Adverse Childhood Experience Archives

Illustration of two children standing inside a brain, half representing an enriched environment, the other half representing scarcity

Adverse Childhood Experience

Poverty and the Developing Brain

Evidence continues to mount that the brains of children living in poverty show tangible harm. Our authors explain the challenges and the necessary steps needed to build a healthier society.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Bullying and the Brain

Bullying—mistreating and dominating others—is harmful in the moment and possibly throughout the rest of a person’s life. Get the basics. Here are the basics.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Rethinking Youth Sports

The latest on what we know and don't know about repeated impacts to the head.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Following the Threads: The Link Between Childhood Trauma and Psychosis

“All types of abuse, irrespective of their nature, were associated with a higher risk for psychosis,” says one researcher, and the more types of abuse that a child experiences, the higher the risk.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Pediatricians’ Group Says Spanking is Ineffective, Potentially Harmful

A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics stresses the harmful impact, and ineffectiveness, of spanking children.

teens clinking beer bottles underage drinking

Adverse Childhood Experience

Developing Brains at High Risk from Early Alcohol Use

Because the teenage brain is at a highly vulnerable stage of development, early drinking may set the stage for later alcohol abuse.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Children who lag cognitively after spending time in orphanages can make up the difference by young adulthood, suggest two longitudinal studies, but some behavior and emotional issues remain—or even increase. This suggests that environmental influences might lead to disorders with or without genetic precursors.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Taking a Global Approach to Toxicology

“There is this focus in science on studying one factor at a time, but diseases and disorders—particularly the most intractable ones—don’t arise this way,” says one researcher.

Adverse Childhood Experience

Early Life Experience, Critical Periods, and Brain Development

Report from Neuroscience 2014

Researchers describe links between the presence of a caregiver, the absence of severe prenatal stress, and changes in brain structure and function in childhood and adolescence.