What is Trauma?
By Emily Morrison, PhD, Bradley REACH
What Does Trauma Mean?
Children and adolescents may experience trauma when they are exposed to high levels of stress and emotional distress from an actual or threatened scary, dangerous, or violent event directed at them or their caregiver. Traumatic stress is an emotional reaction to the experience.
People vary in how they experience traumatic events, as well as how they respond. A child’s age and developmental level will also influence how they respond to trauma, but there is no age at which children are invulnerable to the impact of trauma. Initial shock or denial might evolve into significant long-term symptoms of traumatic stress, which can have a profound impact on different areas of one’s life.
What Causes Trauma?
More than two-thirds of children experience at least one traumatic event by the age of 16.
Such events can include:
abuse
assault
neglect
witnessing or experiencing domestic violence or community/school violence.
Though it’s likely an underestimate, reports suggest that 1 in 7 children in the US experienced neglect or abuse in the past year. Additionally, more than 1,000 children and adolescents are treated in EDs every day for physical assault-related injuries, approaching 400,000 children per year.
Trauma can also be caused by family events such as:
witnessing domestic violence
substance use disorder (either personal or familial)
life-threatening illness
the sudden or violent loss of a loved one
social and political events including national disasters or terrorism
commercial sexual exploitation
refugee or war experiences can trigger trauma at a personal level
military families may experience specific stressors around parental loss, deployment and injury.
What Are the Effects of Trauma?
Trauma matters because its symptoms can have a substantial impact across many areas of children’s lives, well into adulthood.
Children who experience trauma may go on to develop:
difficulties with self-regulation
mood challenges including intense emotional reactions
anxiety, and depression.
Trauma can also negatively impact youths’:
academic performance
sleep difficulties, such as nightmares
can contribute to substance use and other risk-taking behaviors
The effects of trauma are not just psychological; there can also be physical consequences. In the shorter-term, trauma can prompt somatic symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches and other aches and pains for children and adolescents. In the longer-term, trauma increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease as youth grow into adulthood.
What You Can Do
Not all children who experience trauma will develop traumatic stress. Additionally, children and adolescents vary in how they experience trauma and respond to it given individual risk and protective factors. The response and support of caregivers is essential for youth who have experienced trauma.
Children and adolescents can (and do!) recover from traumatic stress with ongoing support and care. You are the expert on your child, and you have an important job in helping your child work through the process of healing. You cannot do it for them, but you can be a steady support with them throughout the process.
The most important thing is to assure your child or adolescent that they are safe. Clarify that they are not responsible for what happened. Ask your pediatrician, PCP or school counselor for a referral to a licensed mental health professional who is trained in evidence-based trauma treatment. And most of all, be patient with your child and yourself. The healing process varies for each person and will take time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Emily Morrison
PhD, Bradley REACH
