Trauma and Development

Trauma and Development

Angela Whitworth

Liberty University

Trauma is a distressful or disturbing experience that often elicits a strong emotional response. Traumatic experiences can be a number of things, such as divorce, abuse, or an accident to name a few. The effects of trauma can be more than an emotional response. If experienced in childhood, trauma can be particularly devastating as it can effect brain development, cognitive abilities, and psychological well-being. It is well documented that there is a relationship between an increased occurrence of mental health issues throughout the lifespan and childhood traumatic experiences (Watts-English et al., 2006). This paper examines the effects of trauma on infants and children, particularly neural development, and the counter effects of spiritual development.

The infant brain is constantly growing and developing. It is thought that early relationships set the premise of future interactions, an outlook on life, and self-concept. One of the most important protective factors for lessening the impact of adversity is an infant’s attachment security (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). As the brain grows from bottom to top and right to left, neural connections are being made as the brain wires itself based on experience. The wiring is different for perceived safe situations and perceived unsafe situations. Children under the age of five are more than likely to experience traumatizing events such as maltreatment, accidents, marital conflict, and family violence than any other age group (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). These unfortunate events effect early neural development. Traumatic experiences at in the older child have effects on neural development, as well.

When children experience on-going stressful events, such as high-conflict divorce, the events turn into a traumatic experience. The effects of this trauma look similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Not only is there a high risk for PTSD but...