ENID, Okla. — The United Way Coach-A-Kid program hosted a lunch-and-learn session Wednesday at Stride Bank Center on the effects of childhood trauma.
Garfield County Child Advocacy Council Director Carole Wade was speaker for the event, sharing perspectives from her time as an advocate for children and families.
Wade discussed with the group the findings of a 1998 study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of more than 17,000 adults into the long-term effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). CDC found, as children, 28% of the study participants had witnessed physical abuse, 27% had witnessed substance abuse in the home, 13% had been present during domestic violence and 20% had been victims of sexual abuse.
Researchers identified correlations between those childhood traumatic experiences and negative behaviors in teen to adult years, including tobacco, drug and alcohol use, risky sexual activity and unhealthy eating habits. Negative health outcomes followed, including higher risks for heart disease, depression and other diseases, and higher rates of negative social outcomes, such as homelessness, abusive relationships and incarceration.
Those effects are borne out in a 2014 study published by Child Trends, a Bethesda, Md.-based nonprofit focused on children's health and welfare issues.
According to the Child Trends study, the greatest risk factors for ACEs in Oklahoma are economic hardship and divorce, followed by alcoholism, domestic violence and mental illness.
Oklahoma has the highest composite percentage of children who have had one to three or more ACEs, and the highest percentage of children who had witnessed or been victims of domestic violence, according to the study.
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