Big, potentially traumatic events create greater risk of health and behavior problems for the children who experience them, even into adulthood, according to a Child Trends report released this week. It also found nearly half of children have had at least one such adverse experience.
Economic hardship is the most common adverse childhood experience with nearly a quarter of kids growing up in homes where parents at least sometimes struggle to provide adequate food and housing. The next most common ACE was having parents who split up.
Other ACEs in the study were living with someone who abused drugs and/or alcohol; living with someone who had mental illness or was suicidal; seeing or being victimized by neighborhood violence; being abused within the home; living with a mom or dad who had been incarcerated; or having a parent one lived with die.
"I think what's striking is how common these experiences are" said Vanessa Sacks, the study's lead author.
[For more of this story, written by Lois M. Collins, go to http://ktar.com/22/1755830/How-traumatic-experiences-affect-children-when-they-grow-up
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