How do we give hope to children in a trauma-filled world?
In recent weeks, we have collectively as a nation experienced horrible tragedies: Children and teachers murdered in their school, people killed while grocery shopping and — in our own state— two doctors, a receptionist and a visitor killed in a medical office.
These mass killings seem to be increasing, and the solutions have become political fodder with shortsighted, all-or-nothing solutions. This is a complex issue.
The reality is that this is not the only trauma our children are facing.
How do we give hope to children in a trauma-filled world?
In the mid to late 90s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted one of the largest investigations of child abuse and other challenges that impacted later health and wellbeing.
This groundbreaking research called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) found for children between the ages of 0-17, ACEs greatly increased risk factors for longterm health.
The study identified 10 questions that related to:
• Experiencing violence, abuse or neglect
• Witnessing violence in the home and community
• Having a family member attempt or die by suicide
• Substance abuse and/or mental health problems
• Parental separation or household members in jail or prison
Any person with a score of 4 or more is more likely to experience severe health issues. Having a score of 1 impacts can still have a significant impact on quality of life.
Those who have closer to 10 are even more greatly affected. It’s tremendously important to have an understanding of trauma and its impact as individuals, families and communities.
Oklahoma continues to remain one of the states with the highest ACE scores.
The ACE research is invaluable, but what are the solutions to keeping our children healthy and psychologically safe?
Morris, Hays-Grudo, et al. (2014) presented a paper called “Protecting parents and children from adverse childhood experiences: Preliminary evidence of the validity of PACEs (Protective and Compensatory Experiences).”
There is a short questionnaire with 10 questions about experiences that help heal traumatic experiences, which include:
• Parent/caregiver unconditional love
• Spending time with a best friend
• Volunteering or helping others
• Being active in a social group
• Having a mentor outside of the family
• Living in a clean, safe home with enough food
• Having opportunities to learn
• Having a hobby
• Being active or playing sports
• Having routines and fair rules at home
The higher the number of experiences, the more likely a child will heal from trauma and thrive.
While parents play a role in this, schools and our communities do too. Parents cannot do it alone. They need our support, as do our schools.
The way we give hope to our children is to focus on these areas and ensure all children have these experiences.
We cannot hide from the terrible tragedies, especially with the technological age we live in.
However, we have a responsibility to care for our children and provide them with as many protective and compensatory experiences as possible.
This will not only increase the resiliency of our children, but prevent future unnecessary tragedies.
For more information about the ACE study and questionnaires, check out: cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html, odmhsas.org/picis/TraningInfo/ACE.pdf or ok25by25.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PACEs-Questionnaire.pdf.
