When we experience trauma in our childhoods, we are affected for a lifetime. Until recently, little consideration has been given to the expiration of the effects of trauma. We have assumed that trauma stops with the ending of an individual’s life. We have realized that the effects of trauma on a parent can affect a child by way of behavior, coping mechanisms, and more. For example, if a parent develops alcoholism as a way to cope with trauma, a child is surely affected. However, we haven’t considered what simply being born into a traumatized bloodline can mean. New research suggests that being the child of a parent who has experienced multiple traumatic events in their own childhood increases the risk for mental health and behavioral health issues.
Researchers at the esteemed University of California Los Angeles found that the experience of trauma in childhood affects the mental health and physical health of the children themselves as well as the children they will have in the future. Published in Pediatrics, the study utilized data from the 2014 Child Development Supplement and the 2014 Childhood Retrospective Circumstances Study. Using the behavioral problems index, researchers measured the severity of the traumas experienced by children. Children’s caregivers answered questions about the children’s behaviors, including activity, mood, and more. Children who had higher rates of behavioral problems also had parents who experiences a higher number of “adverse childhood events”. Specifically, parents who experienced four or more highly traumatizing events before the age of 18 years old were more likely to have children who experience hyperactivity and difficulty with emotional regulation, according to ABC News. Interestingly, the gender of the parent who experienced the greater amount of trauma experiences had an effect on the mental health of their children. Being the child of a mother with greater traumatic experiences had a bigger negative impact on mental health than being the child of a father with greater traumatic experiences.
Our trauma is never just our own. Experiencing trauma in our own lives has a cosmic ripple effect which impacts the lives of everyone around us for generations to come. Just as trauma can be transferred generationally, so does recovery from trauma. Your healing, transformation, and growth has an equally great effect.
Providing effective residential care and cutting edge treatments, seeking trauma recovery at Khiron House offers healing for many common mental health problems and manifestations of trauma. If you haven’t found the treatment solution you need to sustain a life of recovery, your journey is here waiting for you to begin. For information, please call UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).