Twenty-five years ago, a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that, in the United States, traumatic life experiences during childhood and adolescence are much more common than expected. Participants in this study were mostly white, middle class, well-educated, and had good medical insurance, and yet only a third of them reported no serious adverse childhood experiences. In the remaining sample, the vast majority experienced two or more horrific events in childhood. Subsequent scientific reports from 96 countries demonstrated that, globally, more than half of all children – one billion girls and boys – are exposed to violence every year.
Why is it important? People with histories of childhood trauma are vulnerable to developing a range of problems, including difficulties concentrating, outbursts of anger, panic, depression, and difficulties with eating, medication, and sleeping, as well as higher levels of brain hormones. reduced or impaired stress and levels. immunological responses. Neuroscience research consistently shows that childhood trauma alters the brain systems dedicated to assessing the relative risk of what is happening around us and causes difficulties in regulating emotional responses throughout life.
Despite the World Health Organization’s (WHO) leadership in anchoring violence against children as a global public health priority and the numerous studies over the past 30 years that reveal the devastating effects of childhood trauma on physical and mental health, the effects of exposure to violence remains largely unrecognized and unresourced in school systems, child care agencies, medical clinics, and the criminal justice system.
An opportunity to repair this neglect is on the horizon. In November 2024, the government of Colombia – in partnership with the government of Sweden, WHO, UNICEF and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to end violence against children – will organize a Global Ministerial Conference on the End Violence against Children. The first meeting of all 194 countries to recognize the scale and severity of the impact of child violence and to begin mobilizing much-needed resources to accelerate action.
The fact that this is the first Global Ministerial Meeting on this issue, and that it is widely considered a third-level policy priority, is surprising. A proportionate response to the challenge that preventing child violence represents is long overdue.
Long-awaited and short-sighted; The CDC study concluded that child violence is the costliest public health problem in the US, estimating that the overall costs exceeded those of cancer or heart disease. It estimated that eradicating child violence in the US would reduce the global rate of depression by more than half, alcoholism by two-thirds, and suicide, serious drug abuse and domestic violence by three-quarters. Furthermore, preventing exposure to violence and abuse would significantly affect job performance and greatly reduce the need for incarceration. In fact, about 95 percent of violent inmates experience violence and abuse as children. This, of course, is not limited to the US, but is relevant to children around the world.
When people talk about children’s exposure to violence, they tend to focus on what happens outside the home: on the streets, at school, in refugee camps and in war-torn societies. However, for most children, the trauma begins at home, at the hands of their family members. Both physical and sexual violence committed by caregivers themselves have devastating consequences.
In 1987, Frank Putnam and Penelope Trickett of the National Institute of Mental Health began the first longitudinal study of the impact of sexual abuse on girls’ development, which has been ongoing for 35 years. Compared to girls of the same age, race and social background, girls who are victims of sexual abuse suffer a range of profoundly negative effects: learning difficulties, depression, problems with sexual development, high rates of obesity and self-harm. They dropped out of school at much higher rates and had more serious medical illnesses. This study, and many others like it, underscore the reality that supporting high-quality early care is critically important in preventing physical, social, and mental health problems, regardless of trauma that occurs outside the family.
Safe and protective early relationships are vital to protect children from long-term problems. If the parents themselves are the source of suffering, the child has no one to turn to for comfort and to restore disturbed biological functioning. Social support is a biological necessity – not an option, and this notion should be the backbone of all prevention and treatment. Early stimulation and sensitive parenting are key to successful growth and development.
John Heckman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000, demonstrated that quality early childhood programs that involve parents and promote basic skills in disadvantaged children more than pay for themselves in terms of better outcomes. Economists have calculated that every dollar invested in high-quality home visiting, day care, and preschool programs results in savings of $7 in welfare payments, health care costs, substance abuse treatment and incarceration, and income. higher taxes due to better paying jobs.
After violence, the world begins to be lived with a different nervous system. Three-decade research by Martin Teicher and his colleagues at Harvard has shown that many of the brain abnormalities thought to be specific to a variety of psychiatric problems were, in fact, a direct consequence of childhood trauma and abuse.
Labels such as “depression,” “oppositional defiant disorder,” “intermittent explosive disorder,” and bipolar disorder do not address underlying issues.
A mislabeled person is likely to become a mistreated patient. Mental illness is not really like cancer or heart disease: everything about us – our brains, our minds and our bodies – is geared towards being integrated members of social groups, able to share, nurture and collaborate. This is the key to our success as a species, and it is what fails most forms of mental illness. It is critical to recognize that many of our behavior patterns are the result of the social conditions and caregiving systems that shape our minds and brains when we are young and that continue to sustain the fundamental substance and meaning of our lives.
With just six months to go before the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, my hope is that governments recognize the opportunity and need to prioritize protecting children as the right and smart thing to do. The stability and functioning of tomorrow’s societies and citizens depend on the decisions of today’s governments. There is no doubt that governments are feeling fiscal pressure, but recognizing and adequately funding child violence prevention will prove to be a strategic investment.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
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