE screening has revealed several conspicuous challenges. In this Review, we provide a critical overview of these challenges, focusing on the validity of ACE screening measures, their accuracy in classifying individuals at risk for poor mental health outcomes, their utility in facilitating the delivery of targeted interventions, their acceptability by respondents and interviewers, and the overall financial sustainability of this screening approach. There are clear research opportunities to address these challenges and improve current practices. For example, basic measurement research could improve the validity and acceptability of ACE measures, individual risk modelling approaches could be adopted to improve the accuracy of ACE screening to predict mental health conditions and guide intervention selection, and promising interventions could be tested to ensure that vulnerable individuals detected through ACE screening receive effective support.
AB - Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are key modifiable risk factors for mental illness. The potential to detect and mitigate ACEs to improve population mental health has led to large public health efforts. However, basing public mental health decisions on ACE screening has revealed several conspicuous challenges. In this Review, we provide a critical overview of these challenges, focusing on the validity of ACE screening measures, their accuracy in classifying individuals at risk for poor mental health outcomes, their utility in facilitating the delivery of targeted interventions, their acceptability by respondents and interviewers, and the overall financial sustainability of this screening approach. There are clear research opportunities to address these challenges and improve current practices. For example, basic measurement research could improve the validity and acceptability of ACE measures, individual risk modelling approaches could be adopted to improve the accuracy of ACE screening to predict mental health conditions and guide intervention selection, and promising interventions could be tested to ensure that vulnerable individuals detected through ACE screening receive effective support.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85204778605&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s44159-024-00362-5
DO - 10.1038/s44159-024-00362-5
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85204778605
SN - 2731-0574
VL - 3
SP - 729
EP - 740
JO - Nature Reviews Psychology
JF - Nature Reviews Psychology
IS - 11
ER -