By Veronika Tait, Psychology Today, October 4, 2019
Groundbreaking research conducted in the 1990s found that the greater number of negative childhood experiences a person had, the more likely they were to experience poor health outcomes later in life such as heart disease, liver disease, and cancer. A new study published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect has found that positive experiences, such as having a teacher who cares about them, can buffer against these negative outcomes.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as abuse, neglect, or a parent suffering from mental illness, have been a popular research topic in recent years, and these early life experiences have been found to have large impacts well into adulthood. As trauma experts Christine R. Ludy-Dobson and Bruce Perry have written:
The impact of early trauma is so profound because it occurs during those critical periods when the brain is most rapidly developing and organizing. Because the experiences of early life determine the organization and function of the mature brain, going through adverse events in childhood can have a tremendously negative impact on early brain development, including social and emotional development.
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