OPINION: Guest Commentary — Leah Kelly — Study links childhood trauma to ailments later in life

The following guest commentary was submitted by Leah Kelly, a licensed professional counselor who works at Bay Area Substance Education Services in Charlevoix. Leah works with students in local area high schools during the school year and with teens and young adults at BASES Recovery Center throughout the year.

There can be a dramatic transformation in troubled teens when the staff at their schools incorporate findings from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study into their education and support services. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being (The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children). This study has uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, such as heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, depression, violence, suicide, substance abuse, etc. (The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children).

When a student has experienced several traumas, they are more likely to display problematic behaviors and have poor academic achievement. Their behavior can be unpredictable, demanding, and ambivalent. When school staff are informed about how trauma affects a student’s brain and development, they can better understand and assist them.

What’s your ACE score?

There are 10 types of childhood traumas measured in the ACE study: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, witnessing domestic violence – seeing your mother treated poorly, alcohol or other substance abuse in the home, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death or abandonment, and a family member in jail. To get an ACE score, you total how many of these 10 things you have experienced prior to your 18th birthday.

As your ACE score goes up, so does your risk of disease, social, and emotional problems. With an ACE score of 4 or more, things become more complicated. See the accompanying chart for findings from a study conducted by Anda and Felitti.

Building connections — the power of ONE

Resilience research shows that those who do better than others exposed to the same traumatic experiences have at least ONE significant person they are securely attached to — a parent, caregiver or any caring adult (The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children). When a student has ONE caring adult at school they feel connected to, their risk of harmful/risky behaviors goes down. Children feel safer when they are around stable, healthy, consistent and nurturing adults. The goal is for children to know what to expect from the adults around them. Building relationships and creating connections through meaningful, daily interactions between students and school staff creates the world of a difference. Think of all the children you can help by being one of the kind, caring, stable, nurturing adults in their lives.