Trauma-Informed Care Collection

The Centeredness scale is a brief published instrument that assesses adults’ retrospective reports of the emotional atmosphere of their predominant home environment from birth to age 18 years.

The Centeredness Scale contains 20 items on five-point Likert scales. The first nine questions assesses whether the target individual perceived qualities of supportiveness, acceptance, and belongingness among all members that made up the predominant childhood household. The latter 11 questions then assess whether the individual perceived these qualities specifically from their primary caregiver(s).

All Centeredness items are available in the paper "Childhood Centeredness is a Broader Predictor of Young Adulthood Mental Health than Childhood Adversity, Attachment, and Other Positive Childhood Experiences."

The BCEs-20 scale is the most comprehensive version. It contains a mix of items that most individuals are highly likely to report as being present in their childhoods (items #1, 2, 5, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 20) and items that are less commonly present (#3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, and 19). The BCEs-20 scale is brief to administer and can be completed in approximately five minutes. If research or clinical and community work allow for this time, it is recommended that investigators and providers use the BCEs-20 scale because it will generate the most comprehensive understanding of individuals’ BCEs. You can find all 20 BCE items in the paper "A multisystem, dimensional interplay of assets versus adversities: Revised benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) in the context of childhood maltreatment, threat, and deprivation."