Have you ever heard of the term…

“You are where you’re supposed to be”?

Serendipity, many people think that serendipity is a happy accident, coincidence, good fortune. Serendipity means looking at what others see as a problem and seeing instead an opportunity, so much so Finland is redesigning its education system. In some circles, it is said that serendipity is a state of mind, the law of attraction.

For years I did not know what that meant. Coming from a childhood of disconnection through trauma, for decades I was and on occasion still am extremely confused. All human beings are responsible for their thoughts, deeds, actions, and behaviours, in all conditions they are exposed to. All of these are direct choices that are made by each person in the moment that will have direct consequences that impact them and the people around them. This can be very difficult when you are unable to understand the direct causality or process of doing so.

What could cause such a catastrophic reaction?

Infant Separation

Infant separation is one of the most dangerous and harmful experiences a child could face because not only have they experienced something traumatic, the loss of their parent, but also do not have the safety, love, connection, and regulation of the attachment relationship to heal and integrate the traumatic experience. From conception the diad of a mother and child is biologically, intrinsically and spiritually connected at a level we are yet to fully understand. Love is NOT enough and therefore nature wins over nature every time.

Adoption is like being hit over the head really really really hard and then being emotionally concussed for life.

Research indicates that infant separation impacts babies developing brain in many ways.  The brain adapts to this constant fear and focuses strictly on survival.  Subsequently, the brain overly develops the systems and pathways that anticipate and respond to that specific threat and creates an extremely adverse template that affects all future development.  The limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus), midbrain, and brainstem, which play key roles in regulating our responses to a potential threat, fear, show increased sensitivity.  Additionally, the cortex and frontal lobes have reduced functioning, which are structures connected to problem-solving, planning, and learning.

Some circumstances transpire that are out of your control, for me it was Forced Adoption, in the United States, this was known as the Baby Scoop Era. A practice that was rooted in coercion. The purpose of coercion is to substitute one’s aims for those of the victim. For this reason, many social philosophers have considered coercion as the polar opposite of freedom. I now know this as a manifestation of C-PTSD, PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Future learning and issues

I believe the “manifestation of c-ptsd”  and other psychosocial disabilities come from not only unforeseeable instances but also from the way we intentionally treat others.

Past experiences of trauma are common for people with psychosocial disabilities or issues. It is important to be sensitive to the possible impacts of trauma, which may be lifelong when providing support.

A psychosocial disability may restrict a person’s ability to:

• be in certain types of environments
• concentrate
• have enough stamina to complete tasks
• cope with time pressures and multiple tasks
• interact with others
• understand constructive feedback
• manage stress.

Not everyone who lives with a mental health condition has a psychosocial disability. Many people do not realise that their experience of life could be called psychosocial disability. Other people do not like the term and prefer not to use it.

Saying that you have a psychosocial disability does not change who you are, your experiences, or your ability to live a meaningful and contributing life.

The trick here is knowing who you are, as an adoptee a poor sense of identity and lack of a “normal”  baseline clouds the way to recovery and healing. This is extremely poignant to the lived experience of adoption. Adoption has a narrative based in altruism, so you may ask why is this bad?

In my experience as an adoptee, the fairytale adoption narrative is not based on fact and adoption is not always rainbows and unicorns.

The difference between unconditional love & altruism

Unconditional Love

Unconditional love is known as affection without any limitations, or love without conditions. This term is sometimes associated with other terms such as true altruism or complete love. Each area of expertise has a certain way of describing unconditional love, but most will agree that it is that type of love that has no bounds and is unchanging. With unconditional love, you are not thinking of yourself, you are putting yourself completely and utterly at service to another.

But here is the problem

Altruism

In regards to universal consciousness or group consciousness, it is widely expected that all things are made of intelligent energy and are a part of “The One”. Therefore there is no such thing as altruism in the universe. Let me explain. Altruism implies separation. It implies self versus other. Thus, altruism can only exist in an atmosphere of separation. Altruism is a mutually beneficial experience and therefore it is conditional love due to unconscious conditions are being met or imposed. When someone is being altruistic, they’re trying to create a mutually beneficial arrangement or transaction without your knowledge.

