Int'l Attachment Conference attendees' ACE survey results surprise them

Jane Stevens 8/17/156:57 PM

AIACdayone

The recent 7th International Attachment Conference attracted 450 of the field's luminaries from around the globe to New York City on August 6 for three days of presentations, symposia, poster sessions and, of course, receptions, dinners, lunches and coffee breaks (some of which was backed by some wonderful jazz) for the all-important time to connect. (Peruse photos on the IAC Facebook page.)

The presentations and the people were fascinating; the poster sessions were so jammed that people had to wait outside the rooms for people to leave before entering. Some examples of presentations, posters and symposia: "Adverse Health and Positive Well-Being among Adult Survivors of Early Adversity" (Shanta Rishi Dube); "Maternal Buffering of the Amygdala-Prefrontal Cortex Circuit" (Nim Tottenham); "From the cradle: An attachment-based model of preterm birth" (Hannah Cassedy et al); "How Do ACEs Influence Management and Control of Type-2 Diabetes?" (Debra Geiger et al); "Fostering Attachment: Mediating the Effects of ACEs through a Program Using Mentalization to Promote Parental Sensitivity" (Jill Bellinson chaired this symposium).

During my presentation -- the third in the plenary session -- I talked about how people, organizations and communities are implementing trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs. In other words, the work that you ACEs Connection members are doing. At the end, the people gathered in the fabulous Tishman auditorium of the New School for Social Research participated in the 10-question ACE survey. The responses were tallied and displayed instantly.

Given the murmurs and gasps, some of the results surprised the crowd. In four of the 10 questions, the group's response was higher than the ACE survey results. In two of those questions, the responses were remarkably higher: 54% indicated "True" to the question about a family member with mental illness, compared with 17% for the ACE Study; 32% indicated "True" to the question about experiencing psychological abuse, compared with 11% for the ACE Study. In four questions, the IAC participants were lower. In two, the same. We used PollEverywhere.com; participants used their cell phones to text "T" or "F" to a number; their responses were anonymous.

Although completely unscientific, the survey revealed yet again that, when it comes to ACEs, there's no them and us. We're all in this together.

Here are the results:

Household dysfunction -- substance abuse: 27% yes, 73% no.

ACE Study -- 27% yes, 73% no.

Household dysfunction -- parental sep/divorce: 22% yes, 78% no.

ACE Study -- 23% yes, 77% no.

Household dysfunction -- battered mother: 11% yes, 89% no.

ACE Study -- 13% yes, 87% no.

Abuse -- Psychological: 32% yes, 68% no.

ACE Study -- 11% yes, 89% no.

Household dysfunction -- mental illness: 52% yes, 48% no.

ACE Study -- 17% yes, 83% no.

Neglect -- emotional: 18% yes, 82% no.

ACE Study -- 15% yes, 85% no.

Neglect -- physical: 5% yes, 95% no.

ACE Study -- 10% yes, 90% no.

Abuse -- physical: 16% yes, 84% no.

ACE Study -- 28% yes, 72% no.

Household dysfunction -- incarceration: 6% yes, 94% no.

ACE Study -- 6% yes, 94% no.

Abuse -- sexual: 23% yes, 77% no.

ACE Study -- 21% yes, 79% no.

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Scott FrostMember

Strange attacters for a career in the behavior health science field. I felt a connection with many of my patients, especially those living on axis II.

8/23/1510:38 AM

Raymond LambertMember

Thank you Jane for your comment. I am not looking at this from a scientific point of view, nor am I being critical of your random exercise/study with the participants. All I am saying is that, if a family member was affected by depression, mental illness or suicide ideation/attempts, well two things here: 1/ there must have been some other underlying causes in said-family to bring about these symptoms, and 2/ this 'must' have had an effect on the other members. Yet the results indicate that all was fairly rosy in the park, in spite of a family member suffering in this way. It is more a subtle and deeper questionning on my part, of the origins of trauma and its consequences. With regards, respect and best wishes.

8/20/152:54 AM

Jane StevensPublisher, ACEsTooHigh; founder, PACEs Connection

Raymond -- There were four questions for which the IAC participants responses were higher, and two of those were significantly higher. We've done this with two other groups, and, although the specific results are different, the overall results (i.e., there were questions where the participants responses were significantly higher than the ACE Study) were the same. As I mentioned: This isn't scientific. It just shows that everyone's swimming in the same ocean.

Originally Posted by Raymond Lambert:

Question 5 is at odds with all the other ones and doesn't really tally it seems. How can we have had a family member (parent or sibling), "depressed, or mentally ill, or having attempted suicide", and all the other scores appearing almost normal? Something here doesn't add up.

