Any society is significantly shaped and defined by the norms, behavior, and environment under which its children grow up in. America may have many distinct societies; however, it faces several social problems as a whole country. Many individuals assert the need for a quality childhood that will realize a healthy, able and social population. Nonetheless, majority of the effort is often used to better education and not necessarily solve the other issues affecting children. Various studies have showcased that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a huge impact on future adult health and social problems. In fact, some researchers have been bold enough to claim that most disorders often start in childhood. However, such issues are not given light in comparison to the conventional children needs i.e. food, education and “normal” medical care (Garcia et. al ., 2015). As such, this paper aims to assess the correlation between ACEs, toxic stress, resilience, and adult health outcomes and most importantly why the issue is a sociological problem.
What are ACEs?
Adverse Childhood Experiences can be said to be any traumatic or stressful events during childhood. The major problem with ACEs is that many individuals do not properly understand its causes. For a long while, it has been traditional that a child is assumed to be fine unless they experience severe trauma such as rape, witness death and so on. However, ACEs come in almost every form some of which may not be noticeable easily. Examples of ACEs include both emotional and physical neglect, children witnessing violent treatment of close relatives and friends, emotional abuse, parental divorce, sexual and physical abuse and many others (Felitti et al ., 1998).
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So as to note associate every unpleasant event as an ACE, there are characteristics that help identify such traumatic experiences. For one, ACEs are common in just about any society whereby children are involved. The much more severe cases tend to take limelight ACEs occur rather abundantly in both today's and even past societies. While it is somewhat difficult to assess the direct of ACEs on individual children studies pinpoint that such events are much more frequent than what is widely assumed. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented by Felitti et al. around 28% of adults claimed to have been physically abused while 21% were sexually abused during their childhood (1998).Moreover, ACEs can be said to be clustered in that they happen more than once within one victim. Some reports articulate that once a traumatic event occurs it makes a child more adept to similar trauma which makes them more vulnerable (Felitti et al ., 1998). Lastly, ACEs should showcase a dose-response problem with either social, health or behavioral problems.
Toxic Stress
Stress is a key factor in how we respond; therefore it is a very normal and important part of human life. The physiological response to stress is naturally intrinsic which allows prompt and vital reactions which enables the body to act accordingly. In times of stress, the heart beats faster; there is an increment in blood pressure, adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone) surge through the body which makes an individual more alert to the external factors that facilitated the creation of stress (Shonkoff et.al ., 2012). Briefly, the physiological changes that come with stress facilitate an internal environment that greatly improves the body’s chances if recovery from the stress. As such like most body processes, a tolerable amount of stress actually serves a very important purpose in the human anatomy.
Toxic stress, however, is not beneficial in any way, as a matter of fact, it deals excessive long-term harm, especially in children. The stress response detailed above is meant to occur for only a short duration. According to Shonkoff et al. when an individual remains in an acute stress environment; the body constantly releases stress hormones leading to a chemical imbalance that has the potential of increasing heart rate and consequently blood pressure (2012). If such a scenario happens, the stress stops becoming positive and it turns toxic which can cause drastic changes which acutely impact both the brain and the body. Toxic stress isn’t about the cause of stress but more about the ongoing nature of this stress. As stated earlier stress occurs normally at one point or another but for children, the difference is that their minds are growing i.e. actively seek information which makes them more vulnerable to negative chemical influences such as stress hormones (Shonkoff et.al ., 2012).
Relationship between ACEs, Toxic Stress and Resilience and Health Outcomes
Individually either toxic stress or ACEs can have negative impacts on a childs future life. To begin, toxic stress has often being linked with the presence of migraines in adults. However, it also follows early exposure to migraines can lead to development of migraines early on in a person’s life. While toxic stress is often about by emotional abuse, it has been shown that individuals who suffered from such abuse are twice as likely to fall into depression in adulthood than normal individuals (Shonkoff et al., 2012). Lastly, if toxic stress is not treated early on it hinders successful therapy recovery in adulthood.
