Research Support

Toward a Global HEARTS Center


I. We propose to advance the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) research agenda led by Robert Anda, M.D. and Vincent Felitti, M.D. in the following ways:

  • Serve as a knowledge broker and capacity builder among scholars, program directors, practitioners, and policymakers across professions
  • Raise awareness of ACEs and associated human and societal costs
  • Spearhead evaluations of ACE-informed policies, programs, and practices
  • Promote and foster ACE-informed research
    • Connect teams of researchers
    • Initiate research of ACE prevalence among homeless people, veterans, the criminal justice population, and other disadvantaged groups
    • Integrate ACEs research with relevant prevention and intervention research related to each ACE outcome and advance ACE-informed research
    • addictions, obesity, mental health treatment, health risk behaviors, co-occurring disorders
    • service system integration, parenting, community development
    • developing, informing, and fostering Healthy Environments and Relationships that Support (HEARTS)
      • Integral theory; Integrally-informed research and evaluation of HEARTS
  • Attract funding for pilot studies, program evaluations, media campaigns, community education

II. History:

  • 1994 partnership of the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente
    • Population-based screening of ACE history of adult medical patients
      (Felitti, Anda, Nordenberg, Williamson, Spitz, Edwards, Koss, & Marks, 1998)
  • Powerful link between childhood emotional trauma and adult health risk behaviors, biomedical disease, and leading causes of death is uncovered
  • Illustrates the need for an integrative conceptual framework to address ACEs as an underlying syndrome

III. Current Projects and Next Steps:

  • ACEs Information Clearinghouse Development in Partnership with Prevent Child Abuse America
    • Collect and share ACE-relevant social science research on website
    • Utilize website as an integrative tool to engage and connect researchers, program directors and policy leaders across departments and professions
    • Highlight ACE implications for relevant research, professional education, services, and policies
  • Publish findings of ACE Prevalence among Homeless people and continue to explore ACEs among a representative sample of New Yorkers. Implement new research exploring ACEs, health, social networks, and coping among older adults living in poverty.
  • Mobilize this website to draw interest to the Center, attract funders, and inform the creation of a Global HEARTS Center.

IV. Service Outcomes Action Research (SOAR)

  • We propose SOAR as a useful approach to evaluate ACE response programming
    • SOAR supports ongoing program development
    • The data-informed practice process continually offers service providers information about the direct impact of services
  • A case study describes how the SOAR approach can be applied for the ongoing evaluation of ACE-informed programming