We used questions from published surveys to construct the ACE Study questionnaire. Questions from the Conflicts Tactics Scale were used to define psychological and physical abuse during childhood and to define violence against the respondent’s mother. We adapted four questions from Wyatt to define contact sexual abuse during childhood. Questions about exposure to alcohol or drug abuse during childhood were adapted from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey. All of the questions we used in this study to determine childhood experiences were introduced with the phrase “While you were growing up during your first 18 years of life …” (author abstract)