This brings us to:

Grooming & Coercion

Grooming is a predatory act of maneuvering another individual into a position that makes them more isolated, dependent attempting to build their trust in a deceptive way, making them more vulnerable to abusive behaviour.

Alleged abusers or offenders use a variety of strategies to access and entrap young people. These strategies can be sophisticated and deliberately target young people’s inexperience, need for belonging, and desire to be seen as adults. As with all manipulative and coercive behaviours, the key is to be aware of common strategies and notice them.

So where does this leave us?

Combatting “Social Reappropriation”

Some say adoption is a lifelong intergenerational process that unites the triad of birth families, adoptees, and adoptive families forever. Recognising the core issues in adoption is one intervention that can assist triad members and professionals working in adoption to better understand each other and the residual effect of the adoption experience. 

Adoption triggers seven lifelong or core issues for all triad members to process, regardless of the circumstances of the adoption, or the characteristics of the participants (Silverstein and Kaplan, 1982):

1. Loss
2. Rejection
3. Guilt and shame
4. Grief
5. Identity
6. Intimacy
7. Mastery/control

Before healing, there must be understanding. Only by understanding that healing comes from an unknown place deep within we can start a dialogue with our inner child, reparent ourselves as the parent we needed – ultimately,  re-rooting ourselves! To some, this may be known as going through the dark night of the soul.

How do you acquire serendipity?

Through Linguistic Reclamation and Acceptance

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The 6 steps in the “Hierarchy of Needs” are as follows;

1. Biological and Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Love and belongingness needs
4. Esteem needs
5. Self-Actualisation needs
6. Self Transcendence

More about this here

You must realize that adoptees have endured a catastrophic setback even before the first step of the hierarchy begins. This step precedes the current 6, reforming the hierarchy for adoptees into now (seven) steps.

The goal of spiritual development is to be fully present and aware of emotional states and to choose the emotional states one expresses, instead of being at the whim of the undisciplined emotional states generating from the Pain Body.

Infertility Spawns Futility.

Adoption is born of futility.

Esoterically speaking, adoption is a gateway to ascension without the key. The path to healing is accepting the futility that the trauma of adoption cannot be healed. Only then you can attempt to put yourself back together.

You have to understand that this is an extremely hard thing to do when nobody seems to understand or care. But then again, I’m not doing this for someone else, I’m doing this for me!

I intend to bring my inner child and all of their painful wounds and experiences back into union. I intend to integrate all these parts now. I am so loved. I am so honoured, it is done.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Shane Bouel

Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Adoptee, Friend, Colleague, Mentor, Former Lecturer, Multimedia & Web Designer, Artist, Former Art Director, Human Rights Activist. Dedicated to lifting standards of ethics & morality by promoting truth and denouncing the Conservancy of inhumane ideologies.

Throughout my personal life and career, I have created, fostered and maintained strong meaningful relationships. Including Former students and fellow adoptees.

I’m a qualified multimedia lecturer with over 20 years of experience with a vision for colour therapy, energy healing and natural therapies.  Facilitating intuition, idea generation via a range of creative conceptualisation, and brainstorming techniques to ensure strong and effective solutions.

I’m currently a committee member of Adoptee Rights Australia inc. which has established itself as the peak body to advocate for reform in adoption legislation, policy and services in all Government jurisdictions in Australia because the human rights and well-being of adopted persons should be restored, protected and promoted. Most importantly Adoptee Rights Australia seeks to raise public awareness of, and support for, reform of adoption legislation, policy, and services across Australia.

After all…

“We’re all just walking each other home.” – Ram Dass

bouel.com.au/

Review of Trauma Exposure

As a review of the topics we touched on in the last two articles, we know that many of the approximately 400,000 young people in foster care have experienced traumatic events in their lives, due to exposure to abuse, neglect, and being placed in foster care.

