Let’s put this another way: A huge chunk of the billions upon billions of dollars that Americans spend on health care, emergency services, social services and criminal justice boils down to what happens – or doesn’t happen - to children in their families and communities. And epigenetic research shows that the social and emotional environment can turn genes on and off, and childhood trauma can be passed from parent to child to grandchild. Biomedical researchers discovered that as an adult, resulting in heart and auto-immune diseases, such as arthritis. This affects their ability to learn in school, and leads them to use drugs, alcohol, thrill sports, food and/or work as coping mechanisms. Brain research shows how the, which can explain their hyperactivity, inattentiveness, angry outbursts and other behavior. The ACE Study is part of a perfect storm of research emerging over the last 20 years that is revolutionizing our understanding of human development. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., have done their own ACE surveys, with similar results. Compared to people with zero ACEs, people with an ACE score of 6 have a shorter lifespan – by 20 years. Compared with people who have zero ACEs, people with an ACEs score of 4 are twice as likely to be smokers, 12 times more likely to attempt suicide, seven times more likely to be alcoholic, and 10 times more likely to inject street drugs. The more types of childhood trauma a person has, the higher the risk of medical, mental and social problems as an adult. The - two-thirds of the 17,000 mostly white, middle-class, college-educated participants (all had jobs and great health care because they were members of Kaiser Permanene) experienced at least one type of severe childhood trauma. So, a person who has been emotionally abused, physically neglected and grew up with an alcoholic father who beat up his wife would have an ACE score of 4. Other ACE surveys are beginning to include other types of trauma.) Each type of trauma - not the number of incidents of each trauma - was given an ACE score of 1.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |