Living through multiple adverse experiences—such as the death of a parent, growing up in poverty, physical or sexual abuse, or having a parent with a psychiatric illness—before the age of eight may be linked to depression and physical health problems in kids as young as nine to 15, new research suggests.
Further, the researchers have identified a potential pathway in the brain to explain how such stressful experiences influence poor health in kids.
The researchers found that a key brain structure involved in regulating emotions and decision-making is smaller in kids who have lived through three or more adverse experiences before the age of eight, compared with kids whose lives were more stable.
[For more on this story by Jim Dryden, go to http://www.futurity.org/childh...ntal-health-1595042/]
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