We also know that when a child experiences stress, the body’s stress responses are activated, and it produces physiological changes in the body and the brain.  Complex trauma exposure, which involves multiple occurrences of child maltreatment, can cause emotional dysregulation, loss of safety, and the ability to detect or respond to stimulating events appropriately.  Young people might experience intense anger, fear, shame, or helplessness related to complex trauma exposure.

The effects of repeated trauma are cumulative, and young people generally respond to complex trauma in a variety of ways. Youth exposed to complex trauma are at a greater risk of developing symptoms of CPTSD.

We also discussed in a prior post the increased risk of youth who age out of foster care experiencing homelessness, as they are unprepared to navigate the transition to independence.  Youth who are transitioning from foster care to independence may not have reliable social, education, financial, employment, or housing opportunities.  Studies conducted with youth aging out of the foster care system have indicated that over 25% of youth spend their first night out of the system in a shelter or on the street (Winiarksi, Glover, Bounds, & Karnik, 2019).

What if we intervened with a trauma-informed approach to care for these vulnerable youth before they age out and become homeless?  Trauma-informed services can enable young people to move from exhibiting behaviors that are largely the result of unconscious responses to complex trauma to healing and growth that frees them to learn, develop and build positive relationships.

Supportive Practices

It is critical that young people in foster care are exposed to adults who understand trauma and behavioral reactions that are related to trauma.  Young people need adults who can help them make sense of their trauma experiences, and when caregivers, physicians, educators, and child welfare staff lack sufficient understanding of trauma and its effects on development, they are less able to provide the environments young people need to heal and reach their full developmental potential.

Trauma-informed approaches offer frameworks that are grounded in an understanding of trauma, delivering services and creating opportunities for young people to rebuild their lives successfully.  Such an approach is needed to help young people heal, build resiliency, and adopt appropriate behaviors.

Trauma-informed care is having an understanding of how trauma exposure can impact the brain, impact behaviors, and impact relationships, and being able to support young people in their growth and healing.

Six Elements of Trauma-Informed Support

Trauma-informed care successfully addresses the trauma-based needs of young people in foster care, and it contains the following elements:

1. An understanding of trauma and an appreciation of is prevalence among young people in foster care and its common consequences. With this understanding, adults can recognize that a young person’s behavior is often the result of trauma experiences, and it prompts us to question “what happened to them?” rather than “what is wrong with them?”  Young people want to be heard by people who understand what they’ve gone through.  Fully integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, and help others on your team better understand the impact of trauma on young people.
2. Creating a sense of trust and safety. When young people have experienced complex trauma, they may continue to experience physical and/or emotional insecurity.  A sense of safety is critical for growth and healthy functioning.  Young people may need you to create a calm, comfortable, and confidential environment.  This might mean giving young adults emotional space when they need it.  For example, if they are working in groups on a classroom project, educators can allow them to leave the group they’re working with and sit elsewhere to finish a task if they need space.
3. Give young people a sense of control of their environment. This means that, as much as possible, and within reason, give young adults choices, such as asking them where they’d like to sit in the classroom, or where they’d like to complete their assignment.  It can mean asking them if they’d prefer spaghetti or pizza for dinner, or if they’d rather go to a baseball game or to the movies on Saturday.
4. Celebrate strengths. Ensure the support we provide recognizes and celebrates young people’s strengths and assets, and offer consistent, positive encouragement if they experience setbacks.  Avoid harsh criticism or punishment when correcting negative behavior.  Recognize individual strengths, build on them, validate them, and build on them to teach new skills.
5. Work to ensure they feel connected. Check-in with young people often to make sure they feel cared for and seen.  Talk to them about anything they might be concerned with, or anything of interest to them, whether it is sports, music, or anything else – talk about things outside of school or any other stressor. This helps build relationships with young people who struggle the most, or who display the most difficult behaviors that test the boundaries.
6. Consider trauma-specific treatments. Skilled clinicians can provide a range of treatments or interventions that are helpful to young people who have experienced multiple traumas.  Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) is one research-based approach to therapy that is known to be helpful to young people who have significant behavioral or emotional problems related to traumatic life events.  Trauma Systems Therapy is another model used in clinical settings that identify trauma in youth and helps create a community surrounding the child for continued treatment and support.  Emotion regulation therapies, parent-child, and family systems therapies, and peer-to-peer support programs offer additional alternatives.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of trauma-informed practices to support youth who are in the foster care system.  The elements above serve a starting point for practitioners, educators, caregivers, and other concerned adults to begin their exploration into strategies that offer support for healing and growth for the young people in their care.

