ACE-IQ extended version validation and ACE's frequency in Mexican adolescents

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) may have short, middle, and long-term consequences on people's development and physical and mental health. There is a need for information on this subject in low- and middle-income countries and a need to reduce recall bias in ACEs research worldwide. Objective: Hence our objectives were to translate, adapt and validate the Adverse Childhood Experiences extended version and to determine ACEs frequencies in a sample of Mexican adolescents. Participants and setting: A convenience sample of 5835 schooled Mexican adolescents (age: M = 16.13, SD = 1.32; 61.01 % females) from 20 states in Mexico completed a survey. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with an extended version of the ACE-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ), which assesses 23 ACEs organized into five categories: situations that cause household dysfunction, exposure to violence, violence from parents or guardians, interpersonal violence, and sociodemographic context. Results: Evidence of construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire was obtained, and 16 ACEs were included in the final ACE-IQ version. 90 % of adolescents had one or more ACEs. Neglect was the most experienced ACE reported by 73.30 % of the participants, with no significant difference by age, sex, or geographic region. Conclusion: ACE-IQ questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument to recommend its use for generating information on ACEs in studies on Mexican adolescents. The results on the frequency of ACEs revealed that 90 % of this schooled Mexican adolescent sample had experienced one or more ACEs, and about a third had experienced six or more.