Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences: A Developmental Perspective

This book provides an interdisciplinary lens from which to view the multiple types of effects of enduring childhood experiences, and to recommend evidence-based approaches for protecting and buffering children and repairing the negative consequences of ACEs as adults.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can negatively influence development. However, the lifelong effects of positive childhood experiences (PACEs) can mitigate the detrimental effects of  adverse ones. By integrating existing knowledge about (ACEs) with developmental research on preventing, buffering, and treating the effects of adversity, stress, and trauma on child development and subsequent health and functioning, this book identifies the most important of these (PACEs). It provides an interdisciplinary lens from which to view the multiple types of effects of enduring childhood experiences, and recommends evidence-based approaches for protecting children and repairing the enduring negative consequences of (ACEs) they face as adults.

Students, researchers, clinicians, and health-care providers can use this research to understand the science of early life adversity, lifelong resilience, and related intervention and prevention programming to help those suffering from the lifelong effects of (ACEs). Chapters include many figures, graphs, diagrams, stories, and activities that aim to help readers apply the science to everyday life. 

Jennifer Hays-Grudo, Ph.D, is a Regents Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Oklahoma State University. Dr. Hays-Grudo received both her master's and doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Houston and her bachelor's in psychology from Texas Tech University. She has participated as the principal investigator on a number of National Institutes of Health-funded research grants to develop and evaluate individual and community health-related behavior changes.

Amanda Sheffield Morris, PhD, is a Regents Professor of Human Development and Family Science, Oklahoma State University. She received her PhD from Temple University in Psychology, was a post-doctoral fellow at Arizona State University, and taught at the University of New Orleans for five years. Her research focuses on the role of emotion regulation in child and adolescent adjustment and the ways in which children learn successful regulation skills.