Exposure to ACEs, on the other hand, is strongly related to poorer health across life. ACEs include being a victim of physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect as a child and exposure to chronic environmental stressors such as living in a household affected by domestic violence, substance misuse or mental illness. Such exposure can alter early neurological development including both pleasure and reward centers and pre-frontal cortical impulse control, increase adolescent and adult health-harming behaviors, change hormonal and immunological systems contributing to chronic tissue inflammation and increased allostatic load, increase risks of adults having poor social adjustment, reduced cognitive capacity and low mental wellbeing (Felitti et.al ., 1998). These physiological and psychological changes lead to increased rates of physical and mental health conditions as well as poorer educational and employment outcomes. ACEs thus lead to social problems such as stigmatization where one feels alone and therefore doesn’t allow himself to communicate or connect with other individuals due to the adverse experiences they underwent when children (Garcia, O’Brien, Kim, Pecora, Harachi & Aisenberg, 2015). Other behavioral effects such as drinking come up to act as a distraction to the memories caused by the adverse experiences in childhood.
Resilience represents the capacity to recover from difficulties or problems. Indeed adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress play a big role in one’s resilience during growth. What one goes through during childhood consequently shapes his way of life, morals, how he or she handles things depending on the situations that come his/her way. In conclusion, ACEs and toxic stress dampens and reduces individuals’ resilience ability and this consequently affects those individuals negatively in their adulthood (Felitti et.al ., 1998).
The Correlation as a Sociological Problem
Throughout the paper, it has been made somewhat clear that there exists a significant link between ACEs, toxic stress among children and resilience as well as health problems in adults. For the most part, the effects are mainly detrimental and could pose significant perils if left unchecked. However, it is also very much imperative to look at the issue from a sociological perspective. While such experiences have been shown to have a potential to cause much harm it is also important to ask why ACEs are not taken seriously.
To begin with, ever since the existence of human society tends to favor those are strong; however, that trend has diminished much over the years (Charon, 2010). Strong is not only limited to physical power in this context but other matters such as wealth or even impressive social skills. In short, weakness is an undesirable trait in most societies. Thereby, either subconsciously or consciously parenting tends to reflect this societal trend. As such this leads to parents and even adults often belittling stressful situations on behalf of children which furthermore leads to children being fearful of airing such traumas. Charon argues that symbolic interactionism articulates that individuals within a society tend to focus on societal definitions of situations and behaviors rather than reality itself (2010). Thereby, the existence of negative adult health outcomes as a result of avoidable childhood traumas echoes symbolic interactionism in a way.
From a societal approach, the best alternative for preventing ACEs as well as toxic stress among children would be to remove the barrier between airing such traumas and actually getting help. This is in succinct terms would entail that parents be wary of what happens in their children’s live i.e. noticing ACEs when they do happen and taking them seriously. On behalf of gaining help, medical practitioners should be observant to catch symptoms of ACEs and toxic stress early on and diagnosing the right form of treatment e.g. therapy. However, the responsibility to alter the way people look at ACEs and toxic stress rests not on parents but the society as a whole (Charon, 2010).
Conclusion
ACEs, as well as toxic stress, are huge risk factors for many adulthood diseases. While such it has been proven and showcased repeatedly that indeed childhood experiences can have a significant impact on adulthood health and well being not many individuals are aware of the problem. Thereby, such mass ignorance makes the problem not only a medical one but a societal one. Ignorance remains the key barrier to treatment and most importantly prevention of both ACEs and toxic stress in children. As such for this grave problem to be solved then the issue should be addressed and tackled from not only a medical standpoint but also from a sociological perspective.
References
Charon, J. M. (2010). Symbolic interactionism: An introduction, an interpretation, an integration . Pearson College Division.
Garcia, A. R., O’Brien, K., Kim, M., Pecora, P. J., Harachi, T., & Aisenberg, E. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and poor mental health outcomes among racially diverse foster care alumni: impact of perceived agency helpfulness. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 24 (11), 3293-3305.
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., ... & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American journal of preventive medicine , 14(4), 245-258.
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., McGuinn, L., ... & Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics , 129(1), e232-e246.
