The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study is an ongoing evaluation of the effects of less-than-optimal childhoods on adult mental and physical health. I am fascinated by this study, for it is proving to be a good indicator of the price our society pays for not addressing the needs of our children when they are still children! How many of us have lobbied and begged and pleaded and cajoled and threatened and sued our schools and mental health professionals in an attempt to get them to sit up and take notice of the special needs of our children? Why is this such a mystery to so many people? How can anyone expect that a child who grows up in or is exposed during critical developmental phases to a dysfunctional household (or a neglectful institution) is going to be as healthy as a child who is fortunate enough to be raised by healthy, functional parents?


Ahhh… it is the latter “category” that so confuses people. Don’t you know that kids are “resilient”? Don’t you know that if you take Johnny out of the alcoholic, abusive, crack-cocaine and rodent-infested environment when he is three and plunk him in the Beaver Cleaver household,
he’ll forget all that nasty stuff in his past? And if he doesn’t, it is because YOU didn’t parent him correctly or love him enough?


This study will show otherwise… It states:

The abuse categories were: recurrent physical abuse, recurrent emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. The five categories of household dysfunction were: growing up in a household where someone was in prison; where the mother was treated violently; with an alcoholic or a drug user; where someone was chronically depressed, mentally ill, or suicidal; and where at least one biological parent was lost to the patient during childhood—regardless of the cause.

Note that last category… “where at least one biological parent was lost to the patient during childhood—regardless of the cause.” WOW. Right there you have all our kids.

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