A new study suggests that stress experienced early in life damages the ability to assess risk, creating young adults with poor decision-making skills.
Punishment—or the threat of it—is generally considered an effective way to shape human behavior; it is, after all, the foundation of our criminal justice system. But what if there’s a subset of the population for whom this paradigm simply doesn’t apply? New research suggests that there is such a group: survivors of childhood trauma.
University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Seth Pollak worked with over 50 people around the age of 20, and found that those who had experienced extreme stress as kids were hampered in their ability to make good decisions as adults. Simply put, childhood trauma—due to circumstances like neglect or exposure to violence—created young adults fundamentally unable to correctly consider risk and make healthy life decisions—and no threat of punishment was likely to be effective in changing this deficit. For cities where fears of juvenile violence have transfixed residents and flummoxed city leaders, Pollak’s results suggest that demands for stiffer sentences on youthful offenders are likely to be counterproductive.
The study’s participants were already known to Pollak: He had worked with them as eight-year-olds, when he measured their stress levels as part of a study on the effects of stress hormones on children’s development. The kids, from Madison and its environs, ranged from middle-class children who had experienced no trauma to kids who had dealt with extreme circumstances like abuse or a parent killed by gunfire. Extreme poverty tends to be associated with these traumatizing environments: Economic uncertainty puts parents under stress, which trickles down to children; food and housing insecurity can further exacerbate these stresses.
Photo caption: A woman comforts a child after a school shooting in Atlanta.
Photo: John Bazemore/AP
[To read the rest of this article by Mimi Kirk, go to https://www.citylab.com/equity...88/?utm_source=atlfb]
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