Any form of trauma has adverse effects on one’s behaviour during their childhood can progress to their adulthood. In most cases, society pays more attention to particular traumas, which are viewed as highly threatening experiences. But any situation or event that is emotionally stressful, which leads to lasting mental and physical effects, can be termed trauma.
All forms of trauma should be seen, analyzed, and addressed with equal measures in children and adults. But this hasn’t been the case. Instead, society has chosen to treat some form of trauma as dangerous as the rest. Consequently, individuals suffering from the “ignored” trauma fail to get the help they need to handle the traumatic situation. Below are examples of the lesser recognized causes of childhood trauma.
- Intimate Partner Violence
Domestic violence is an example of a common cause of childhood trauma that has never received the attention it needs. In most cases, parents think about their well-being and fail to realize that their actions will have more effects on their kids than themselves. Apart from causing distress between the parents, domestic violence is no longer a family issue as it affects the whole family, community, and generations. Children suffer most in such cases.
- Divided Parental Attention
Everybody desires to belong and receive love. This applies to both children and adults. Sometimes parents fail to give attention to their kids as most seem to be occupied throughout. The result is that children in such an environments fail to receive the parental love needed at that growth stage. The moment parental presence is missing, and children lack a trusted person to pour out their emotions and feelings.
- Constant Comments on one’s Appearance
A body appearance critic from your age mates might not hit you hard as it could be the case when it comes from your parents. Parents’ comment about their kid’s appearance denies them the love they need under such experiences. Too much focus on your kid’s appearance and negative comments about them causes relationship trauma.
- Comparing Children to Other Kids
Some parents fail to accept that children have different capabilities, thus different academic performance, varying skills, personalities, behaviour, and talents. Such parents end up pressuring their kids to do what other children are doing. The comparison makes parents focus on their kid’s shortcomings. This might make them feel inadequate, thus causing an inferiority complex.
- Emotionally Unstable Parents
The type of environment that children are exposed up models them to become who they are in adulthood. A kid who has been brought up by parents who quarrel, yell or manipulate them causes a lot of distress. At times, such kids feel that they are the cause of the bitterness being expressed out. These parents who cannot control their emotions and know what to say and not what to say before or to their kids are sources of trauma to their kids. Such kids have to develop a defense mechanism to survive in such an environment.
Once we recognize the various causes of our past and current traumas, we will be candid enough to speak them out as a society and address them to protect our kids.
