Thomas R. Verny is a clinical psychiatrist, academic, award-winning author, poet and public speaker.
asserted
Verny → win → ?
He is the author of eight books, including the global bestseller The Secret Life of the Unborn Child and The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness and Our Bodies.
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He → include → Memory
No one comes through childhood entirely untouched or unscathed.
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one → come → childhood
One reason lies in the profound asymmetry of a child’s world.
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reason → lie → world
One has power, the other has virtually none.
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other → have → none
One looks down, the other looks up, literally and metaphorically.
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other → look → ?
Love and dependence tend to become interwoven with frustration, resentment and envy, sometimes on both sides.
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Love → tend → sides
We generally regard this imbalance as necessary, benign and caring.
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We → regard → imbalance
But what happens when the adults on whom a child depends are absent, overwhelmed, dangerous, or simply unable to provide for the child’s needs?
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child → happen → needs
I was reminded of this recently when I attended the 35th anniversary celebrations of Smile as a Gift (Usmev ako dar), a charitable organization in Bratislava, Slovakia, that works with children in foster care and children’s homes, as well as families threatened by poverty, violence, imprisonment or illness.
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that → remind → poverty
Slovakia also has a Commissioner for Children (Komisar pre deti), charged with defending children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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Slovakia → have → Child
The current commissioner, Jozef Miklosko, is a man in his early 50s, with tousled blond hair beginning to turn silver, an infectious laugh, and enough energy and enthusiasm to power a small nuclear plant.
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hair → begin → plant
He seems to regard his work less as a job than a calling.
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He → seem → calling
He and I spent many hours talking about Slovak “social orphans.”
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He → spend → orphans
He explained that these are children who have been separated from their parents because of a complicated mixture of neglect, poverty, parental incapacity, illness, imprisonment, abuse, family breakdown, separation from parents, violence, hunger, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and, more recently, displacement by the war in Ukraine.
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who → explain → Ukraine
Only a small proportion are orphans in the traditional sense of having lost both parents.
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proportion → lose → parents
Most live with relatives or foster families rather than in institutions.
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Most → live → institutions
Each child has a different history and reacts differently to harsh conditions.
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child → have → conditions
But they are all affected by them.
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they → affect → them
At this very moment, hundreds of millions of children around the world are exposed to adversity.
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millions → expose → adversity
[1, 2, 3]
Many children and youth from disadvantaged communities do not eat, sleep, live, work or go to school in safe, stable places.
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children → eat → places
Growing up under such stressful conditions undermines health, development and learning.
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Growing → grow → health
[4, 5, 6]
It was less than three decades ago that researchers introduced the concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, as a way of measuring the cumulative effects of childhood adversity.
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researchers → introduce → adversity
[7–9] What have we learned since then about their long-term consequences?
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we → learn → consequences
I don’t think you need a PhD or Dr. Google to figure out that hunger or ill-treatment will have a negative impact on the physical and mental health of any person, especially a young vulnerable child.
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hunger → think → person
Many studies have quantified such effects for individual ACEs.
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studies → quantify → ACEs
They appear to extend across the lifespan, increasing the likelihood of unhealthy behaviours, mental illness and a range of chronic physical diseases.
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They → appear → diseases
And the risks tend to rise as adverse experiences accumulate.
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experiences → tend → ?
[10, 11, 12, 13]
A particularly thorough review was conducted by Professor Karen Hughes of Bangor University in the U.K. She and her colleagues reviewed 37 studies involving more than a quarter of a million people.
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She → conduct → people
What they found was that the more adversity people experienced in childhood, the greater their likelihood of encountering a remarkable range of difficulties later in life.
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people → find → life
But the most disturbing associations were with drug misuse, violence toward others and violence directed against oneself.
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associations → direct → oneself
[14]
Surprisingly, the commonly held belief that children who suffer physical abuse are at increased risk of becoming abusive parents themselves and children who have been sexually abused become adult sexual offenders is refuted by many academic studies.
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who → hold → studies
[15, 16, 17] Most abused children do not grow up to abuse others.
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children → abuse → others
That’s the good news.
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That → ’ → ?
The bad news is that drawing on very large population samples from Europe and North America, Professor Mark Bellis, a leading British public health researcher and expert on adverse childhood experiences, asked how much illness across entire populations might be associated with childhood adversity.
uncertain
illness → draw → adversity
He and his colleagues examined common ACEs such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, domestic violence, parental separation, and living with household members affected by substance abuse, mental illness or criminality.
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He → examine → abuse
[18]
What they found was that childhood adversity was common.
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adversity → find → What
In Europe, about 24 per cent of people had experienced one ACE, and 19 per cent had experienced two or more.
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cent → experience → two
In North America, about 23 per cent had experienced one ACE and a striking 35 per cent had experienced two or more, supporting the Hughes results.
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cent → experience → results
Perhaps the most surprising finding was the sheer scale of the estimated financial burden.
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finding → estimate → burden
…and 61 more, not listed.
The Aporia
