Posttraumatic Growth

2022 ◽  
pp. 225-245
Author(s):  
Dana C. Branson

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an understanding of how trauma can set up challenges and obstacles to student academic success and realistic responses by educators and schools to assist students. The chapter begins with an overview of the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study by Felitti et al. and explores the correlations between experienced childhood trauma and negative medical and social problems. The chapter will discuss the neurologic changes that can occur from childhood trauma and/or toxic stress and the common behavioral manifestations that create educational problems for students. The chapter will discuss the need for school social workers, as they can provide significant benefits to struggling students, educators, and school administrators. Additionally, the use of posttraumatic growth techniques to increase efficiency in classroom behavior, curriculum mastery, and lifelong coping will be discussed with final ideas proposing future research needs.

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Craig ◽  
Jonathan Intravia ◽  
Kevin T. Wolff ◽  
Michael T. Baglivio

Although the deleterious impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on offending has been established, less is known about the possible protective factors that may buffer this relationship. Using a sample of over 28,000 adjudicated delinquents from a large southern state, the current study investigated the role of substance (non)use on the relationship between ACEs and recidivism and whether these results differed by race/ethnicity and sex. Results illustrate that ACEs increase the likelihood of recidivism among youth who engaged in moderate-to-high substance use. However, this effect was not found among youth who reported little-to-no substance use. Furthermore, these effects were largely consistent across race/ethnicity and sex. Policy implications of this buffering effect are discussed as well as limitations and directions for future research.


Author(s):  
Damion J. Grasso

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refer to a broad range of events that can reflect physical or psychological threats to safety, as well as deprivation of basic needs, essential resources, or caregiving necessary for children to thrive and attain healthy development. ACEs can constitute potentially traumatic experiences or nontraumatic adversities with the potential to exacerbate trauma-related impairment or compromise trauma recovery and resilience. This chapter explores ACEs in the context of trauma and trauma-related impairment across the life span. It covers research employing variable- and person-centered analytic strategies for quantifying cumulative and unique constellations of ACEs that probabilistically co-occur, contemporaneously or across development, to influence risk and resilience. Studies examining intergenerational patterns and biological correlates are introduced and progress toward delineating causal risk mechanisms discussed. In addition, several existing tools and methods for assessing ACEs in young and school-age children, adolescents, and adults are summarized. Clinical and public health implications of ACE screening in healthcare, schools, and other settings are considered, as is the clinical application of research on ACEs in trauma-specific prevention and treatment. The chapter concludes with a focus on future research priorities.


Author(s):  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Dandan Zhang ◽  
Ying Sun

The association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and pubertal timing has been a topic of enduring controversy. A systematic search of PubMed and Web of Science databases was undertaken to quantify the magnitude of total and specific forms of ACEs effects on early pubertal timing among girls. Our search identified 3280 records, of which 43 studies with 46 independent data sets met inclusion criteria. We estimated pooled effect sizes (Cohen’s ds) for the association between ACEs with early pubertal timing. Total ACEs was not associated with early pubertal timing. When we examined the specific types of ACEs, associations were small to medium for father absence (d = −0.40, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.63, −0.16) and small for sexual abuse (d = −0.13, CI: −0.17, −0.10) and family dysfunction (d = −0.08, CI: −0.11, −0.02). We identified considerable heterogeneity between estimates for almost all of the outcomes. ACEs exposure may affect female reproductive reproduction, particularly father absence, sexual abuse, and family dysfunction. We propose that future research in this area test a theoretical model linking adversity with earlier reproductive strategy, which includes early pubertal timing as a core component linking early adversity and stress physiology with poor health outcomes later in life in females.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Yanro Judd C. Ferrer ◽  
Roy Moore

This paper aimed to determine the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Payatas, an urban poor community in Quezon City, Philippines. In total, 260 people were surveyed in two areas of Payatas. The results of these surveys were then compared with existing ACE Surveys in other communities. Results found that ACEs were reported at significantly higher levels than in existing surveys, which were typically made of Middle-Class populations. The discrepancy grew at higher ACE Scores. Moderate childhood trauma, ACE Scores of 4 or more, was reported as two to five times more common in our Payatas populations than in the existing survey populations. Severe childhood trauma Scores are less available; however, these trends appear to grow at higher ACE Scores. These results suggest that ACEs are far more common in urban poor communities. That ACE Scores are higher in poorer communities is not a surprising finding. However, the scale of the problem is highly significant. As ACEs are a major root cause of many social problems, including, but not limited to, addiction, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, depression, attempted suicide, and drug abuse, it does indicate a strong area for effective support. The potential for improving the well-being, quality of life, and life expectancy through this framework is large, provided appropriate investment is made in these communities.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1581447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily M. Zarse ◽  
Mallory R. Neff ◽  
Rachel Yoder ◽  
Leslie Hulvershorn ◽  
Joanna E. Chambers ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carryl P. Navalta ◽  
Lesley McGee ◽  
Jolene Underwood

