October 23rd, 2020 
1.In reference to Chapter 3, please discuss the public health impact of trauma on children. This is a rather broad topic, so please focus on one or two aspects that you find most interesting / compelling. Use two additional peer-reviewed sources to support your discussion. Reminder that this should be more than just a few sentences. The goal here is to provide adequate support for the points you make (feel free to use examples if they enhance your claims).I am uploading the textbook for your perusal for this assignment.
2.Please provide a thorough response to one classmate about a point they made in their post regarding traumatization of children as a public health issue–your response should make it clear that you researched an article your classmate used and thought critically about it. How did their article enhance the points they made? How does it help you to understand the topic more deeply? Does the article apply to other issues / areas surrounding public health?The following response is as follows:
Childhood trauma is something people carry throughout their lives. Childhood trauma not only affects people as children but it creates problems that will show later on in life. Children’s trauma creates a toll on peoples mental and physical health at the same time as it affects academic and socioeconomic outcomes. According to the textbook children who have been traumatized are at higher risk to develop mental health illnesses not only at childhood but throughout their whole life. At the same time Children who have been exposed to high volumes of trauma are more likely to develop anxiety and substance abuse. These factors not only apply to the USA but worldwide. The textbook states that high-income countries have between 7.6% and 8.8% of youths exposed to trauma develop PTSD, and PTS. Low and middle- income countries estimate a PTSD prevalence ranging from 4.5 to 89.3% (Lambert et al. 2017) Not only mental health is affected by childhood trauma but physical health seems to be affected by childhood trauma as well. The textbook states that children who are victims of childhood trauma have elevated odds to develop heart disease, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain and gastrointestinal problems (Lambert et al. 2017) It is believed that traumatized children have higher risk to develop somatic symptoms such as headaches and stomachaches.
Many studies state that there are severe consequences related to childhood trauma as people reach adulthood. Poor physical health, poor mental health and poor social relationships are linked to Childhood trauma. A study that supports my opinion on physical health is a research conducted with the purpose to see if childhood adversities increase risk for poor quality physical health in adulthood. The researchers used 454 African Americans in a longitudinal study where the childhood adversity data were collected nearly two decades apart. The results of this study stated that it was possible to predict cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood. ( Berg et al 2019). Another study that intended to show the relationship between childhood trauma, mental health and social relationships measured childhood experiences, stressful and supportive social relationships, medical conditions, anxiety, depression and health related quality of life of 254 adults in the state of Texas. The participants were assigned to (A) minimal childhood abuse (b) physical/verbal abuse of both child and mother with household alcohol abuse. (c ) verbal and physical abuse of children with household mental illness (d) verbal abuse only. (Schneider et al. 2020). The researchers found significant statistical differences between all the variables, although children who were physically and mentally abused developed mental health issues. The study shows that children who were physically abused and also witnessed abuse towards their mother had mental issues and difficulty with their social relationships.
Berg Mark T., Lei Man-Kit., Beach, Steven R., Simons Ronald L., Simon Leslie G. (2020) Childhood Adversities as Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Perceived Illness Burden in Adulthood: Comparing Retrospective and Prospective Self-Report Measures in a Longitudinal Sample of African Americans. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 49:12921308 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01207-z
Schneider, F. D., Loveland Cook, C. A., Salas, J., Scherrer, J., Cleveland, I. N.,& Burge, S. K. (2020). Childhood Trauma, Social Networks, and the Mental Health of Adult Survivors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(56), 14921514. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517696855
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