When Bad Things Happen
How to Find the Good
Sadly, bad things do happen. No child is immune to negative events happening in their lives, families, and communities, nor in the ever-present news TV and our phones.
What are ACE’s?
Sometimes, children and teens directly have adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s). ACE’s include events that a “child experiences or witnesses, including physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect, and events that undermine a sense of safety and security.”
If you or your child has experienced ACEs, you are not alone. It is estimated that almost half of children have experienced ACEs before their 18th birthday.
Unfortunately, exposure to ACEs increases children’s risk for negative health outcomes, including chronic pain and mental health disorders, even into adulthood. Researchers think that this is because of “toxic stress activation,” which can disrupt normal brain development and nervous system functioning.
All this information can leave you feeling doomed. If you or your child has already been living through an adverse childhood experience, is there anything that can even be done to reverse this negative trend or risk?
Can PCE’s help?
In the Journal of Pain, researchers published their results asking the question, can exposure to positive childhood experiences (PCE’s) improve health outcomes and moderate the effects of ACEs?
They defined PCE’s as “socio-environmental, protective experiences that increase a child’s sense of belonging and connection, including access to safe, stables and nurturing relationships and environments.” They suggested that PCEs might work in the opposite manner of ACEs, such as promoting lower stress, healthy adjustment, self-regulation, and resilience.
The researchers examined data from over 47,000 children and teenagers in a nationally representative dataset, including those with and without chronic pain.
Unsurprisingly, they found that having more ACE’s increased children’s risk of having chronic pain, and having more PCE’s reduced this risk.
What was quite interesting was that they found that PCEs reduced the risk of chronic pain among children were exposed to ACEs. In other words, even when children had ACEs, PCEs were able to buffer the negative effects.
Therefore, even if you or your child has been exposed to ACEs, focusing on creating PCEs can minimize the negative effects on physical and mental health.
It is important to note, that all of this data was collected cross-sectionally, meaning at the same time. That means that it is difficult to concretely determine what affects what. However, often, adverse experiences are long-lasting, and children may experience chronic stress. Therefore, starting PCEs as soon as possible can be significantly impactful.
Where can you start?
PCEs examined in this study included:
Having a connected family
Developing a resilient family
Having an adult mentor
Participating in after school activities
Volunteering in the community
Specific ideas you can try:
Spend time together as a family doing something fun (e.g. dinner together without devices, family game night)
Model resilience in the face of challenges
Praise effort and attitude rather than outcomes
Connect your child with positive role models outside of direct caregivers
Enroll in an extracurricular activity
Help your child find a way to give back, or do it as a family
Understand more about ACEs: Information about ACEs from Harvard
Adverse childhood events and chronic stress can significantly affect all aspects of health. If you are looking for more personalized or focused help, please don’t hesitate to reach out by calling the number below or clicking the Get Started button at the top of the screen.