School Professionals’ awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (SPACES): Initial steps towards the development of new scale

A considerable volume of research has been dedicated to adverse childhood experience and their effects in development and health. Despite the different approaches employed in studying ACEs, ACEs prevalence among non-clinical school children is consistently high, exceeding in some cases 60% of children studied. There is an effort for schools and school professionals to work towards becoming aces-sensitive/trauma-informed. Against this background, there is a documented need for sound tools that can reliably inform about the level of school professional awareness on ACEs and can help assess their professional development, while also identifying areas of further development. This paper presents the development of a new scale SPACES designed to fill this gap. The paper outlines the process for the development of the scale and provides evidence of the scales’ face validity and content validity. A three-round process of consultation with experts is presented. The first round led to the identification of domains of SPACES and the development of initial items, the second one focused on reviewing and crystalising the items comprising the scale, and the third one primarily aimed at refining the wording of the items included. The next steps for the validation of the scale that it is currently available in English and Greek forms, is discussed as part of the conclusion.