I really enjoyed this presentation. I would love to work with kids who have experienced a less than ideal home life or have endured trauma. The ACE pyramid is such an important tool to gauge how ACES can affect children into adulthood. I find that mindfulness and meditation can be extremely helpful in everyday life so I also think that it could work well to help with ACES and I like that your project looks to seek this out. Based off your survey, I don’t think enough people realize how mindfulness could be beneficial to them. It is saddening that ACEs may harm one’s ability to describe their emotions effectively. Overall, really nice presentation and I hope that your paper and survey results can work to help others in the future.

This is a great topic! I am sure this presentation will be extremely informative and affirming to many people’s feelings and experiences. It is also really great that you introduce the concept and benefits of mindfulness, as mindfulness and meditation are new-wave therapies on the rise! This research is great for spreading awareness and knowledge to a wide population who experiences issues of depression. I hope someone can expound on this and verify the difference in mindfulness’ impact between anxiety and depression, as well as working to close the gender and race gap in the research that our participant pool at UMW tends to create. Great work!

Hi everybody! You guys did a great job on your presentation. I was shocked at how many of your participants had experienced at least one ACE ( about 70%)! I think that if more people try mindfulness methods like meditation, yoga, and journaling, it will help relax them and deal with childhood trauma. I would be interested in seeing this study replicated with lower income participants to see if there’s a difference.

Hi everyone! You guys did a fantastic job on your presentation, and I thought this was a great topic to talk about. It’s shocking to know how many children have some type of trauma and how it stays with them even into adulthood. I didn’t know that childhood trauma can cause a person to die earlier than when they are supposed to. This research is incredible for spreading awareness about childhood trauma and how mindfulness can help patients deal with their trauma and depression. This is an important topic because many people have had childhood trauma and have not sought treatment for it. Childhood trauma is also a controversial topic in society, which can push people away from seeking help. Overall, this topic is critical for the understanding of childhood trauma and mindfulness. Great job!

It’s still so crazy to me that so so so many of us have experienced at least a couple or a few ACEs in their lifetime. It’s a bit disheartening, but I’m also hopeful that the more research we do on it, the more we can set up different preventative measures. You all did such a great job on your presentation! I have to admit, I was a little bit shocked when you revealed that such a high number of the participants from the pool reported that they’ve experiences ACEs. It just goes to show you how common it really is, even in middle or even upper class populations. Thank you for researching this, and once again, great job to all of you!

A very interesting and relevant study and analysis, especially in light of the striking number of ACEs reported by your sample. I found myself wondering about the ACEs questionnaire which, essentially, relies on memory recall of events that occurred during childhood… (I do realize that most of your sample hasn’t grown as far away from childhood as myself!) …and I’m wondering if levels of trait(?) mindfulness during childhood affect recollection of these events that occurred during childhood? To attempt to put it more simply, does level of mindfulness while these events are occurring (like childhood trait mindfulness, if that’s a thing) influence ACEs questionnaire scores? I’m wondering what you think about this possibility and, furthermore, if you think it’s factor that might differentially affect the different mindfulness facets in your model.

I loved your presentation! To start with, you both did a great job speaking, and I thought your very clear graphics were fantastic. The subject matter is something near and dear to me as well; I find mindfulness practices and interventions incredibly fascinating. The finding of awareness as a modifier was particularly interesting. In the past I’ve often tried to be as “not-there” as possible when I was in a particularly bad place. It took a long time to figure out that that wasn’t especially helpful. Knowing how prevalent ACE’s are, I think it’s important to explore the links between them and depression, as well as the mechanisms and moderators involved in that relationship. Thank you so much for sharing your presentation, I think it was fantastic!

Hi everyone, I cannot express how impressed I am with your study, you did a fantastic job! It is unfortunate to see how many people in still sample size have experienced some sort of ACE in their lifetime but it is uplifting to know that their participation in this study can help research to try to improve the well-being of all individuals who have experienced ACEs. As you were the first to discover Awareness as a Moderator, do you have any ideas as to why your study may be contradicting the information from the other study other than the difference of measuring depression compared to anxiety and anger? Do you believe that using these mindfulness techniques for a longer amount of time after the ACEs have occurred would be a greater benefit to the decrease of depression? Great job on this project!

Hey guys! You all did a wonderful job presenting your research! I think that being able to define and understand ACEs will really help a lot of people realize the importance of implementing mindfulness and seeking help if they want or need it! It’s satisfying to see your hypothesized graph of awareness as a moderator follow a similar pattern to your results, as well as promising to see that 3 of the 5 facets of mindfulness are significant in mediating the relationship between ACEs and depression. Great job!

Hi everyone! I thoroughly enjoyed your topic. You guys had a spectacular presentation. I think it is crazy that so many participants had experienced at least one ACE! I had no idea that childhood trauma could lead to premature death. I think more people should look into using mindfulness as a mediator after looking at the group’s research. Overall, I think you guys picked a great topic and had a great presentation.

