Early childhood trauma generally refers to the traumatic experiences that overwhelm a child’s ability to cope with what they have experienced. Although children aged 0-6 years can be exposed to trauma as a result of natural disaster, accidents, or war, for the purposes of this paper we will examine only those early childhood traumas, resulting from intentional violence such as, physical, sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, and witnessing domestic violence, also known as developmental trauma. Since early life experiences program the brain and body for the environment it encounters, children who experience psychological trauma in early childhood, are more likely to develop a substance addiction in adolescence, with 46% of males at higher …show more content…
Neuroimaging shows the growth of important brain structures, and how the brain responds to emotional stimuli. Brain development in infancy and early childhood lays the foundation for all future development. When experiences are traumatic, the pathways getting the most use are those that are responding to the trauma. Due to this formation of other pathways needed for adaptive behavior are disrupted. Trauma in ages 0-6 years can result in disrupted attachment, cognitive delays, and impaired emotional regulation. Early childhood trauma has been shown to increase the risk of substance use disorders in adolescents, and is also shown to be associated with the onset, course and severity for this population (Boston University). There have been numerous research studies done on children’s’ brains, that have found that toxic stress physically damages a child’s developing brain. According to findings of the ACE study, these changes in brain structure and development during the formative years of early childhood, have been linked to later substance use disorders in adolescents
The Adverse Childhood Experiences study (ACE) conducted by Felitti et al. (1998) proposed that children who experienced maltreatment and neglect along with dysfunctional family systems were at higher risk for developing physiological and psychological problems later in life. The ACE studies demonstrated the collective effects of negative childhood experiences on physical and mental health issues. These disorders include; substance abuse, suicidal ideality, and depression, as well as a host of medical problems (Putnam, Harris & Putnam, 2013). In addition, the study indicated that exposure to two or more adverse childhood experiences is linked to higher rates of smoking, promiscuity, substance abuse, and eating disorders (Anda et al., 2006).
Childhood Trauma is defined as “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.” (The National Institute of Mental Health). Childhood trauma is an epidemic that seems to be running its way throughout the world. Childhood trauma is a worldwide problem that can affect anyone and everyone. People tend to just try and help the problems that occur due to the childhood trauma, but not the problem itself. Many of these issues will also follow the child into their adult years and will cause negative effects. This paper will discuss the negative outcomes for a child who suffers from childhood trauma, and the negative outcomes that can follow them into adulthood.
Child abuse can come in many shapes in forms. There are four different kinds of abuse that I will be encountering in my research paper; they are physical, mental, emotional, and neglect. Most abuse is from neglect and net from physical. The category under physical also brings in the sexual abuse. (Do Something) Drug addicted babies also can qualify under the category of emotional and mental category. Two of the main questions in this paper are what is child abuse and what are drug addicted babies lives like. It turns out that babies lives do get affected majorly after the age of four, we’ll learn more about that later though. (Kronstadt, 2013)
Childhood maltreatment is defined as emotional or physical maltreatment and sexual abuse that has the potential to cause harm to a child (The relation) while childhood adversity refers to physical or emotional acts that may be potentially harmful to a child’s development (Relationship). Both have similar effects in that they have been found to increase the risk of the development of a psychotic disorder and psychotic symptoms in adults. Childhood maltreatment has been proven to increase the risk of developing depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia in adults. The studies observed in this paper will help to understand if childhood maltreatment and adversity has any effect on the social functioning of people diagnosed with psychotic disorders,
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are the extremely traumatic events that take place in an individual’s childhood that negatively affect their future attempts to succeed in life. ACEs include enduring physical and verbal abuse, living in dysfunction and over exposure to violent and criminal behavior. It was determined that children who are in the child welfare system are more likely to suffer ACEs and develop physical and mental health issues as well as engage in risky behavior (Brown & Shillington, 2017); children who suffer ACEs also have lower self-efficacy than other children. In all of the research prior to this study, much of the focus was on the psychological and behavioral outcomes of ACEs and what children were more susceptible to them. The problem that the researchers in this study have identified is that in no prior research has anyone
In Chapter1 of How Children Succeed Paul Tough argues that trauma in childhood would cause a negative effect on children. However, this negative effect can be changed.
