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colleague David Murphey explain, “The
“The accumulation accumulation of ACEs, rather than any
of ACEs, rather than particular ACE, is most strongly predic-
any particular ACE, 9
is most strongly tive of negative outcomes.”
predictive of negative On a national level, one in ten chil-
outcomes.” 9 dren (10 percent) have experienced three
to eight ACEs. In fi ve states—Arizona,
— Vanessa Sacks and
David Murphey, research Arkansas, Montana, New Mexico, and
scientists with Child Ohio—as many as one in seven children
Trends
(14.3 percent) have experienced three to
eight ACEs. Other states with high num-
bers of children with multiple ACEs include Idaho, Kentucky, Loui-
siana, Maine, Mississippi, and West Virginia. Although research-
ers cannot say for sure why such profound differences exist, they
strongly suspect that poverty is a factor. According to the Chil-
dren’s Defense Fund, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and West Virginia have some of the country’s highest
rates of extreme childhood poverty, and those states also have
extraordinarily high numbers of children who have endured multiple
traumatic incidents.

Racial Disparities

Along with state-by-state differences, race is a strong indicator
of which children most often experience trauma. “In almost ev-
ery group of states we looked at, as well as nationally, white and
Asian children have the lowest rates of ACEs, while black and
Hispanic children tend to have the highest,” says Sacks. During
10
their research, she and Murphey found that 61 percent of black
children and 51 percent of Hispanic children have experienced
one or more ACEs, compared with 40 percent of white children
and 23 percent of Asian children.
Although living in poverty and experiencing the divorce of a
parent or guardian are the most common ACEs for all children,
regardless of race, other types of trauma differ according to race.
Among white children, for example, the next most common ACEs

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