How Trauma and Grief Affect Children

How Trauma and Grief Affects Children
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How Trauma and Grief Affects Children
Childhood trauma can manifest itself in various ways with different characteristics and mental health outcomes. Individuals that have experienced traumatic loss at an early age may develop childhood traumatic grief (CTG). This experience acts as an encroachment on three trauma symptoms preventing forming and negotiating steps needed in the grieving process. Epidemiologic studies have found that most children in the United States have been exposed to potentially traumatic events (PTEs). According to Copeland, Keeler, Angold, & Costello, 2007 68% of the children included in the survey have experienced at least one form of trauma. This essay analyzes and personal reflection on the effects of trauma and grief on children's development.
Most children are resilient in the face of trauma. However, it only takes a little time for their fragile minds to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, behavior problems, substance use disorder, and physical health problems. It is estimated that more than 400,00 youths below the age of 25 are experiencing the loss of a loved one or a family member each year. Different emotions will stir in children as a result, such as a bereavement and grief. Bereavement refers to a condition from the death of a loved one, while grief involves intense emotions and pain due to death. If not addressed, children will start showing symptoms that resemble clinical depression, such as loss of appetite, sadness, lack of sleep, withdrawal from friends and family, a decline in academic performance, and reduced interest in mundane activities.
Children ask questions about what happened, which can be difficult for caregivers to answer. In the event of the death or divorce of the parents, caregivers often opt to lie to preserve their emotions. Children can display their emotions of loss more intermittently. For instance, it is not shocking to see a child laughing and playing immediately after loss. Like adults, children will experience grief. However, the feelings are sudden, intense, painful, and can appear out of nowhere.
After a traumatic experience or loss, children realize that they need to move on with their lives. This stage is called reconciliation, and it is critical to help a child get through trauma and grief. According to childhood bereavement experts (Wolfelt, 1996; Worden, 1996), there are certain requirements for the success of the reconciliation process (Mannarino & Cohen, 2009). Children need to accept the reality of loss, allowing themselves to fully experience the emotions of loss, adjusting to the environment after loss, finding meaning in the loss, and finding guidance from an adult and nurturance. These processes challenge children to tolerate sustained thoughts of their loss, requiring the children to bear the pain associated with the loss. However, children that have grief find it hard to complete the process of reconciliation. This is because the constant reminder of a dead loved one serves as a reminder for trauma, which serves as a subsequent catalyst to the development of traumatic symptoms.
CTG is a condition that affects children where the loss happens under traumatic circumstances, consequently impinging on the child's ability to progress. The children are in shock and get stuck on the traumatic experience of the death of their loved one or witnessed domestic abuse. Even when they try to remember happy thoughts on their situation, their minds wander into the horrific manner of the circumstance they or their loved one had to endure. Consequently, children detach themselves from any form of memory that acts as a reminder and triggers the painful trauma memories.
Many childhood traumas and grief do not need any death to occur to impact children severely. Sexual and physical abuse, domestic violence, divorce, or loss of a sibling can be responsible for severe PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and difficulty in behavior formation (Paris, Carter, Day, & Armsworth, 2014). However, being stuck in the traumatic aspects of death is the main contributing factor to CTG. As a result, PTSD symptoms are more severe in CTG, where the child avoids reminders of the trauma and hyperarousal manifested through angry outbursts or hypervigilance (Mannarino & Cohen, 2009). Children can report the recurrence of upsetting and invasive dreams of the traumatic event of death.
Consequently, they are filled with intense anxiety that the traumatic event is likely to happen again, and this time, they might be the victim. This is because children have a more intense way of physiological reactivity to respond to traumatic activities. When the feelings become overwhelming, avoidance or numbing symptoms start to appear, including avoiding thoughts, conversations, situations, or places that remind them of the trauma.
Children that suffer from CTG develop some degree of functional impairment. Symptoms include a decline in academic performance, failure to keep up with peers or sibling...