Traumatic Childhood and its Adverse Effects
Childhood is the stage where parents, caregivers and other family members experiences quick advances and variations, as development in this stage is fluid in nature. When the child develops the physical, social, cognitive, motor and emotional skills, they learn to abide the social norms or follow rules, communicate with friends and even engage themselves in complex tasks. As a caregiver or parent, it is important to provide that support, warmth, love and affection to the child as it not only provides them the secure environment but also encourages the child to develop curiosity and creativity. In some situations, a child can experience adverse situations during these formative years of their life such as neglect, family dysfunction, abuse, violence etc. These situations disrupts the sense of belongingness, safety that children reply on and they believe “world is not the good place to live in”. It not only impacts the child’s brain but also their emotions, and sense of self such that it leaves the scars and unhealed emotional wounds till adulthood. These adverse traumatic experiences not only impacts the child’s life but also to their families, communities and social connections.
According to trauma experts, the experiences encompasses the following kinds of experiences:
- Physical Abuse: It includes the intentional physical harm or injury on the child by the parent or caregiver such as hitting, kicking, and shaking. Children who experience any type of physical abuse may develop behavioural and emotional issues.
- Emotional Abuse: It includes rejection, criticism, humiliation which undermines the self-esteem and confidence of the child, leads to the feeling of shame, guilt and worthlessness.
- Sexual Abuse: It includes any sexual activity imposed on the child in position of power by the adult such as inappropriate touch to sexual organs, rape, molestation.
- Neglect: This involves inadequate support, love, warmth, emotional support from the parent or caregiver’s end towards the child. In such situation, the child may suffer from malnutrition, delays in the developmental milestones, and insecure attachment styles.
In any of the above experiences, the common sign and symptoms are: emotional dysregulation, flashbacks, hypervigilant, avoiding behaviours, low self-esteem, difficulty in maintain relationships, and substance abuse and addictions.
Childhood traumatic experiences can impact the following factors:
- Biological factors: An individual experiencing any form of traumas in childhood can have adverse impact on the physical health such as heart diseases, substance abuse, or chronic conditions such as autoimmune disorders, obesity etc.
- Psychological factors: Childhood trauma can influence behavioural patterns which can lead to emotional disturbances such as aggression, self-destructive behaviours, impulsivity leads to anxiety, depression etc. The traumas not only have severe impact on behavior or emotions, but to our cognitive functioning too. The researches has shown that it creates difficulties in memory, attention, concentration, learning, decision making and executive functioning skills.
- Social factors: An individual experiencing trauma develop the feeling of mistrust, and believes that the world is not a good place to live in. This in turn interferes with the social development of the person, such that the person finds it challenging to trust others, form bonds, fear of intimacy and engage in healthy interactions with other people. In such situation, the feelings of isolation is developed. The impact of trauma is long lasting and extend into adulthood, which affects the ability of the person to function well at workplace, leading to financial hardships and maintaining the secure employment.
Sometimes children are unable to share their pain to others or are unable to seek support from significant others and suffer in silence. That’s why, childhood trauma gets untreated and leads to long term consequences.
Psychologist use various techniques to help individuals heal with their traumatic experiences. The goal of the therapy is to provide the intervention to help children heal from traumatic experiences. The following therapies can be tailored as per the needs of the client:
- Expressive Therapy: This includes art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, and play therapy which provides the individual with a safe and supportive environment. Children and adolescents undergoing these traumatic experiences are able to express their thoughts, feelings well through these techniques. It helps to facilitate communication and help children process their emotions well.
- Trauma-Focused CBT: It is structured and time limited approach which is designed to heal the children and adolescents. It address the cognitive, emotional, behavioural aspects of trauma.
- EMDR: It is an approach that deals with reducing distressing symptoms and traumatic memories. While focusing on the traumatic memories and feelings of the individual, it involves guided eye movements.
Family Therapy: This involves address the impact of trauma on relationship within the family members and its evolving dynamics. The role of the psychologist is to help the families communicate well with each other, resolve the conflicts if there is present, and provide the support to each other in healing or coping the trauma.
Authored By
Dr. Samiksha Jain
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
The NorthCap University
Areas: Clinical Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Research and Development, Positive Psychology