By Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein, MA LMFT, reGeneration Education President
The Toxic Stress framework is the international gold standard for measuring the impact of negative childhood experiences on later-life health and well-being. But understanding Toxic Stress can be overwhelming. In this blog, I have distilled the five key points about Toxic Stress and its causes.
- Adverse Childhood Experiences are the root of the problem. The World Health Organization currently defines Adverse Childhood Experiences broadly as intensive and frequently occurring sources of stress that children may suffer early in life, such as war, natural disaster, displacement, or poverty.
- ACEs lead to Toxic Stress in a child. Research on the biology of Toxic Stress in early childhood shows how major adversity, such as violence, poverty, abuse, or neglect, can weaken children’s developing brain architecture and permanently set their stress response system on high alert, limiting school readiness and potentially harming lifelong health, learning, and behavior. Toxic stress from ACEs influences the child’s growing brain and body, which will impact the child’s health, academic, and social functioning long into adulthood.
- Unfortunately, ACEs have a long-term dose-response effect that is seen in adulthood. This means that the greater number of ACEs in the young child’s life results in a greater likelihood that later in life, they may suffer from physical and psychological problems such as heart disease, depression and diabetes, poor academic achievement, substance abuse, and other significant issues.
- Experiencing four or more ACEs increases the risk of physical and psychological problems. While, as of this writing, the statistics in Israel are unknown, in the United States, 64% of all U.S. adults report at least one ACE. 17.3% have experienced four or more ACEs. Experiencing four or more ACEs was most common among females (19.2%). To have multiple ACEs is a major risk factor for many physical and mental health conditions. Children with four or more ACEs are:
- 10-12 times greater risk for intravenous drug use and suicide
- 2-3 times greater risk of developing heart disease and cancer
- 32 times more problems for learning and behavior problems
- 8 out of 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. correlate to exposure to 4 or more ACEs
- It can be assumed that due to October 7 and its aftermath, young Israeli and Palestinian children are suffering a significant increase in exposure to ACEs. These children are experiencing a higher “dose” of ACEs, which increases Toxic Stress and the risk of long-term negative physical, academic, and psycho-social impacts. High levels of adversity, without the buffering protection of trusted caregivers and safe, stable environments, lead to changes in brain structure and function, how genes are read, the functioning of the immune and inflammatory systems, and growth and development. Buffering Israeli children suffering from Toxic Stress is critical. In the absence of adaptive and supportive relationships from adult caregivers and safe, stable, and calm environments that de-stress the young child, the severity or number of ACEs mounts.