childhood adversity
Youth's difficult experiences
Childhood adversity refers to difficult, harmful, or traumatic experiences during the early years of life—abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, poverty, or exposure to violence.
The term appears frequently in psychology and public health research examining how early hardship affects later development: Childhood adversity is linked to increased risk of depression and chronic disease.
The plural form encompasses specific categories of harmful experience.
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- therapyCurative mental treatment
- school counselorStudent mental health support staff
- safe havenProtected place of shelter
- traumaLasting psychological wound
poverty · homelessness · at-risk youth · anxiety · neglect · food insecurity · discrimination · bullying · community programs · suicidal ideation · chronic illness · PTSD · domestic violence · broken home · emotional dysregulation · attachment disorders · substance dependency · depression
- resilienceresilience, grit, bounce back, bouncing back, robustness
- criminologycrime, criminology, criminal behavior, criminologist, criminalization
- mental health researchprevalence, incidence, risk factors, comorbidity, psychiatric disorders
- despair deathssuicide, drug overdose, alcoholism, heroin overdose, fentanyl overdose
childhood adversitysecure attachment
Reliable caregiver-child emotional bond
childhood, adversity, child, children, childish, childlike, childless, childcare, adverse