Trauma is the fourth leading cause of death overall for all ages in the United States. Trauma is
I am a 15 year old student from Waukon High School in Iowa, and I wanted to talk to you about child abuse. I think that child abuse is a terrible thing, and the people that do it should be sent away for a long time. The people that do it are terrible people because they abuse children that did not do anything to them. They should never gain their right to see their children, or be able to go near any children, and be with them by themselves, or with anybody else that wants to hurt children. The people that hurt the innocent children should be questioned and accounted guilty for child abuse. They could not be ruder and treat the children with more disrespect than they already do.
Pulmonary contusions are another consequence from trauma to the chest, possibly not as severe as examples prior, but still dangerous. A pulmonary contusion is usually due to a blunt trauma to the thoracic cavity; the trauma causes blood to accumulate in the lung tissues and alveoli without lacerating the lung tissues. The lungs swell with the blood in the tissues, like a contusion anywhere else on the surface of the body, hence the term, “bruised lung.” With a pulmonary contusion, the patient will present, “...Tachypnea and tachycardia; while auscultating, rales and decreased breath sounds can be heard. Wheezing, coughing, and productive blood streaked sputum can be present; hypotension and reduced cardiac output accompany. Respiratory distress
Around 5 children die every day because of child abuse (2014). In 2010, 1,537 children died of abuse or neglect, 79.4 percent were under the age of 4 and 47.7 percent were under the age of 1(2014). There are 3.6 million Cases of child abuse reported every year in the U.S. And the number of children involved in these reports is 6 million (Steve Buffone). About 80 percent of 21-year-olds who were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder (2014). Mentally, physically, and psychologically children are fragile and delicate and so is the human brain. Psychologically it is important to meet the needs of the victims but it is equally important to be a great resource for them as well. The trauma of abuse will follow a child all the way into adult hood and help is important. Without help and support children as they grow up are more like to become involved in crime, they are more likely to abuse drugs, and they are more likely to abuse their own children. This literature review will determine the efficiency and effectiveness of services by answering these questions:
Trauma relates to a type of damage to the mind that comes from a severely distressing event. A traumatic event relates to an experience or repeating events that overwhelmingly precipitated in weeks, months, or decades as one tries to cope with the current situations that can cause negative consequences. People’s general reaction to these events includes intense fear, helplessness or horror. When children experience trauma, they show disorganized or agitative behavior. In addition, the trigger of traumas includes some of the following, harassment, embarrassment, abandonment, abusive relationships, rejection, co-dependence, and many others. Long-term exposure to these events, homelessness, and mild abuse general psychological
In life, many things are taken for granted on a customary basis. For example, we wake up in the morning and routinely expect to see and hear from certain people. Most people live daily life with the unsighted notion that every important individual in their lives at the moment, will exist there tomorrow. However, in actuality, such is not the case. I too fell victim to the routine familiarity of expectation, until the day reality taught me otherwise.
Understanding the correlation between a child abuse and the possible effects it may have on a growing child is vital. This study suggested that the long-term impacts of child abuse included disease risk factors, adverse quality of life, and mortality. A total of 8,506 participants were utilized ranging from 19-92 years old. Overall, groups were similar in their years of education and gender; however, race was not accounted for evenly. White participants made up about79% of the participant pool while the remainder subjects were of mixed races. The Adverse Childhood Experience Study (ACE) was used to measure the participants. Within this study, three categories of abuse were reviewed: psychological, physical, and contact sexual abuse. The ACE questionnaires were mailed out to all participants, and addressed childhood abuse issues while growing up. The questions were derived from several other screening tests. For example, to identify sexual abuse, questions from the Wyatt Test were used. One question read “As a child were you ever raped or sexually molested?” Results from this study revealed a prevalence and risk increase for those who experienced childhood abuse relating to depression, suicide attempts, poor overall health, and obesity. There was also an indication of increase in the use of illicit drugs and
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.
Child abuse is one of the highest growing social problems in the United States. A social problem is, “a condition that a significant number of people believe to be a problem. A condition in which there is a sizable difference between the ideals of a society and its actual achievements” (Coleman et al. 2006:2). However, society has changed the way it views the issue, and is working towards finding a solution to this awful problem. Child abuse encompasses four main areas: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Child abuse is considered a sociological phenomenon because it is a learned behavior. Learning the social patterns as to why people abuse will give a better understanding to its reasons, and also the development of society in the way that it views children. 3.6 million children were victims of abuse in the year 2006. Sixty four percent were victims of neglect, sixteen percent suffered from physical abuse, and eight percent were sexually abused. Also in 2006, 1,530 children died as a result of abuse; an average of four children everyday (Child Welfare Information Gateway 2008).