In a trauma-informed system, caregivers play a central role in recovery, they help give youth the tools to manage stress and their behavioral responses, and they help promote youth’s natural resiliency.  A trauma-informed system responds to the varying impacts of trauma on youth, and takes this awareness about trauma and uses it in everyday practice.

When armed with the right supports and services, young people can heal, grow, and become healthy, functioning, contributors to society.  Believe that when young people in foster care are engaged with respect, understanding, and that, despite the adversities they’ve faced, all youth can succeed.  Won’t you help them realize their potential?

References

Winiarksi, D. A., Glover, A. C., Bounds, D. T., & Karnik, N S.  (2019).  Addressing intersecting social and mental health needs among transition-aged homeless youth.  National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.  Retrieved from https://www.nasmhpd.org/sites/default/files/TAC_Paper_10_508C.pdf

Dr. Robin LaBarbera

Dr. LaBarbera is an expert on childhood trauma and adversity. Her background as a survivor of at least eight adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) gives her extensive personal insights into a child’s experiences and the resilience and protective factors that can serve as buffers against the effects of ACEs.

Dr. LaBarbera is a professor, researcher, author, speaker, and passionate advocate for youth who’ve experienced trauma. She has a Ph.D. in Education, two Master’s Degrees (Special Education and Educational Studies), and two Bachelor’s Degrees (Business and Criminal Justice). She is a candidate for her second doctorate in Social Work.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys cycling, running, and weightlifting, and most of all, spending time with her husband and their two grandchildren.

Complex Trauma in Foster Care

In our last post, we discussed the trauma many foster youths experience before entering the child welfare system and during their time in foster care.  Many times, youth enter the child welfare system because they had been abused or neglected and having been removed from their homes represents additional trauma.  During their time in foster care, children may move repeatedly, or they may experience continue abuse and neglect at the hands of their foster parents.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR) reported that foster care is generally unsafe for children.  In their 2015 issue paper, the NCCPR cited findings from several studies demonstrating that cases of sexual abuse in foster care were more than four times higher than the rate in the general population, and in group homes, there was more than ten times the rate of physical abuse and more than 28 times the rate of sexual abuse as in the general population.  One-third of foster children reported being abused by a foster parent, according to the NCCPR paper.

Greeson et al. (2011) reported similar results in their investigation.  Many children in the child welfare system have histories of recurrent trauma perpetrated by caregivers.  The researchers examined the trauma histories of over 2,000 youth in foster care.  Neglect, exposure to domestic violence, emotional and physical abuse, sexual assault, and community violence were the most prevalent forms of trauma exposure among youth in foster care placements (Greeson et al., 2011).

One can find numerous additional studies that reflect similar findings.  Complex trauma, a term used to describe repeated interpersonal traumas by caregivers early in life, occurs all too often in the foster care system.  It should come as no surprise that children in foster care have a high prevalence of mental health, behavioral, emotional problems, and posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of complex trauma experiences.

Consequences of Complex Trauma

The majority of children entering foster care have experienced multiple trauma, placing them at increased risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems. Community issues such as poverty, crime, mental health problems, and addiction often stem from unaddressed childhood trauma (Beyerlein & Bloch, 2014).

Common reactions among youth in response to traumatic events usually include intense emotional, psychological, and somatic complaints.  Children might show a consistent sense of fear, helplessness, sadness, inability to sleep, nightmares, bed-wetting, hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating, racing heart, dizziness, and stomach aches (Beyerlein & Bloch, 2014).  Ongoing toxic stress can result in impairments in cognition, learning and memory, behavior changes, difficulty with emotional regulation, health conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and COPD, and depression and suicidality, among other adverse outcomes (Forkey, Morgan, Schwartz, & Sagor, 2015).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be seen in children exposed to complex trauma, and they can demonstrate symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, mood disorder, anxiety, substance abuse, acute stress disorder, attachment difficulties, and general behavior problems (Forkey et al., 2015).

