Did you know that the first three to five years of a child’s life are foundational to who they become and how well they will function throughout their lives? At Maryvale, we work with children from various backgrounds and life circumstances – including those from low-income households and those who deal with abuse in their families and communities.
When a young child grows up dealing with neglect, abuse, domestic violence, and other sources of instability, their entire mental reality is impacted. Their foundation for everyday existence is unsafe, and their ability to live healthy, functional lives in the future is profoundly compromised.
Risks Associated with Negative Early Life Experiences
For infants and young children, abusive or harmful life experiences are high stakes. A young child’s environment impacts more than their mental health – though exposure to domestic instability or improper care can undoubtedly lead to paranoia, anxiety, depression, and feelings of worthlessness. Abuse and neglect during a child’s early development are directly linked to their health and tendencies as adults. When a child is repeatedly or frequently exposed to harmful situations such as physical or emotional abuse, neglect, mental illness in a parent or adult caregiver, or exposure to violence, they can respond with toxic stress. In other words, when a child’s stress response is prolonged, their brains cannot grow properly, which weakens their body’s other organ systems.
The combined effect of abuse in a child’s early development devastates their mental and physical health. The more extended and acute the child’s negative experiences, the more likely they are to experience developmental delays, heart disease, diabetes, substance use issues, physical deterioration, and early death.
In an ideal scenario, community members, educators, social workers, and mental health professionals would be able to address domestic abuse and prevent it from causing prolonged stress. This might mean solving a material problem like sheltering unhoused families and providing essential resources. Alternatively, it could mean addressing mental illness in family members or confronting abusive relationships. Later in life, children and young adults who had a neglectful or abusive upbringing need counselors and caregivers who can validate and fully consider the harm they underwent in childhood.
How Trauma Snowballs from Childhood to Adulthood
When a young person has undergone adverse experiences – particularly on a recurrent basis – they are likely to experience trauma, an emotional response to an instance of high stress. In the short term, this often shows up as denial or a sense of shock. Long-term trauma has disturbing physical and emotional implications. Reactions can take the form of mood swings, flashbacks, night terrors, nausea, insomnia, and headaches. Trauma affects young people and adults whose stress response is in overdrive.
There are staggering connections between increased sources of trauma and increased risks in adulthood. An adult whose early years were filled with abuse or neglect has an increased risk for alcoholism, substance use, chronic depression, and suicidality and is more likely to perpetrate domestic violence. Physically, they have an increased risk of liver disease and diabetes. Socially, they are less likely to be financially secure and may struggle socially and academically.
When a child is faced with extreme stress, their trauma response can be prolonged. This means they may struggle to focus at school, they might blank out when interacting with others, or they might seek substances to escape from their overwhelming feelings. It is important to identify behaviors that signal a child’s fear - on one end of the spectrum, a child might seem numb, frozen, or stoic; on the other, a child might be aggressive, angry, or self-indulgent.
At Maryvale, our mental health approach weaves in an understanding that many children bring some amount of trauma with them throughout their daily lives. By integrating trauma-informed therapeutic interventions with whole-family care, we seek to build positive relationships around children so that they can become expressive and communicative with their parents and adult caregivers.
When a young person’s emotional experience is stressful, the help they need often takes the form of practical life skills. Reckless behaviors such as absenteeism at school or work may be rooted in trauma. The path forward needs to be clear and actionable to reduce stress and help a person emerge with a sense of accomplishment. For this reason, the team at Maryvale is passionate about providing life skills for teens and adults who require support as they make their way into the workplace. Through our community partners, we offer several different types of pre-professional development to help prepare people for employment, teach computer skills, and grow their knowledge of money management. Building a bridge between childhood instability and independent adulthood is one way to help mitigate the many risks that traumatized people are prone to.
