Who are we?

The Foundation was established in 2019 with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of negative childhood experiences, not only for professionals, educational and health care sectors, but also for adults, parents and peers. adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) not only for experts in the helping professions, in the social and educational spheres, and in health care, but also for lay adults, parents, and peers.

We want the subject of child abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or physical neglect not to be taboo in our daily lives, if we dare to talk about it, thereby setting an example and providing an interface for abused, neglected children to dare to talk about and dare to ask for help. However, this requires the help of all professionals who come into contact with children, parents, adults around the child and even the help of their peers, that is, a level of collaboration that is able to “retain” children who have experienced adverse experiences, thereby preventing the subsequent negative, adverse health effects of ACEs.

In the future, we want to take steps to promote not only primary but also secondary and tertiary prevention in order to break the cycle of adverse childhood experiences.

From where we started

The adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their association with alcohol and drug use have been demonstrated in several studies. The first comprehensive research study examining the effects of negative experiences in childhood was published in 1998 in America. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study was created by Vincent J. Felitti, Robert F. Anda, Dale Nordenberg, David F. Williamson, Alison M. Spitz, Valerie Edwards, Mary P. Koss, and James S. Marks. The results show that individuals who cumulatively experienced negative childhood experiences had more health risks later in life. Also, individuals who experienced four or more than four ACEs had a multiple-fold increased risk of alcoholism and drug use compared with those who did not experience such an experience. Several studies have shown the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences on certain psychological factors such as happiness, anxiety, depression, or suicide attempts. However, the occurrence of adverse childhood experiences and their correlations with the above-mentioned factors have not been studied in Hungary so far. The aim of the foundation and our research group is to map the patterns of negative childhood experiences in our country and to explore their lifelong negative effects.

Reports