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study provided compelling evidence that abuse, neglect, and other ACEs are the most potent risk factors for the development of health, mental health, and substance use problems. Such negative health-related outcomes parallel the cumulative exposure of the developing brain to the stress response, with resulting impairment in multiple brain structures and functions. Collectively, these sequelae can manifest during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. We and others have posited that counseling and other psychotherapeutic interventions need to address the individual's multilayered ecology (i.e., biological, psychological, social, cultural/contextual). Neurocounseling can provide a heuristic framework to more effectively assess, conceptualize, and counsel people with a history of ACEs. We provide an update of the clinical neuroscience of ACEs and its implications for counseling, including how contemporary interventions (e.g., mindfulness) can potentially have positive benefits for such individuals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Hawkins ◽  
Taylor Scribner

Almost certainly, every child who enters the foster care system has endured some sort of trauma. It is unrefuted that childhood trauma correlates with mental, physical, and behavioral problems well into adulthood. In 1998, one of the first major studies of the relationship between certain forms of childhood trauma and adult behavior and disease was reported. Collectively, these traumas are called “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACE). Today ACE refers to ten common forms of trauma that individuals may have experienced as children. To put this issue in perspective, it is currently estimated that 34.8 million children in the United States are affected by ACE, two out of three adults have one or more ACE, and one out of eight adults have four or more ACE. Since the original study, several studies have been published linking ACE to detrimental lifelong effects relating to mental health, chronic health, and behavior patterns. Despite this, the consideration of ACE in family law and child welfare-related cases is a relatively new concept in courts across the country. This Article summarizes the research on ACE and how this research has become integrated into the courtroom, using the Florida court system as an example. In addition, in a novel approach, this article will articulate how ACE research and findings can be utilized in foster care adoption.


2021 ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
A. Shyroka ◽  
I. Brukh

Emotional dependency is a persistent pattern of unsatisfied emotional needs, that the individual tries to fulfill in close intimate relationship in particular romantic relationship. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are often identified as a cause of emotional dependency. However, there is plenty of evidence that many psychosocial problems are more strongly associated with early maladaptive schemas (EMS), than directly with ACEs. ACEs and EMS both can have effect on emotional dependency. Such assumption has strong theoretical reasoning, but there is still lack of empirical evidence about the exact role ACEs and EMS can play in emotional dependency. The present study examined early maladaptive schemas as mediators of the adverse childhood experiences – emotional dependency in romantic relationship. The study has cross-sectional design. Questionnaires completed by 128 individuals (78% females) (Mage=26; SD=9), who currently or in the past were involved in romantic relationship. There were assessed 10 types of childhood trauma (The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire), early maladaptive schemas (Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form) and emotional dependency (Emotional Dependency Questionnaire). The mediation role of EMS was tested by Baron and Kenny (1986) analysis strategy using hierarchical multiple regression procedures. The findings showed that ACEs didn’t predict, but such EMS as abandonment / instability,  mistrust / abuse and failure to achieve did predict emotional dependency in romantic relations (R2=0,44). The experience of emotional neglect mildly predicted schema of mistrust / abuse (R2=0,16). Such results discussed in the context of previous research, limitations that restricted the study’s conclusions and future research recommendation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
David W. Brown ◽  
Robert F. Anda

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a collaborative effort between Kaiser Permanente (San Diego, CA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), was designed to examine the long-term relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and a variety of health behaviors and outcomes in adulthood [1]. ACEs include childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. The ACE Study, based on chronic disease prevention and control models, proposes that ACEs influence social, emotional, and cognitive impairments which in turn increase the probability of adopting health risk behaviors that have been documented to influence the subsequent development of disease, disability, social problems, and ultimately premature death. We use the ACE pyramid to depict this concept (see www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/pyramid.htm).


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