Sharing – Unpredictable home lives are linked to children’s mental health problems, beyond abuse and neglect

This is interesting and follows from some of the other posts I’ve been writing about here:

Standard screens for childhood adversity ask about abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. A study of nearly 30,000 children found that also asking about unpredictability at home identified some kids at risk for depression whom the standard screen missed.

Unpredictable home lives are linked to children’s mental health problems, beyond abuse and neglect

As the article makes clear, ACE scores can be a decent measure, most of the time, of the risk of mental health issues related to childhood trauma. This study shows it’s not just the identified trauma; it’s the underlying instability. It’s the childhood with parents working two jobs and no set schedule, food insecurity, being forced to move around a lot, etc.

Essentially, the kind of things that kids growing up in poverty have to deal with, or kids in foster care, etc. It also shows that we aren’t providing the support they need as kids, and these issues can worsen into adulthood. Maybe studies like this can help provoke a change.