Past experiences of childhood trauma are common among California adults, and those experiences correlate with harmful behaviors and chronic disease at a level that constitutes a “public health crisis,” according to a new study.
The report by the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW), a health organization that serves children and families in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point district, demonstrates that "the effects of early adversity on lifetime health are astounding,” according to CYW founder and CEO Nadine Burke Harris.
The first of its kind, the study gathered data on how Californians are being affected by what the report refers to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), or traumatic experiences that have long-term effects on the brain and body. The experiences measured by the study include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; and household problems including divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, incarceration, and mental illness.
CYW found that over 60 percent of adults reported at least one adverse childhood experience, and one in six adults reported having four or more traumatic experiences.
The most commonly reported experience was emotional or verbal abuse, with 35 percent of adults saying they’d experienced that as children.
[For more of this story, written by Anna Challet, go to http://newamericamedia.org/201...lic-health-in-ca.php]
Comments (0)