The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q) is a 10-item measure to quantify instances of adverse or traumatic experiences that the client has had before the age of 18. The ACE-Q checks for the client’s exposure to childhood psychological, physical, and sexual abuse as well as household dysfunction including domestic violence, substance use, and incarceration.

The ACE-Q can be administered in a self-report manner (for adults or teenagers) or can be reported by parents to indicate the experiences of their child. Given some of the questions may be triggering for trauma clients, some clinicians may opt to read the questions to the client and answer the ACE-Q in a collaborative way rather than request self-report.

Clinically, the ACE-Q can be used to help inform treatment because of the connection between adverse childhood experiences, social issues, and adult mental and physical health. People with high scores are likely to benefit from interventions that support their mental health and promote the development of adaptive behaviours.

The International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) is an 18 item self-report measure focusing on the core features of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD). It was developed to be consistent with the organising principles of the ICD-11.

The ITQ is designed for diagnosis and can discriminate PTSD from CPTSD by employing validated diagnostic rules. The scale has two major subscales with three symptom clusters in each:

1. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
   1. Re-experiencing
   2. Avoidance
   3. Sense of threat
2. Disturbances in organisation (DSO)
   1. Affective dysregulation
   2. Negative self-concept
   3. Disturbances in relationships

The Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) was designed as a measure of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and is a short, easily administered self-report questionnaire. It can be used for repeated measurements over time to monitor progress and is best used for recent and specific traumatic events.

The IES-R has 22 questions, 5 of which were added to the original Horowitz (IES) to better capture the DSM criteria for PTSD (Weiss & Marmar, 1997). It is an appropriate instrument to measure the subjective response to a specific traumatic event in an adult or senior population.

There is a total subjective stress scale and three subscales:

• Intrusion 
• Avoidance 
• Hyperarousal