Trauma suffered in childhood echoes across generation

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and published in Pediatrics, found that there is an increment in the risk of behavioral problem and mental health in both the people and their young ones due to the trauma event in their childhood.

“Whatever you experience in your early-life, particularly stressful or traumatic events may result into intergenerational consequences of a great impact on your children behavior and mental health,” said the lead author, Adam Schickedanz, a clinical instructor in Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

You carry your history with you

He also added that the study clearly shows or demonstrates one way in which people carries their history with them and how their histories implicate when it comes to parenting and the health of their children.

In an interview, when he was questioned how the researchers may relate to the large population of children  who were above 2,000 in numbers and were previously separated from their parents after they crossed the US border, Schlckedanz answered that all families who took part in the study were from the U.S., but it was a clear suggestion by the evidence that adverse childhood event  take a toll effects in large part as a result of toxic stress responses that seem to be universal, as they have been demonstrated across families from various backgrounds.

Schickedanz explained that the researchers keenly observed the effects over generation during a child growth in an unstable environment, how the child suffers loneliness or has absent parents. Using the available evidence as the basis, it may be expected that the stressful and traumatized children who are experiencing hardship due to family separation at the U.S. border will have intergenerational behavioral health penalties.

Scope of the study

During the study, a national sample of families from previous research was used. The sample was made up of parents who took part in a 2014 Children Development Supplement and 2,529 of their children who had also completed data in 2014 Childhood Retrospective Circumstances Study.

The behavioral problem index was the scale which was used in the study to measure the severity of a child’s behavior issues. Researchers also availed the primary caregivers of children whose ages fell in between 3 to 17 years old as a series of questions in order to assess present current problems, which included those with depression, anxiety, dependency, hyperactivity, and aggression.

According to the study, there is a link that exists between those children with a high rate of behavioral problems and parents who have undergone through a greater number of hostile childhood events, ACEs.

The parents who went through four or more adverse horrific events before they were 18 years old such as abuse, household dysfunction and neglect were more likely to have children with behavioral issues like hyperactive and emotions.