We all know that traumatic experiences in childhood leave deep invisible scars. However, researchers examining longitudinal data now say they’re not so certain all trauma leaves the same type of impact.
They’re studying data from a long-term study, but when they looked at it in a different way, dividing trauma up by different types of experience, they realized there was a new pattern.
This initial finding could have impactful results if further studies find similar results.
Childhood Trauma As Measured By The ACE
An ACE questionnaire asks a patient about Adverse Childhood Events. These include having a parent go to prison, being hit by a parent or having a parent push, grab, or throw things at the patient, witnessing domestic abuse, or being touched or fondled inappropriately by a person at least five years older or an adult.
It also brings up potential traumas that may not seem as direct, such as feeling unloved or that the family didn’t support each other, having a household member who was depressed or mentally ill, and having parents who were ever separated or divorced.
The number of “yes” answers is added up and a score is calculated from 0 to 10, and the intent is to use the results to provide trauma-informed care and understand the effects of trauma on development and behavior.
Wisconsin Researchers Examine The Data In A Different Way
These researchers divided the types of trauma displayed by the questions into 8 categories: poverty, discrimination, family conflict, interpersonal violence, peer threat, community threat, caregiver maladjustment, and chronic pain or medical issues.
Then, researchers looked at what outcomes could be seen over time from each category. Specifically, researchers noted that all types of childhood trauma were associated with poorer mental health and cognitive ability. However, they noticed that there was some variation in internalizing and externalizing responses to the trauma. They wrote:
“For example, while peer aggression and family conflict were associated with increases in both internalizing and externalizing problems over early adolescence, community threat and poverty were linked to decreased problems, potentially representing adaptive suppression of symptoms. Finally, adversity types related to resource deprivation (eg, poverty, caregiver maladjustment) were associated with declines in cognitive ability over early adolescence.”
Why Break ACEs Into More Specific Categories?
The authors explained that the evaluation as currently done is a good predictor that there will be struggles, but not so great for predicting the specific types of struggle for those children.
They hoped that by examining the data in a more specific way, they could get to the bottom of the specific risks for a child based on his experiences. Expanding on the standard ACE model, they examined the exposure of participants to 268 different traumatic and adverse childhood experiences (TRACEs), using data from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
Some Of The Data Showed Surprising Results
One of the authors, Justin Russell, a research assistant professor of psychiatry, said that some results were initially confusing because it didn’t make sense that those living in environments that felt unsafe and suffering from poverty would show fewer mental health problems.
However, according to WPR, he said that this shouldn’t be interpreted as evidence that the children’s struggles created resilience.
Instead, he posited that it might mean those children learned to show their distress differently because they’re still living in the context of those experiences. He noted that his research examined these children over a fairly brief time period, spanning only from ages 9 or 10 to 13 or 14, and suggested that this may not hold true as the participants grow into adulthood.
What Are The Next Steps?
The researchers say that they hope to integrate what they’ve learned into further mental health interventions, specifically focusing on kids who may not have access to therapy and other resources.
In fact, Russell says, he’d like to find ways to integrate what his team has learned into things the kids are already involved with — including video games and virtual reality programs.
These study participants will continue with evaluations through age 19 or 20, and Russell’s team hopes to continue examining further data as it becomes available to learn more about the long-term risks of specific childhood adverse and traumatic experiences.