Trauma has become a real catch phrase lately. The media (including social media) is full of references to the types of trauma and mental health concerns that children and youth are suffering from being directly related to world events. Everything from screen time, child abduction warnings, mass shootings, violence, abuse, neglect, homelessness, hunger, rising rates of self-harm and suicide. It's enough to make any parent or caregiver feel overwhelmed.
Childhood trauma is prevalent. In Canada 1/3 of adults report at least one incident of maltreatment or an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) before their 15th birthday. The very first study into ACEs was published in 1998. It categorized specific types of childhood abuse, neglect or family dysfunction and their relationship to outcomes later in life. Generally speaking the study found that the more ACEs a person experienced the higher their risk for negative health or mental health as adults. (You'll find the original study here).
The definition of ACEs has been expanded since the 90s and experts in children's mental health and development agree that ACE scores may not fully capture the scope of potentially harmful experiences a child or youth can be exposed to. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the ACEs study (and similar studies since) is that while traumatic events have the potential to result in negative adult outcomes, some children not only survive, but thrive in the face of childhood adversity.
So what does it all mean? Well, it means that prevention of childhood trauma is really important. Programs and services that support families and limit exposure to abuse, neglect, addiction, violence and poverty help ensure that children grow up to be healthy and productive adults. Equally important are opportunities to improve resilience. You see as much as we try to prevent ACEs it's simply impossible to eliminate traumatic events from our lives all together. Even if we could end childhood abuse, we still have natural disasters, illness and accidents to contend with. This is the reason child-centered systems around the world - including SECPSD – are adopting a trauma sensitive approach. Trauma sensitivity uses principles of neuroscience to minimize the effects of stress (including stress cause by ACEs and trauma) on learning and maximize opportunities to develop resilience.
Of course schools aren't the only influencers of resilience in kids and teens – their families and communities play an even bigger role. Johns Hopkins University recently conducted a study into Positive Childhood Experiences. They isolated 7 PCEs that can help offset the negative effects of ACEs (View Image)
The cool thing is that even if a child doesn't have all 7, PCE's can still increase resilience potential. That's because the core of resilience is connection. Any combination of connection based PCEs can provide a resilience boost; ensuring that kids, teens and even adults can better withstand negative or traumatic events throughout our lives.
When schools, communities and families work together to promote PCE's we give young people the best shot at a healthy future.