"Parents with Severe Child Trauma More Likely to Have Kids with Behavior...."

[Three Roses]

An interesting article about the findings of a study.

Parents with Severe Childhood Trauma More Likely to Have Kids with Behavior Issues
By Traci Pedersen
  ~ 1 min read
Parents who faced severe trauma and stress in their own childhood are more likely to see  behavioral health problems in their children, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

The childhood hardships included in the study were as follows: divorce or separation of parents; death of or estrangement from a parent; emotional, physical or sexual abuse; witnessing violence in the home; exposure to substance abuse in the household or parental mental illness.

The findings reveal that the children of parents who themselves had four or more adverse childhood experiences were at double the risk of having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and were four times more likely to have mental health problems. In addition, a mother's childhood experiences had a stronger adverse effect on a child's behavioral health than the father's experiences.

"Previous research has looked at childhood trauma as a risk factor for later physical and mental health problems in adulthood, but this is the first research to show that the long-term behavioral health harms of childhood adversity extend across generations from parent to child," said the study's lead author, Dr. Adam Schickedanz.

Schickedanz is a pediatrician and health services researcher and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Parents who lived through adverse childhood experiences were also more likely to report higher levels of aggravation as parents and to experience mental health problems, the researchers found. Yet these mental health and attitude factors only explained about a quarter of the association to their child's elevated behavioral health risks.

The remainder of how the parent's negative childhood experiences are transmitted to their child's behavior needs further study.

The research adds to the growing evidence supporting standardized assessment of parents for adverse childhood experiences during their child's pediatric health visits.

"If we can identify these children who are at a higher risk, we can connect them to services that might reduce their risk or prevent behavioral health problems," Schickedanz said.

For the study, the team analyzed data from a national survey showing information from four generations of American families. This included information from parents about whether they were abused, neglected or exposed to other family stressors or maltreatment while growing up, and information on their children's behavior problems and medical diagnoses of attention deficit disorder.

With this data, the researchers were able to find strong links between the parents' adversity histories and their children's behavioral health problems, while controlling for factors such as family poverty and education level.

The next step for researchers is to look at how resilience factors, such as the support of mentors or teachers, could counteract the harms of childhood traumas, Schickedanz said.

Source: University of California- Los Angeles Health Sciences

[Deep Blue]

I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a huge worry for me with my son.

It's my hope that as he grows we can have open communication and hopefully with mental health I can share with him that it's ok to struggle and I'm here for him

[Three Roses]

Both of my kids have been affected by the trauma I (and my husband) experienced. I bought into the lies, "Just forget about it, don't think about it and it won't affect you." I did my best to bury the hurt and confusion.

But when you know better, you do better. I try not to feel guilt and shame for not knowing what I didn't know, not seeing what I didn't see.

[Deep Blue]

Any advice for me? Mom of a 4.5 year old?  (He already has some ocd) 

[Blueberry]

No advice Deep Blue, sorry, not in a position to advise. Just  and: the simple fact that you know and do not deny what you are dealing with will help your son.

[Three Roses]

I agree with BB, you're miles ahead of where I was when I was raising kids.

When I was younger, I thought, "As long as I don't treat my kids the way I was treated, I'll be a good parent."

And I was a better parent to my children than what my parents were to me. But that might not be saying much. The things that I was subjected to by all the members of my FOO were completely abnormal and harsh. School was no better, there was physical abuse from teachers, and bullying from students.

So, I thought, in my little girl mind, that this was just how people were to each other. Anywhere I looked, the behavior modeled to me regarding anger was completely dysfunctional.

About age 30, I started to see things much clearer. As I became more aware of terms like dysfunction and co-dependancy, it created within me an insatiable need to educate myself about family dynamics. I started devouring books and videos by John Bradshaw, reading and watching them over and over. This info was much different than anything I'd ever heard. It was an epiphany and I hungered for more.

Although I learned a lot, I still had not uncovered the repressed memories of childhood, and did not see my childhood as abusive or dysfunctional until later (in my mind, my upbringing had only been overly strict). I knew I was different, but I only thought I had a bad temper. The way I dealt with life and kids left me dissatisfied with myself and my abilities to parent.