Hey! I really enjoyed your presentation! It was very shocking how many of the participants had experienced at least one ACE. I would be interested to see this study replicated with more male participants to see how that impacted the number of participants who have at least one ACE. Good job guys!

Hi! I really enjoyed your presentation! I thought that it was very well set up and you were all very well spoken. I am excited that you all chose this topic because it is one that we touched on in my abnormal psych class and I find it extremely interesting! I hope that people use this research because I think that it could be beneficial to many! Great Job!

Hello all! What an awesome project. I have just recently learned what ACEs are and found this presentation to be very intriguing. I am saddened by the common experience of ACEs but am glad to hear about research related to it. I thought the synthesis you developed about how depression is a mediator for ACEs leading to poor health conditions and coping skills was insightful. I found your hypothesis and results to be very clear and engaging. I am a supporter of mindfulness and the positive results it has. I am very encouraged by these results. I hope there is more research on this topic and similar results follow. I hope to see the benefits of mindfulness taught and talked about more regularly and presented as a tool for dealing with the trauma of adverse childhood experiences.

I truly was fascinated with this presentation as some of the sub-topics discussed is related to my experiences with depression and mindfulness. As the pandemic begins to whine down very slowly, there are some who struggle greatly to engage in mindfulness due to their depression of isolation or from childhood experiences of the ACES. Being in the same environment or space during quarantine can make it extremely difficult to be released from negative ruminating thoughts, which can elevate more depressive symptoms. The overall presentation was well stated with organized flow charts that included a good amount of supporting evidence. Well done!

This was such and interesting and engaging topic and really has related to what I have been learning this year in my abnormal psychology class! ACES is such and important topic and awareness can really help children who are struggling and feel like there is no help for them. Especially during COVID, many children are home more often and do not have that escape that is school or friends. ACES can greatly effect children later in life and you did an excellent job of informing everyone of the importance!

Hello Everyone! I want to start by saying that this was an amazing presentation! This is such an important and fascinating topic, so thank you for your research! It is shocking how many children have experienced trauma in some way. As an education major, this subject is so important to me, as it is so important for educators to understand that students’ behavior may stem from possible traumas. Mindfulness is such an interesting subject, and I had no idea how effective it may be in helping depression. Thank you for including helpful visuals and creating such a beautiful presentation. I hope to incorporate some mindfulness practices in my future classroom!

Hi Haley, Megan, Purnaja, Emily, and Amelia! You all did an amazing job with your presentation. I loved all of the graphs, diagrams, and pictures you used. They really helped me understand more about ACE and mindfulness. In my abnormal psychology class, we learned about ACE and how trauma affects your life. I found it very interesting and sad that 70% of your participants said that they have had ACE, and most of their trauma came from emotional abuse and neglect. I also think that mindfulness is a great method to helping people with ACE and just in general. I have personally seen and heard how mindfulness has helped so many students.

Hey everyone!
Great presentation! All your graphs and pictures helped me understand about ACE and able to follow along easily. It is horrible how ACEs are very common and this has to be looked at for children in school and try to help them early as to make sure they do not have long lasting effects from this. Mindfulness is definitely the best way to help with stresses in life and I am sure it would help with ACEs. It would be great if they would teach mindfulness in young children so it can help with any ACEs they may have while going to school. I am glad that your results and how it supported this. I would hope to see more research into this and maybe some day see mindfulness being used everywhere in schools. Great presentation and topic!

Hi everyone! This was a very interesting topic and project. I was surprised to see so many people having at least one ACE in their childhood. I think it is very important that children experiencing ACE now know how to get help or how to include different type of mindfulness because it can help them a lot. I actually started journaling and it has helped a lot! Great presentation!

I loved your presentation! I didn’t know that mindfulness was negatively correlated with depression. That’s so cool you guys got 279 participants! The facets you included really helped me see where all the participants fell on the spectrum. I loved the graphs and pie charts on your slides. Having recently learned about ACEs in Dr. Liss’s class, I love that this study really focused on that. I think more people should know about ACEs, there needs to be more awareness and this presentation does a great job spreading that awareness. This is the first study to capture awareness as a moderator! I loved your presentation, great work!

Hi everyone! I really loved this presentation and thought it was really interesting! I learned a little about ACEs in abnormal psych, but I really liked seeing it used in your study. I was a little surprised that so many people said they has at least one ACE. I think mindfulness can help a lot of people and definitely think it should be practiced more!

Hi everyone, I thought this was a really good presentation and study that you guys completed! Your results were very surprising but not surprising at the same time. I had learned about ACE in my abnormal psychology class so I kinda knew that there were a lot of people who experience this however, I was so surprised that people from our little population had experienced an ACE in their childhood. I think that mindfulness is a good tool to help! Great presentation!

This research was beyond eye-opening. I had no idea that 2/3 of adults reported experiencing at least one ACE. With that in mind, this research is even more vital than I originally believed. As someone who has experience with mental health problems, I always appreciate when further research is done to bring awareness, and to learn more about said conditions. While I had heard of mindfulness before, this presentation brought my understanding a step further and allowed me to further evaluate the things in my own environment.

