Educators and clinicians have long recognized that children and youth with social, emotional, and learning problems often experience neglect and abuse in earlier years. Research now shows that harm associated with traumatic childhood experiences does not end when young people grow up.
In the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study investigators from the Kaiser Permanente Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined the impact of mistreatment in childhood on well-being in adult life by monitoring the health of a cohort of men and women who, in the course of comprehensive medical assessments during 1995 to 1997, answered questions about trauma during childhood. The questions were embedded in a Family Health History questionnaire and elicited information on ten types of adverse childhood experiences.
Five of the experiences reflect family dysfunction (household member substance abuse, mental illness, or incarceration; parental separation or divorce; mother treated violently). Three reflect emotional, physical, or sexual abuse of the individual. And two reflect emotional or physical neglect of the individual.
[For more of this story, written by Geoffrey Kane, go to http://www.reformer.com/localeditorials/ci_27890730/kane-childhood-matters-very-much]
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