8/19/159:27 PM

Patrick AndersonMember

Thanks for your response, Cissy. I actually agree with you, but did not make my point very well. If Developmental Trauma is a root cause, and our brain seeks out relief, my hypothesis is that relief can come from negative, neutral and positive behavioral sources. I don't believe that this relief is healing, nor do I believe it is "resilience." Because relief is short lived, it has to be repeated frequently. In this view, success in any endeavor that leads to praise or approval provides relief. But the only way to continue to get praise or approval is through continued improvement. I often use many performing artists who get lots of praise as child performers, but have lots of problems surface when they become emancipated. At that time, other negative behaviors surface to take the place of positive behaviors because they lose their place as a source of relief. Lots of ACE sourced high achievers have many neutral and negative behaviors to supplement the relief from positive behaviors. But at any point in time, a negative behavior can "take down" a high achiever because of the negative consequences of the behavior.

I believe true healing from from recognition of developmental trauma and the behaviors it fosters, removing any nutritional deficits that might contribute to behaviors, and retraining the brain to reduce incidences of fear response. I believe we need to retrain the prefrontal cortex through EMDR, EFT, Mindfulness and Meditation, if the problems are not too severe. If they are severe, then high level help might be needed. Otherwise, my Restoration to Health Strategy is designed to address issues through lay trainers.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate comments. The help me to think about other ideas, and refine the way I communicate.

8/19/151:57 PM

Former Member

The only problem that I see in the analysis about "law-abiding people" is that the percent reporting parental incarceration is the same in both groups? The major forms of abuse here as in our Michigan ACE study and our small regional group was emotional abuse. I think we need to look at how important emotional attachment is. It is so easily overlooked when physical needs are met but we are born as social creatures and thus emotions and primary caregiver attachment is incredibly important. As was stated in a Peds in Review article and Allan Schore says "Children are malleable. Resilience is the result of a secure attachment." Which is what the Emmy Werner resilience studies were pointing at (and the got your ACE score Resilience Scale). Children need loving and emotionally attuned parents and we all need caring and supportive people.

Originally Posted by Jane Stevens:

To answer your question, Mem, not really. I'm so immersed in this every single day and hear so many people's stories about their ACE-burdened childhood -- people from all walks of life -- that it's more surprising to me that people don't understand how universal ACEs are.

However, it's interesting how the results vary from question to question. The people who attended this conference were, by most standards, high-achievers. So, it might make sense that if people have at least have all their physical needs met, and are raised in an environment of mostly successful law-abiding people (no incarceration in the family to affect income or social status, e.g.), then they have the opportunity to become high achievers, even if they have experienced ACEs, whereas people who don't have their physical needs met (economic poverty) have a more difficult time. However, research shows that even high achievers pay the price of ACEs in health and social consequences (divorces, family violence).

Of course, this is all complete speculation. I still think the basic lesson from all this research, including the research the IAC folks are doing, points out that, to create healthy people (and reduce all types of ACEs except the ones we have little control over, meaning natural disaster), we need to create trauma-informed, resilience-building nations, states, communities, systems, organizations and families.

8/19/157:40 AM

Christine Cissy WhiteIt's not trauma-informed unless it's informed by trauma survivors.

Patrick,

I think your comment is thoughtful and interesting. I understand but am sometimes bothered by the differentiation of "high achieving vs. low achieving" and "high functioning vs. low functioning." I think that there are costs even to being high acheiving as a recent article about people of color being first in the family to go to college and having MORE health problems as well as the great economic or career success.

Is that, in life, truly more high achieving or just social climbing? If the family of origin is poor and one goes on to break the cycle, so to speak, economically, but does so at a cost is that only positive and high achieving? The focus, for me, has to be less on the differences between high and low functioning or achieving in certain areas and more on what makes the most people the most healthy and gives the most people the greatest access to the greatest range of portable, affordable support and a sense of community and validation and understanding the symptoms.

Thank you for sharing about this conference Jane. It's WONDERFUl to read about the work, thoughts and presentations others are doing.

Cissy

I truly enjoyed reading this article. I have maintained that those who have a high trauma load seek relief where they can find it, and not only through negative behaviors. I postulate the existence of neutral and positive behaviors that help ACE victims gain relief. But I also believe that we are only a short fall from grace even if we are high achievers. We work hard to maintain the achievement and praise that comes with that achievement, but we also adopt many of the negative habits that can take us down quickly. I have met and read about many high achieving athletes, performing artists, academics and otherwise successful people who have a high trauma load that has them seeking and settling into an accommodation with negative behaviors. I have come t believe that the only true resilience is when we seek to understand out trauma load, the behaviors it generates (positive, neutral and negative), then seek to retrain our brain to remove the never-ending cycle of trauma cue, behavior practice and reward. Just my thoughts.

8/19/155:38 AM