It’s no secret childhood trauma can affect your mental health either as a child or later in life. There are many individual treatment efforts after trauma has already occurred but few resources to prevent trauma or identify which children are at a higher risk. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) wants to change this. It suggests that childhood trauma, which is much more common than many believe, should be considered a public health issue.
Unlike other studies on childhood trauma that only ask adults to recall past events, this study’s researchers spoke with 1,420 children between ages 9-16 annually and again up to four times in young adulthood. They found that by age 16, nearly 31 percent of study participants experienced one traumatic event, 22.5 percent experienced two and nearly 15 percent experienced three or more traumas.
The researchers then analyzed how many participants developed mental illnesses, addictions and other substance abuse issues into young adulthood. They also measured financial health, completing education, engaging in risky or criminal behavior and effective social skills. Experiencing more than one traumatic event was associated with higher rates of difficulty in all of these areas.
[For more on this story by Elizabeth Cassidy, go to https://www.yahoo.com/news/res...dhood-184942807.html]
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