12/09/2019
We are all familiar with the knowledge that the more Adverse Childhood Experiences ( ) adults report in their life, the more likely they are to have an array of physical, mental and social problems as an adult. ACEs can include things like physical and emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, having lived in a home with an adult with an alcohol or drug problem or where there was violence.
Interestingly, research has now shown that adults with multiple negative childhood experiences are less likely to have the problems associated with having them if they also report having had more positive experiences as well. The study looked at relational childhood experiences — not other things like achievement in school.
The biggest effect was found when researchers counted up how many of these positive experiences were reported — just like it's done on all those other studies on ACEs. They found that accumulation of positive experiences, just like the accumulation of adverse experiences, really packs a punch. Having higher counts of positive experiences was associated with 72% lower odds of having depression or poor mental health overall as an adult. And those with higher levels of positive experiences were over 3 1/2 times more likely to have all the social and emotional support they needed as an adult.
Researcher Christina Bethell reminisced about her own life as an example, where she had a tough childhood and grew up in a low-income housing complex in Los Angeles where drinking and drug-taking was the norm. She says of a positive childhood experience;
“—there was a woman in [my] housing complex with an open door to all the kids who lived there. They called her "Mrs. Raccoon," and she held a birthday party with tea and candy every Saturday for whoever had a birthday that week. We would just sit there together and celebrate. She was the sweetest woman — just present, didn't talk a lot, but she was there. I started just traipsing over as a child — she had these little red berry hard candies, and to this day, that's my favorite candy."
Every moment matters. Every interaction with a child has a reaction in that child. Especially if wherever a child goes — to school, early care, walking around their community, to a doctor — they're met with warm adults who purposely try to see and respond to them and meet their needs for care and guidance.
Even as we keep working to address the many social and cultural factors we need to in order to prevent negative experiences, we should be focused on proactive promotion of the positive.
Thank you to members of Neurochild Village for sharing this research with us.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/09/09/759031061/positive-childhood-experiences-may-buffer-against-health-effects-of-adverse-ones