Great Presentation! Mindfulness is such a hot topic that has been explored and it was nice to see that y’all branched out and researched a relationship that hasn’t been specifically studied before. Mindfulness is a useful tool that should continue to get attention and your presentation will help spread awareness on this topic. It is surprising to think about how common ACES are and how many people experience more than one. Your significant results can hopefully help people realize how amazing mindfulness can be and its impact on ACES.

Hi everyone! I found your research to be really interesting. I did not know much about mediators and moderators and their role in mental illness. The complexity of the relationship between ACEs and depression was surprising. Does the presence of an ACE, which can lead to mental illness, such as depression, have something to do with the increased risk of experiencing more ACEs? If so, implementing early intervention programs that include mindfulness would seem effective in decreasing the overall prevalence of ACEs and the negative outcomes associated with them.

Wonderfully clear presentation! Nice work! Like other commenters, I was struck by the number of your participants who reported ACES, and that the number was higher than seen in a national sample. How did your sample compare on levels of depression and mindfulness compared to other samples?

I was also wondering if there is any research on how age affects these relationships. Obviously people who are older are further removed timewise from any ACES. Do you think the results would be any different if you used a middle-aged sample?

Hi everyone! I wanted to start off by saying great job on your presentation! I learned a bit about ACEs in my abnormal psychology course this semester and I really enjoyed learning about ACEs so I was intrigued with your research on mindfulness. It’s unfortunate that many children go through this during their lifetime, but after looking at the data that you presented, it was surprising to me how many people had suffered through a form of trauma in our hometown. The data that you added really interested me as well as how much information you had in your presentation! I definitely agreed with you that mindfulness can help us with our mental health and I do appreciate how much you guys are bringing more awareness to this!

Hello! I really enjoyed learning about your research. I thought that your work was really well done and your slide show was very easy to follow. I liked how you had mindfulness as both a mediator and a moderator instead of bringing in another variable to be a moderator or mediator. It was also interesting to learn more about mindfulness, because I feel like that term is just now being talked about more. It’s sad that many people do not engage in mindfulness activities, but your research can help promote the benefits of doing so. It would be interesting to see the results of this study with a more diverse participant pool, in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, etc. Would the results be the same, or shift in some way? Great job overall!!

Hi everybody. I found this presentation to be very interesting and engaging. It is shocking and sad to see how many people have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences. It makes sense that these people would develop depression or other mental illnesses. Using mindfulness techniques is something I do that helps with symptoms of depression and anxiety, so I hope that everyone with ACEs knows can be informed about these techniques in order to help them live better lives. I am curious if the data from the study would be different or the same if a different sample was used. Overall, this was a great presentation, and I am glad you have brought more attention to mindfulness and ACEs.

Hi everyone! This was very well done. I think you chose a very important topic. I could see mindfulness really helping people with ACEs work through their experiences or even realize that they can seek out help. It is sad that people with depression can have a difficult time expressing how they feel. You did a great job of explaining all the variables in your project and how you did everything. Your talk was easy to follow and understand. Great job!

Hi everyone! I love the topic you guys chose to do for your research presentation! Your graphs and models really helped me understand this topic better and worked as a great layout for what you were discussing. The most informative slide to me was the one on how common ACEs are. The numbers provided were very surprising and saddening to me. I also found the slide which described how ACEs turns to negative emotions which turn to lack of awareness of the present moment which ultimately result in depression really interesting. Overall, great job on your project.

I think mindfulness being used as a mediator between Aces and Depression is a great idea! I really believe practices from eastern religions and cultures can help us so much, especially mindfulness. It was quite alarming that the number of people who had experienced at least one ACE in your sample was so high. I hope more people become aware of this problem and take action. Really interesting presentation!

Hi everyone! great job on your presentation, loved your topic for your research! Working with children who have experiences trauma in their life is such an important job and rewarding for both the child and the person helping the child. Mindfulness is such an important tool to use especially with ACES and depression it can be very helpful to the children to learn mindfulness in which they can use in life to help them.

Hey guys, I really liked your project. This was a good reminder that ACES can happen to anyone considering 70% of the participant pool had experienced at least one ACE. Mindfulness is a great tool for fighting the symptoms of ACES. Thinking about the experiences, taking control, and accepting you are not your experiences is extremely powerful. Diversifying the pool would have been nice to see, but that is understandably hard right now. Overall, really well done.

I really enjoyed yall presentation and topic. It was really informative and allowed me to learn more on Mindfulness and ACEs from the knowledge that I already learned from my class with Dr. Liss. I would also like to see a study done on how depression can lead to mindfulness because this study only focused on how decreased mindfulness can lead to depression.

Hello! wow what an amazing project its so well put together and very interesting, I like how you explained the results and the purpose. its something that needs awareness. I however wouldve liked to seen more diversity but being we are in a pandemic its so understandable however well done!!