Homelessness

Without emotional supports in place to help youth in foster care cope with complex trauma during the developmentally precarious period leading up to their transition to adulthood, youth who “age out” of foster care are at risk of experiencing homelessness.  At the age of 18, youth are required to exit the foster care system.  This means they have to learn to meet their own needs, which are no longer met by the state.  They must identify and maintain housing, find a job, and manage their finances – and in situations where there was abuse or neglect in their foster placement, these youth vulnerable to homelessness (Fowler, Marcal, Zhang, Day, & Landserk, 2017).

Did you know that having more than one foster care placement increases a youth’s likelihood of experiencing homelessness by 1.5 times? Or that of the approximately 400,000 youth currently in foster care in the United States, approximately 20,000 of those youth, age out each year without familial support or any family connection?  Or that within 18 months of emancipation (aging out), almost 50% become homeless?  Researchers have surveyed individuals who are homeless and have found that nearly 50% of the homeless population spent time in foster care.

Multiple experiences of trauma prior to entering the foster care system, combined with being placed in homes with complete strangers that are sometimes just as dysfunctional as the homes they were removed from, moving from home to home, foster family to foster family…  Add in resulting behavioral or mental health issues that stem from complex trauma exposure, with little training in how to cope with the trauma, and you have a recipe for disaster.  Take a youth with very few life skills needed to navigate adulthood – like, finding and maintaining a home, finding and maintaining a job – and with no supportive networks, the result is homelessness.

Change Their Stories

Youth aging out of foster care are at high risk for becoming homeless during the transition to adulthood.  Having a history of abuse and having symptoms of a mental health disorder are associated with an increased risk of becoming homeless.  Changes in policies and practices are needed to reduce the risk that youths in foster care will become homeless after aging out.

Countless research articles indicate that foster youth tend to fare poorly in a number of domains in the transition to adulthood and that the shift to independent living may be particularly challenging.  Foster youth struggle in the transition to independent living, showing higher rates of homelessness, less housing stability, poor neighborhood quality, and more reliance on public housing assistance (Berzin, Rhodes, & Curtis, 2011).

Remember Angelina from the previous post in this series?  When she turned 18, after several years in foster care, her social work caseworker picked her up, gave her the CPS file and her clothes, and dropped her off at a shelter.  Just like that, she’d aged out of foster care and had no place to call home.  Foster care left her with no life skills, no job, no high school diploma, no family connections.  She had no idea what to do in the real world, alone.

Child welfare agencies need to be doing something differently to help youth build skills while they are in foster care.  We must provide resources to prepare youth who are aging out.  We must do more to ensure that all young people who have spent time in foster care have the support necessary to find a safe place to call home.

The journey from foster care directly to homelessness should be a road our foster youth no longer have to travel.

Implications for service providers and other adults who care for youth in foster care will be discussed in the next article in this series.

References

Berzin, S. C., Rhodes, A. M., & Curtis, M.A.  (2011).  Housing experiences of former forester youth: How do they fare in comparison to other youth?  Children and Youth Services Review, 33(11), 2119-2126.

Beyerlein, B., & Bloch, E.  (2014).  Need for trauma-informed care within the foster care system: A policy issue.  Child Welfare, 93(3), 7-21.

Forkey, H. C., Morgan, W., Schwartz, K., Sagor, L.  (2016).  Outpatient clinic identification of trauma symptoms in children in foster care.  Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 1480-1487.

Fowler, P. J., Marcal, K. E., Zhang, J., Day, O., & Landsverk, J.  (2017).  Homelessness and aging out of foster care: A national comparison of child welfare-involved adolescents.  Child and Youth Services Review, 77, 27-33.

