How to protect your child against adversity using PACE methods


Adversity, such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, has harmed children. Yet protective experiences can strengthen resilience against adversity and promote positive progress.

We know of 10 relationships and backgrounds that have been proven to counteract the impact of a bad experience. They have a hidden magic that can transform a miserable childhood. Maybe a child is abused and has an alcoholic or distressed parent – or both. On the street lived a grandmother who provided a safe harbor. Perhaps a caring teacher or a warm -up coach is carrying the child under his or her wing. These are just a few of the many protective antidotes that can reduce the toxin of a bad experience. They explain that a child’s outcome can be much better than expected in the face of a difficult situation.

This list of PACEs – Protective and Compensatory Experiences – is based on more than common sense. The impact of such experiences is often identified through changes in the brain and behaviors. For example, experiments in rats graphically demonstrated what can happen if a PACE repairs some of the injuries caused by bad early experience.

PACEs and genetic modification

A new rat was placed after she gave birth in an unfamiliar environment with insufficient bedding that could often be abusive to her puppies. She may step on her baby, and stop licking or licking them because she is stressed. These puppies grow up and behave in a sad way, and are even more aggressive and unable to continue caring for their own puppies. However, if puppies are raised by unweighted, foster mothers, at a later time, the epigenetic changes driving their abusive behavior may be reversed.

“When children experience multiple forms of adversity, the effects are magnified. Multiple protective experiences can also have a cumulative effect.”

We do not yet have data for humans on the epigenetic effect of transition from a bad to a protective experience. However, infants raised initially in Romanian orphans who were later cared for in nursing homes showed developmental benefits that likely reflected the neurobiological improvements seen in the mice.

Our colleague, David Bard, professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, demonstrates how positive parenting practices in thousands of families in the United States have empowered children against the effects of adversity. Activities such as children’s reading; making sure they have routines; and brought them to shops, museums, and playgrounds associated with better preschool learning and fewer school behavior problems than expected.

Top 10 protection and compensation experience

From the research evidence, we compiled a list of the top 10 different relationships and backgrounds that provide PACEs that strengthen children against adversity. This is discussed in more detail in our new book, Adverse and Protective Child Experiences: A Perspective to Improve.

  1. Receiving unconditional love: Not only do children need to be nurtured and loved, that love needs to feel unconditional. This does not mean that children should never get upset or that parents should never get angry. The important point is that no matter what a child does, the parent stays on the child’s side. As an infant, it means that when you cry, you receive an answer; your parents spoke to you eye to eye and loved you; and they will sing, play, and talk to you. As a child, you can trust your parent’s eyes to light up as you walk around the room; mom or dad is always behind you. And when you’re older, it means your parents set limits and explain how to do things. There are many ways to express unconditional love.
  2. Has a close friend: Close friendships offer protection from peer rejection, bullying, and victimization. This happens not only because a child has someone to talk to, but because it helps the child learn how to deal with conflict and grow a relationship over time. Kids have a sense of importance and they have something to go with.
  3. Community volunteering: Volunteering helps children learn about the needs of others and gives them the opportunity to see the world without their own. If they know that help is not done out of compassion, they are allowed to receive help from others when they need it.
  4. Join a group: Being a group gives children a sense of belonging outside the family. It allows children and teens to learn about themselves in a variety of contexts, and provides opportunities for friendship and leadership. Participation in school and sport clubs was associated with academic success, psychological well-being, and a much lower rate of drug abuse.
  5. There is a teacher: Having an adult with a parent who can be trusted and relied upon for help and advice can help protect against psychological distress and academic difficulties, and reduce the incidence of risky activities. danger. Even if the children have exemplary parents, an adult outside the home can be a role model where children can crave and be a reminder that someone else loves them.
  6. Living in a clean, safe home with enough food: These basic needs are important. Good, regular nutrition is essential for brain development and protection against health problems; regularly eating dinner with your family will reduce the risk of weight problems. Chaotic, unpredictable home environments are associated with violent and unequal parenting. Children living in dirty, cluttered homes have far worse consequences than those living in clean, organized homes.
  7. Getting an education: Like living in a clean, safe home, the opportunity to learn and be educated in an environment with boundaries and rules will protect children from danger. High-quality early childhood programs make a lasting difference in outcomes for children from low-income families.
  8. There is a hobby: Whether it’s playing an instrument, dancing, doing judo, reading, or playing chess, any recreational activity can help teach self-discipline and self-control, and give children and youth a boost. habit and sense of skill, competence, and self -esteem.
  9. Participate in physical activity: Being physically active helps children control the effects of physiological stress on the body, and improves health and mental health. In doing so, it reduces the likelihood that children will grab a bag of chips or lash out to relieve stress.
  10. There are rules and customs: Security comes when children know what to expect and when caregivers will enforce clear rules and limits. Children cannot be parents on their own; They need high expectations, persistence, and parental involvement. In early childhood, this means that parents need to gather and enforce bedtime and other habits, redirect children if they are not behaving well, and as children grow older, explain the effects. in their behavior to others.

Photo: Anna Earl. release

We know that when children experience multiple forms of adversity, the effects are magnified. Likewise, many protective experiences can have a cumulative effect for children, even if the power of this accumulation requires further study.

PACEs matter for all children

Bad experiences can happen anywhere to anyone – the rich as well as the poor. All children should have access to experiences that strengthen and protect them. Children from more affluent families who face adverse experiences, such as family breakup, mental illness, and drug abuse, are more likely to experience reimbursement. These can be opportunities to join clubs, have teachers, go to drama classes, choose to play an instrument, and have teachers and coaches who really care about them.

“On the street lives a grandmother who provides a safe harbor. Perhaps a anxious teacher or warm-up coach is carrying a child under her wing. These are just a few of the many antidote protections that can reduce poison of not bad experiences. ”

In contrast, children in families living in neighborhoods with high crime rates and the poorest may lack access to protection experiences because their families lack money or time. These children face a double risk – more difficulty and less protective protection. Their difficulties have increased in recent decades because many PACE resources, such as sports and youth activities, are becoming more expensive.

The COVID-19 study emphasizes how single parents are as they try to help their children access PACEs. Parents find it difficult to support their children’s intelligence at home, struggling to be isolated; lack of routine; insufficient opportunities for exercise and recreation; and in some cases, lack of enough food to keep children healthy.

The pandemic reminds us that improving childhood development is more than avoiding adversity. We need to think more about how to ensure that children have the good things in life so that they are not overwhelmed by what can be bad.

Header image: Anna Samoylova. release





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