Validation of the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory for ACEs

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Public Health
• Community-Based Research

Background:

• Childhood adversity (ACEs) significantly impacts behavioral health.
• Primary care settings are crucial for early identification of ACEs.
• Existing screening tools may not capture community-specific adversities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt and validate the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory (TESI) for primary care settings.
• To develop a community-partnered tool for screening childhood adversity in vulnerable populations.
• To assess the TESI's sensitivity to ACEs relevant to specific clinic communities.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional descriptive study with 261 children (3-16 years) at a Federally Qualified Health Center.
• Adapted TESI tool sensitive to community-specific ACEs.
• Mapped ACEs by zip code with crime data; used latent class analysis to identify ACE subgroups.

Main Results:

• Validated face validity for geographic overlap between participant ACEs and violent crime.
• Identified three ACE subgroups: high ACE (18.0%), moderate ACE (52.1%), and low ACE (29.9%).
• High ACE subgroup showed significantly higher odds of clinically significant Pediatric Symptom Checklist scores and attention problems.

Conclusions:

• Childhood adversities (ACEs) are significant predictors of behavioral health service needs in primary care.
• The community-adapted TESI is a valid and effective screening tool for ACEs.
• Early screening in primary care can identify children at risk and facilitate timely intervention.