By Gaby Galvin
PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENCED trauma as children are more likely to suffer severe health consequences later in life, a new federal analysis shows.
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, refer to potentially traumatic events experienced or witnessed during childhood, like violence, substance misuse and mental health problems in the home. Though public health experts say these events are an important upstream cause of major health and social struggles later in life, it’s been unclear just how substantially they impede American health overall.
In the first analysis of its kind, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the link between self-reported ACEs and 14 negative health conditions and socioeconomic factors, using 2015-2017 survey data for more than 144,000 adults from 25 states.
They found that 60.9% of adults reported at least one adverse childhood experience, while 15.6% reported four or more types. Such experiences were “significantly associated with poorer health outcomes, health risk behaviors, and socioeconomic challenges,” the study says, including depression, heavy drinking, smoking, lower educational attainment and unemployment.
Share This Post!
Trauma in Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By NYU Langone Health, Patient Care Across the nation, everyone is being exposed to and reacting to the confusing, stressful, and sometimes frightening situation of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in different [...]
How to Keep Children’s Stress From Turning Into Trauma
By Stacey Steinberg Children may be processing the disruptions in their lives right now in ways the adults around them do not expect: acting out, regressing, retreating or even seeming surprisingly content. [...]
Addressing Race and Trauma in the Classroom: A Resource for Educators
By the National Child Traumatic Stress Network This resource is intended to help educators understand how they might address the interplay of race and trauma and its effects on students in the classroom. [...]
The startling toll on children who witness domestic violence is just now being understood
By Jayne O'Donnel and Mabinty Quarshie USA TODAY SAVANNAH, Ga. – Latrelle Huff says her twins were conceived by rape. Now she blames domestic violence for her children's health problems. The Georgia woman [...]
The lasting impact of neglect
By Kirsten Weir The first time Nathan Fox, PhD, stepped into a Romanian orphanage, he was struck by the silence. "The most remarkable thing about the infant room was how quiet it was, [...]
Children may act out due to grief or trauma of COVID-19 pandemic, and other lessons from HIV/AIDS
By Julie B. Kaplow and Mark W. Kline No infectious disease since HIV/AIDS in the 1980s has captured the world’s attention in the way COVID-19 has. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is still with [...]