The ACE test, the acronym for the Adverse Childhood Experience test, was reflected by me as the PCE test, the Positive Childhood Experience test. PDF of ACE-PCE test
Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences (ACE versus PCE)
I’ve been watching for groups of people gathering together who could be called adults who had very low Adverse Childhood Experiences and very high Positive Childhood Experiences. There have been people at the various groups that I attend who have good scores, as determined by me from general conversations with them. That doesn’t have any scientific validity, being only what is called anecdotal evidence, but it is usually where we usually start the formulating our inquiries.
As a generalization, it would seem that the worse the scores on these two tests the more likely the adult behavior that would result would be characterized as stiff and inflexible. That does have its positive aspect in that people of that personal historical background would be more dedicated to whatever ideas they have and would fight for those ideas more vehemently. Their life is accepted as a constant struggle, even with friends, and they would have the attitude that you must fight for whatever you get.
The people who had very mild ACE experiences and strong PCE experiences would expect that life would be predictable and people would be cooperative. Inevitable conflicts between people’s needs would be solved by cooperation, discussion, and agreement on mutually beneficial actions. Their lives would be polite, contractual and agreeable with very little vehemence and considerable humor.
A clear published expression of this dichotomy of life approach is found by comparing two books Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance and Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman are both about men coming out of their communities and entering into very successful lives. I blogged about this last January 15th and this blog post is a response to my watching for examples of those ideas.
In Thank You for Being Late we see where a community of mutually supportive people produced a lot of children who became very successful adults. In the Hillbilly Elegy, where the community was self-destructive, there were few children who had successful adult lives and yet the author was an exception. The lesson to be learned is obvious about where to find low ACE and high PCE scores:
Participate in communities of people who are agreeable and mutually supportive.