Greeson, J. K. P., Briggs, E. C., Kisiel, C. L., Layne, C. M., Ake, G. S., III, Ko, S. J., …Fairbank, J. A. (2011). Complex trauma and mental health in children and adolescents placed in foster care: findings from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Child Welfare, 90(6), 91-108.

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.  (2015).  Foster care vs. family preservation: The track record on safety and well-being.  Issue Paper 1.  Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B291mw_hLAJsV1NUVGRVUmdyb28/view

Dr. Robin LaBarbera

Dr. LaBarbera is an expert on childhood trauma and adversity. Her background as a survivor of at least eight adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) gives her extensive personal insights into a child’s experiences and the resilience and protective factors that can serve as buffers against the effects of ACEs.

Dr. LaBarbera is a professor, researcher, author, speaker, and passionate advocate for youth who’ve experienced trauma. She has a Ph.D. in Education, two Master’s Degrees (Special Education and Educational Studies), and two Bachelor’s Degrees (Business and Criminal Justice). She is a candidate for her second doctorate in Social Work.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys cycling, running, and weightlifting, and most of all, spending time with her husband and their two grandchildren.

Foster Care and Trauma

A study from Harvard Medical School, the University of Michigan, and Casey Family Programs surveyed 659 adults who were formerly placed in foster care.  Many of those studied said they entered foster care because they had been abused or neglected, more than half reported clinical levels of mental illness, and research tells us that 30% of youth in foster care will experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which is twice the rate of U.S. war veterans (Salazar, Keller, Gowen, & Courtney, 2013).

Foster children, already traumatized by living with abusive or neglectful parents, have been removed from their homes, causing additional trauma.  During foster care, they often move repeatedly, which further traumatizes them.  The reality of so many moves makes it difficult for them emotionally and psychologically.

All children in foster care have been exposed to some form of trauma simply by being put in foster care, because it means the loss of their birth family, and sometimes friends, schoolmates, teachers, and everything that is familiar. Many have experienced more than one form of trauma, or they’ve experienced ongoing trauma, the lasting effects of which should be acknowledged and understood by adults who care for or work with current or former foster youth.

Angelina’s Story

Angelina is a former foster youth who has endured a great deal of trauma in her life – more than most.  Her mother had a mental illness, and when Angelina was just five years old, her mother – who had been severely abused over a two-year period by her second husband – shot her husband just outside Angelina’s bedroom window one night after a heated argument.

That night, Angelina saw her mother arrested and her stepfather wheeled away in an ambulance – events which marked Angelina’s entry into the foster care system.  During her foster care years, she lived in 6 different placements, one with an alcoholic family, one in a home that was destroyed by a tornado, one where she endured abuse, and in all of the placements, she experienced neglect.

Some children, like Angelina, have had experiences so terrifying that thoughts of the experiences play again and again in their minds, and these memories can trigger mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Untreated PTSD can put youth at risk for school difficulties, attachment problems, additional psychological disorders, and substance abuse.

Angelina’s story is not typical – very few of the youth in foster care experience the number of traumatic events that Angelina reported. However, we do know that youth in foster care are significantly more likely to have experienced violence, such as abuse or neglect.  It is estimated that approximately 90% of children in foster care have experienced at least one traumatic event, and nearly half report exposure to four or more traumatic events (Fratto, 2016).

How Does Trauma Impact Children?

Traumatic events have a profound impact on young children.  Trauma can cause a detrimental impact on children’s brains, behavior, and ways of thinking.  Ongoing trauma disrupts children’s sense of security, safety, and sense of self, and it alters the way they see and respond to people and situations in their lives.

When traumatic events happen during critical periods of a child’s development, “the very core of the person’s being is altered” (Shore, 2019, para 6).  Think about Angelina, who experienced multiple forms of trauma, from abuse and neglect to her mother’s mental illness, to witnessing domestic violence, to years of foster care and frequent moves.  From an early age, Angelina’s sense of the world and herself was turned upside down by those terrifying experiences.

