Literature Review On Childhood Trauma Essay

Terr, L. C. (1991). Childhood traumas: an outline and overview. Am J Psychiatry, 1, 48.

Symptoms that adults that suffer from childhood traumatic occurrence might display include “sleep problems, increased agitation, hypervigilance, isolation or withdrawal, and increased use of alcohol or drugs. Older adults may exhibit increased withdrawal and isolation, reluctance to leave home, worsening of chronic illnesses, confusion, depression, and fear” (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, 2014). There symptoms are the negative impact that childhood traumatic experience have on the social development for this population. Initially, victims may not know they are traumatized until they seek assistance. Many of the resurfacing of trauma for adults takes a while because it has become a long term issue that has been normalized or

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

Trauma is perceived as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a person’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety and/or survival or to the physical safety of a significant other; family member, friend, partner. (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003). An adolescent may experience trauma from a variety of experiences, including but not limited to: abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional); neglect; abandonment; bullying; exposure to domestic violence and/ or community violence; natural disasters; medical procedures; loss/grief due to a death of a family member(s); surgery; accidents or serious illness; and war (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003).

Childhood trauma is not just widely prevalent but also has pervasive implications for diverse areas of functioning (van der Kolk, 2005). However, research indicates that childhood trauma assessment is often prevented by the social taboos associated with such events as neglect, abuse and exposure to violence yet it is important to acknowledge this. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Studies indicate that there is a very strong relationship between early adverse childhood experiences and other long-term effects such as depression, attempts of suicide, abusing substances like alcohol, cigarette or drugs, domestic violence, reduced physical activity, obesity, sexual promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. They also predispose people to develop physical ailments such as heart disease, diabetes,

Sixty percent of adults report experiencing abuse or other difficult family circumstances during childhood. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.). This shocking statistic exemplifies the high prevalence of childhood trauma. Furthermore, twenty-six percent of children in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of four. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.) Trauma is an extremely common and complex phenomenon. But what is trauma? According to Merriam Webster, trauma is defined as, “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” (Merriam Webster, 2017). Dr. Lenore C. Terr from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of America further describes trauma as unique to each individual. It can be caused by a series of events or one severe incident. Unfortunately, childhood trauma is usually experienced repeatedly. For example, many children endure sexual abuse, bullying, and severe family problems over and over again. Children may experience a variety of traumas that have lasting consequences on their mental health. Those who experience childhood trauma are more likely to develop psychological disorders. This occurs because their brains lack neuroplasticity, which inhibits their ability to adapt to various stressful circumstances.

There are negative mental health consequences in adulthood due to traumatic events in childhood, (Mock & Arai, 2010) as trauma can increase the risk of many psychiatric disorders ( Alim et al.,2008). There are socioeconomic disadvantages resulting from ACEs (Mock & Arai, 2010) and studies have also found ACEs to be associated with negative effects on physical health in adulthood, including obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes (Youssef et al., 2017). However, studies have repeatedly shown that not all children exposed to abuse or trauma experience adverse consequences, National Scientific Council on the

Each year there is an estimated 4 million elderly Americans that are victims of physical, psychological, or abused in other ways (Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/elder-abuse.aspx). There are some cases that get reported to the proper authorities and some cases that do not get reported at all. For the abused elderly people, their lives are put at risk and their health also declines. They feel helpless and lonely and have increased psychological distress and research has suggested that these victims die earlier than those who have not been abused (Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/elder-abuse.aspx).

Trauma is something that can affect anyone at any time depending on the circumstance, no matther whether young or old (Briere, 1997). Trauma has been called “irritable heart” and “shell schock” but after a large amount of soldiers coming home from wars were all experiencing similar symptoms, the American Psychological Association started to identify it as a specific disorder many could potentially have; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). There were many causes that were said to have caused PTSD, some that were identified in Psychological Assessment of Adult Posttraumatic States were: disasters, war, rape, sexual assault,large-scale, transportation accidents, emergency worker exposure to trauma, spouse or partner battery, torture, child abuse (1997). Like stated above, PTSD is not only for war victimes, it turns out that it started having different levels that was associated to children as well. This then caused for a creation of various assessments that could be administered depending on the age as well as the form of trauma.

Within the human experience, there has always been a risk of exposure to both physical and psychological trauma. The threat of violence, personal tragedies, and economic and social catastrophes are all possible triggers for an onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What was once reserved as a diagnosis for veterans has been found to affect both young and old. The development of various assessment tools have been used in diagnosing PTSD and one of the most commonly used tests is the Post-Traumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale. It is an assessment that was developed and validated by Edna Foa to provide a brief but reliable self-report measure of PTSD for use in both clinical and research settings (Zalta, Gillihan, Fisher, Mintz, McLean, Yehuda, & Foa, 2014). The Post-Traumatic Diagnostic Scale is an assessment instrument deigned to be taken by adults with at least an eighth grade reading level. This review of will evaluate the hits, misses, false positive errors, and false negative errors of this instrument and how to each area is applied in interpreting the construct measurement of this assessment tool. Although the Post Traumatic diagnostic Scale has consistently ranked high with clinicians and researchers, in self-reporting the definition of trauma can potentially become subjective and compromise the reliability of the assessment tool.

The pervasiveness of these correlations is high and suggesting childhood trauma could play a major role in the psychological health of a person later in adulthood, and there have many studies which have been conducted that could support these theories.

Childhood trauma is one of the most common problems among people today around the world. For many, their childhood has led them down roads of deep depression, anger and even fear. While for some, they feel as though they have had a pretty normal childhood. Child abuse not only can affect their work relationships, but even their own relationships with spouses and children. The effects childhood trauma and abuse has on adults limit not only their workplace relationships and interpersonal relationships, but also their own relationship with themselves as they mature.

There are many types of trauma that can effect an adolescent and without the proper treatment of the traumatic event the adolescent can have difficulty adapting and developing into adulthood. Kathleen J. Moroz, of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, defines trauma as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a child’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety of survival or to the physical safety of another person significant to the child. She goes on to list the types of trauma a child may be exposed to. Abuse of every kind, domestic violence, natural disasters, abandonment, serious illness or an accident are just a few traumatic events that can effect the development of a child. (2) When these events occur as an acute event

Adverse Childhood Experiences are described as traumatic or stressful events that occur under the age of 18 years. Multiple categories of childhood emotional and physical abuse were considered including Abuse, Neglect, and Household Dysfunction, each with respective subsets of criteria. A questionnaire is used to determine a person’s “ACE Score.” Depending on how many questions they answer indicating that childhood trauma was present, a numerical figure is used as an index for their score (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This score is useful for ranking them and their susceptibility to later problems in life due to childhood adversity .

The article “Trauma and treatment in early childhood: A review of the historical and emerging literature for counselors written by Buss et al. (2015) presented a review of relevant literature, including research findings specific to early childhood vulnerability to trauma, symptoms associated with traumatic events, diagnostic validity of early childhood trauma, and treatments for young children.” (Buss et al, 2015, p. 225) Another article that I found to be really interesting was the article Trauma in early childhood by De Young et al. The article addressed the probability of children being exposed to some type of trauma that can affect them later in life. There has been a focus on early childhood mental health and efforts are evident through clinical trial and research in the area. Research studies have shown that “children who are exposed to any form of trauma are more likely to develop psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression.” (De Young et al, 2011) The children are also more likely to develop difficult behavior, often found in preschool