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Military children are faced with many challenges, including but not limited to extended separations, deployments, frequent moves, and loss. The relationship with a parent or primary caregiver is critical to a child’s sense of self, safety, and trust. While many military children adjust well after a death, other children have ongoing difficulties that interfere with everyday life and make it difficult to recall positive memories of their loved ones. A child may have a traumatic reaction after...

When I first learned about the ACEs I thought my ACE score was zero even though I'd been researching the effects of adversity on risk for chronic illness for a few years by then. In addition, none of the illnesses in that first study seemed to apply to me. I was experiencing increasingly disabling fatigue that would eventually be diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This illness, still often thought to be psychological, had already contributed to my leaving my career as a family...

For some time, I’ve been thinking about the question, “What does success look like?” But the question I ask today is actually focused on what success really means? Also, how do the experiences in our childhood, positive or negative, affect our ability to be successful? And what can we learn from Phil Jackson on this point?

By Jill Suttie, Greater Good Magazine, April 20, 2021 As human beings, we tend to favor people we think are like us or have something in common with us—and we’re often wary of people who are different. Evolution made us this way so that we could find allies against outside threats. The problem comes when this old instinct to prefer our “in-group” leads us to discriminate, dehumanize, or act violently toward others we perceive as “the other” or members of the “out-group.” Surprisingly, it...

By Cory Turner and Christine Herman, National Public Radio, April 21, 2021 Kai Humphrey, 9, has been learning from home for more than a year. He badly misses his Washington, D.C., elementary school, along with his friends and the bustle of the classroom. "I will be the first person ever to have every single person in the world as my friend," he said on a recent Zoom call, his sandy brown hair hanging down to his shoulder blades. From Kai, this kind of proclamation doesn't feel like bragging,...

By Milenna T. van Dijk, Eleanor Murphy, Jonathan E. Posner, et al., JAMA Psychiatry, April 21, 2021 Key Points Question Does having multiple prior generations affected by depression increase risk of psychopathology in children, and can it be reliably measured in large, diverse samples using informant-reported family history? Findings In this secondary analysis of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study including 11 200 children from 9462 families, the highest risks of depressive and...

By Eizabenth Loutfi, Chief Learning Officer, April 22, 2021 There is a concerning surge of adults in the U.S. who are reportedly struggling with mental health or a substance use issue amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Though strategies such as social distancing and the use of stay-at-home orders are useful in reducing the spread of the virus, they are also partially responsible for the uptick in isolation and loneliness, which has increased stress and anxiety among almost everyone,...

Phoenix Robles and Dorcas Monari hug each other near the Brooklyn Center Police Department in Minnesota after Robles, who was passing by, stopped to protect Monari, who was protesting in the street. (Photo: Nick Pfosi/Reuters)

A new study done at Arizona State University has, for the first time, quantified the health-care cost of women in Arizona who experienced trauma as children, pegging the amount at $260 million for 2019. The research, done by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy , showed that exposure to three or more “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs, such as drug abuse or violence in their homes, was associated with $260 million in Medicaid spending – about 16% of the total for 2019. The work is...

Melissa Merrick of PCAA and Jim Mercy of the CDC answer this question. Adverse childhood experiences are correlated with poor physical and mental health outcomes and most, if not all, of the ten original aces are associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting. This suggests that the most important takeaway from the ACE Study and the one that is not being addressed is that many aces can be prevented with public health approach parenting education. Perhaps national parenting education...

Caroline Rose is a three-time, stage 4, incurable cancer thriver. After being told there was no hope, Caroline overcame all odds and beat her cancer three different times. She underwent two bone marrow transplants and countless rounds of chemo- but she emerged on the other side stronger and happier than ever before.

https://www.acesconnection.com/blog/514737199940474238