I bought into the lies that if I just didn't think about my past, it couldn't hurt me. But, despite my best efforts, my inappropriate way of expressing frustration and anger leaked out, wherever I went.

As far as any advice I could give, I think the best thing to do is to educate ourselves about the things we went through, the feelings that it created in us, and how best to avoid that in our own parenting. I didn't know what was normal and could have used some healthy, objective books on the subject. Back then, the information in books wasn't as evolved as what you can find today.

I hope this article wasn't discouraging to you - at the end, there was this statement:

"If we can identify these children who are at a higher risk, we can connect them to services that might reduce their risk or prevent behavioral health problems," Schickedanz said.

Good news. 👍

[Deep Blue]

Thanks 3roses and blueberry,
I try to educate myself as much as I can.  I hope that is enough

[Blueberry]

I had 2 further thoughts on this, one connected to this:

- at the end, there was this statement:

"If we can identify these children who are at a higher risk, we can connect them to services that might reduce their risk or prevent behavioral health problems," Schickedanz said.

if you notice problems developing in your son, best 'nip them in the bud' so to speak and get support for him. In my country children that young will do some kind of play therapy at an occupational therapist's, designed to improve concentration skills or whatever else the child all needs. I went to occup.T myself for a while, there were often children in the waiting room. Better 12 weeks of play therapy now rather than 3 years in psychotherapy in teens or adulthood. Also I need hardly say, get help for yourself or additional support if you feel like everything is getting 'too much', even if that just means you get a babysitter in and go off and do self-care for a couple of hours.

The other thing is: what would you have liked your parents to have done in your childhood to help you? That may give you some clues as to how to react with your son.

I've heard quite often that parents have a particularly difficult time when their child reaches an age at which they themselves were particularly badly abused or neglected. So might be good to be prepared for that in advance.

I don't have children myself so none of this is 'tried and tested'. 

[Libby183]

So interesting.  I look at my three children, all very different from each other but all with issues that I see come directly from my own abusive childhood.

My sons had extreme behavioural problems when young and we're diagnosed with autism and other learning difficulties.  My older daughter was always highly intelligent and beautifully behaved. My abusive parents supposedly adored her but were very damaging to her, just as they damaged me. My treatment of all my children when young also added to the damage. Over the years, I came out of the FOG, and set about putting right the damage as best I could.  I have lovely relationships with my grown-up children. The main thing is that we have talked about everything - their feelings and opinions have been validated and we have moved on.

My sons will never have relationships or children.  It just isn't an issue to them. My daughter is a successful neuroscience researcher, in the area of stress,  ironically,  and mostly enjoys life. But she suffers horrendously from bouts of anxiety, depression,  chronic fatigue,  IBS, endometriosis, chronic pain reactions and more. She doesn't feel she could ever have children,  which is so sad, but completely understandable. I hate to see her suffer,  but I just support and validate her experience, and she always tries to get the best from life and she is an amazing person.

My GC estranged sister has two children who are quite a bit younger than my children.  Her daughter has type 1diabetes,  and I have started to see suggestions that diabetes,  as an auto-immune disorder,  could be triggered by the effects of abuse, through epigenetics.  So sad to think that my parents,  who were to some degree, abused or neglected themselves, have five grandchildren, four of whom may/seem to be suffering from physical and psychological effects of abuse, passed down through the generations, through a combination of nature and nurture.

I don't imagine that this is an especially unusual family dynamic,  so I just hope that these issues will be recognised and parents get the help to break the cycle, so that over generations, the genetic traces of abuse will die out.

[Deep Blue]

Blueberry,
I think you make a really good point here.  My son is a gentle soul.  He has some OCD already and anxiety.

I talked with him a couple months ago because he didn't like art during preschool.  He said he tried to draw a picture of me, but it was silly and not perfect.  We talked about how no one is perfect and that I loved his art just the way it it is.

I think taking care of myself is key.  If I'm in an upswing, I am more logical and can have these good conversations with him.  I need to be weary of when I'm struggling, to take care of myself as well.  Perhaps showing him good self care during the down times will serve him well.