The Reliable, Valid and Economic Assessment of Early Traumatization: First Psychometric Characteristics of the German Version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE)

There are only few questionnaires for the retrospective assessment of traumatic experiences during childhood and adolescence. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is one of the most widely used scales. The CTQ includes 28 items covering several domains of early abuse and neglect on a 5-point Likert scale. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE) consists of only 10 items. In this study we investigated 102 psychosomatic inpatients as well as 99 students and 100 adults from the general population. The internal consistency of the ACE was satisfying. Furthermore, we found high correlations with the CTQ while the associations between depression, anxiety and bodily symptoms and ACE scores were low to moderate. In sum, the ACE is a reliable, valid and economic screen for the retrospective assessment of adverse childhood experiences.