For many children like Angelina, they develop feelings of fear, distrust, shame, and defeat that shapes their self-concept (Shore, 2019).  They may anticipate and expect trauma to reoccur, and they may organize their relationships around the fear of abandonment or victimization.

Research indicates that experiences of trauma in childhood have particularly adverse effects on adolescent self-esteem, school performance, critical thinking, self-regulation, and self-motivation (Fratto, 2016).

Children who have experienced repeated or ongoing trauma may have developed unhealthy habits and behaviors, including increased aggression and disobedience.  Maltreatment changes the structure and chemical activity of the brain, resulting in difficulties in emotional and behavioral functioning (Understanding trauma, n.d.).  When trauma exposure is ongoing, or long-term, sometimes youth develop complex post-traumatic disorder.

PTSD and C-PTSD

Most of us are familiar with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health condition that is triggered by exposure to or witnessing a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, war or combat, or rape or other violent personal assault.  Those who suffer from PTSD might have distressing memories of the traumatic event, they might relive the traumatic event as it if were happening again and again, or they might have upsetting dreams or nightmares about the event.

Those who suffer from PTSD may avoid places, activities, or people that remind them of the traumatic event; they may have negative thoughts about themselves or others, feel detached from family or friends, or feel emotionally numb; and they might always be on guard for danger, be easily startled, have trouble sleeping, have angry outbursts or aggressive behavior, engage in self-destructive behavior such as alcohol or drug abuse, or have suicidal thoughts.

Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), while it may have the same symptomatic behaviors as PTSD, stems from chronic, long-term exposure to traumatic events – things like repeated exposure to domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, living in crisis conditions/a war zone, or human trafficking, for example, and it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood.  Ongoing or long-term exposure to traumatic events in childhood can interrupt the entire course of a child’s psychological and neurological development.

There has been a significant amount of research conducted to find out how C-PTSD affects foster children and the problems it creates.  And with each new study, the need for more support for foster children who suffer from the disorder is bolstered.

“We are a society filled with individuals who have been altered negatively by our childhood experiences” (Shore, 2019, para 10).  The negative outcomes that stem from childhood abuse, neglect, and foster care, such as the development of C-PTSD, present a call to action for concerned adults.

Further details about how C-PTSD impacts foster children will be discussed in part two of this series and implications for social workers and other adults who work with foster youth (with a particular focus on trauma-informed care) will be discussed in part three.

Change Their Tomorrows

My mission is to provide support, training, and advocacy for those who have experienced trauma.  I’m a firm believer that positive interactions children experienced with adults over the course of time can leave lasting impressions and can truly transform lives.  If you, too, are passionate about transforming the lives of those who reside in foster care or are former foster youth, or those who’ve experienced adversity of any kind, then read on…

References

Fratto, C. M.  (2016).  Trauma-informed care for youth in foster care.  Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 30(3), 439-446.

Salazar, A. M., Keller, T. E., Gowen, L. K., & Courtney, M. E.  (2013).  Trauma exposure and PTSD among older adolescents.  Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 48, 545-551. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0563-0

Shore, J.  (2019, April 2).  The kids are not all right: How trauma affects development.  Focus of health.  Retrieved from https://www.focusforhealth.org/kids-are-not-alright-how-trauma-affects-development/

Understanding trauma.  (n.d.).  Retrieved from https://www.adoptuskids.org/meet-the-children/children-in-foster-care/about-the-children/understanding-trauma

Dr. Robin LaBarbera

Dr. LaBarbera is an expert on childhood trauma and adversity. Her background as a survivor of at least eight adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) gives her extensive personal insights into a child’s experiences and the resilience and protective factors that can serve as buffers against the effects of ACEs.

Dr. LaBarbera is a professor, researcher, author, speaker, and passionate advocate for youth who’ve experienced trauma. She has a Ph.D. in Education, two Master’s Degrees (Special Education and Educational Studies), and two Bachelor’s Degrees (Business and Criminal Justice). She is a candidate for her second doctorate in Social Work.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys cycling, running, and weightlifting, and most of all, spending time with her husband and their two grandchildren.