Adverse Childhood Scale Essay

The Adverse Childhood Scale is a table that is meant to show “events that can produce toxic stress” (112). While many of the events in this list are surely legitimate (adult sexually abused you, household adult hit you, etc.), number 5, parents separated/divorced, is certainly questionable. The other events listed on this scale obviously bring about toxic stress, however it is hard to compare a child’s parents divorcing to a child being beaten. Evidently, when two parents divorce it is going to take a toll on their child, however this is not toxic stress, it is only moderate stress, which, “when buffered by supportive adults, is not necessarily harmful, and may even be helpful, in that it can promote the development of coping skills” (112).

In the words of Putnam, “beating kids is bad, but entirely ignoring them can be worse” (111). If a young child were to come home from school and be confronted by her parents screaming at each other, she would feel confused and hopeless. While parents not asking their daughter how her day was does not seem like a big deal, it is a necessary part of a child’s development because “cognitive stimulation by parents is essential for optimal learning” (110). Children who have parents that “talk with them frequently develop more language skills than kids whose parents rarely engage with them in conversation” (110). For this reason, if a child’s parents were severely not getting along, then they definitely would not be putting all of their energy into talking with their child and, therefore the child would have a harder time developing language skills. On the other hand, if a child’s parents were to split up, then that child would have two parents that, while living in different households, concentrated their time on their child. This positive interaction “with caring, responsible adults is an essential ingredient in successful development”