By: Benjamin He
“In the pediatric world, we’ve worried a great deal about what we call ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences,” says Perri Klass, MD. Research has already proved the lasting effects of ACEs on children. However, a beacon of hope has recently emerged from recent studies. Falling from the skies above, lights descending from the heavens, forming an angelic halo around it are…PCEs. Otherwise known as positive childhood experiences (Shocker, I know).
In 2019, a new study was published in JAMA Pediatrics where researchers took a look at some of these PCEs. They also talked to people about ACEs and asked 6,188 adults 7 questions each about their childhood.
Had they been able to talk to their families about their feelings? Had they felt their families stood by them during difficult times? Had they enjoyed participating in community traditions? Did they feel a sense of belonging in high school? Were they supported by friends? Were there at least two non-parent adults who took an interest in them? Had they felt safe and protected by an adult in their home?
The results of the survey showed that depression and other mental health issues faced a severe drop by 72 percent with adults that responded with a yes to six or seven of the positive experiences, but the drop went to 50 percent by those who reported 3 to 5.
“High adversity does not mean you’re doomed,” says Christina Bethell, is a professor of child health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she directs the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. . “The absence of the positive is the problem,”
Bethell also stated in an email that the positive experiences do affect the child’s nervous system and establish a sense of worth and identity inside of themselves as they go through life.
How Even Something Like Reading Helps:
“When I see an infant or a toddler, happy in a parent’s lap, going back and forth over a book with babble or gestures or words — well, something in me feels that child is going to be okay.” says Perri Klass. “It’s language and early literacy, but most of all it’s being held and attended to, because for young children, learning and development happen through relationships and interactions.”
In June, a study was published saying that the researchers involved had looked at more than 10,000 youth in the U.S., children that had started reading at an earlier age proved to have better cognitive performance, increased brain cortical areas and better mental health in adolescence than children who had started reading for pleasure later — or never started.
Physicians at Kaiser Permanente in California, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asked patients 10 questions about 10 kinds of different exposures that could affect someone’s emotional development: : Had they suffered emotional or physical neglect, emotional, physical or sexual abuse; had they had a household member who was incarcerated, addicted or mentally ill; had they been exposed to divorce or to domestic violence?
The first study, the original one, in other words, was conducted through 1995 to 1997, and posted in 1998. It showed that the higher numbers of adverse experiences in childhood were associated with not only higher rates of mental health problems and substance use disorder in adulthood but also higher rates of heart disease, cancer and chronic lung disease.
Another study in 2014 revealed that children with two or more ACEs were more than twice as likely to have a chronic medical condition or mental health problems.