Children, who experience three or more traumatic events, are six times more likely to suffer from a mental, physical or learning disorder, according to a University of Florida study.
Previous studies showed that people with a distressed childhood have a higher risk of having poor health as adults. But this Florida study reveals that the negative effects may occur much earlier than previously believed.
"The kids who have the highest number of adverse experiences have the highest likelihood of having multiple conditions," Melissa Bright, a research coordinator for the UF Institute of Child Health Policy, said in a statement. "It is not one poor health outcome; it is a whole slew of poor outcomes across the board."
For the study, the researchers examined data from the National Survey for Child Health, which included nearly 96,000 children from the United States.
The survey detailed disturbing experiences children usually faced including parental divorce, economic hardships, domestic and neighborhood violence, poor caregiver mental health, drug abuse and having a parent in jail. The data also included information of children with medical conditions.
The researchers found that between 11 and 24 percent of parents reported that their children were diagnosed with at least one disorder. Also, about 4 percent of the parents had children who suffered from one disorder from these categories - mental, learning and physical. However, children who faced adverse experiences were more likely to have a disorder in all the categories.
Bright believes chronic toxic stress to be behind these disorders. The stress triggers changes in the body's developing neuroendocrine and immune systems that in turn causes poor regulation of the stress response and a decreased ability to fight diseases.
"These adverse experiences are affecting multiple domains of health simultaneously," Bright said. ".....a child with multiple health conditions puts serious financial and emotional strains on families, making them more susceptible to adverse experiences such as caregiver mental illness and divorce.
According to Dana Foundation, exposure to adverse childhood experiences - like mistreatment, environmental deprivation, family violence, parental instability, criminal behavior, substance abuse on mental health - have lasting damaging effects on mental health. It impairs functioning of the developing brain and neural structure.
Such experiences are important determinants of psychiatric disorders. Retrospective studies have consistently identified psychiatric disorders in children who have suffered early adversities.
