Abstract
Trauma can have a huge impact on a person's development, especially children's
development. This paper will show the consequences of trauma on development. This
will show what leads up to the developmental delays in children with trauma. This will
also show how resilience can have an effect on children with trauma. As well as how
spirituality can have an effect on trauma. This paper will look at various studies to
compare different views on the effects of childhood trauma, resilience, and spiritual
development.
Keywords: trauma, development, resilience, spirituality, childhood
Traumas Effect on Development:
Trauma is a lasting emotional response that often results from living through a traumatic
event, this event can harm a person's sense of safety, self, ability to regulate emotions, and the
ability to form relationships. Children who have experienced complex trauma often have
difficulty identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for
feeling states, and they might experience significant depression, anxiety, or anger (Peterson,
2018). Trauma can disrupt development, which can affect children in many ways like their
lifestyles, cognitive functions, emotional states, social abilities, and physical abilities. Research
suggests that traumatic events can result in developmental delays. For children who experience
child abuse or neglect with trauma, their brain development may be interrupted, leading to
functional impairments (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2017). Children with trauma may
additionally show off difficulties in cognitive functioning, difficulties learning new things, and
having a harder time with memory. There can be emotional problems, and behavioral challenges,
which can include anxiety, depression, aggression, and self-regulation troubles.
Developmental Delays From Trauma:
Several factors contribute to the improvement of delays in children with trauma. The
severity and duration of the trauma can affect responses. The more experiences or triggers they
experience it can cause a negative effect on development. It's important for children to have
supportive and nurturing environments. Without stable relationships it can also affect
developmental delays.
Resilience:
Resilience refers to the capability to adapt and recover from adversity, as well as show
early and effective adaptation following potentially traumatic events. It is important to reduce the
amount of stress in your daily life. Research has shown that trauma can allow people to be very
resilient (Bartlett & Steber, 2019). Some children might not be able to cope effectively and
returning to a child’s usual level of functioning is important. So some children may have
problems functioning in certain areas while showing resilience in other areas. It is important after
a trauma to have protective factors, like supportive relationships with caregivers, access to
mental health professionals, and environments, that can help children build up resilience.
Resilient people are much more likely to keep improving their coping abilities, better with
emotional regulation, and able to form healthy relationships.
Spiritual Development as a Protective Factor:
Spirituality means being concerned with self connection rather than material items, and
this can be known to be a protective factor when it comes to trauma. Research has shown that for
trauma survivors, spirituality could be a resource to help build resilience and help with recovery
(Veterans Affairs, 2022). However, for some clients trauma may lead to the questioning of their
beliefs which can lead to a struggle with spirituality or it may even cause a loss of faith.
Engaging in religious practices, can help with clients overall psychological well-being, and
developing coping strategies, which can help with the consequences of trauma.
Substance Abuse:
While some studies show that resilience can be an improvement for trauma, others argue
that resilience could have a negative effect on trauma improvement (Dhungana et al., 2022).
Research has shown that the prevalence of substance use disorders is highest during adolescence
(Cousijn et al., 2018). Some interventions that can help with substance prevention can include
family, school, and community. Substance abuse prevention could also be improved by focusing
on environmental factors, your community, developmental factors, and skill development
(Substance Abuse Prevention, n.d.). Spirituality can help improve coping strategies which can
help improve substance abuse. As well as, the intersection between spirituality, experiences,
substance abuse, and resilience have to be taken under consideration when using religion to help
with trauma healing.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, trauma has an effect on development for children who are exposed to
trauma. Resilience is built through supportive relationships and interventions to help improve the
effects of trauma. Spirituality has shown to help with reliance, substance abuse, and can help
improve the negative effects trauma can have. More research should be done to discover more
ways to help children with trauma, strengthen their resilience, and lower their substance abuse. It
is important to really assist our clients who have childhood traumas because they need all of the
support and resources they can get to help with their development and overall well being.
References:
Bartlett, J. D., & Steber, K. (2019). How to implement trauma-informed care to build resilience
to childhood trauma - child trends. ChildTrends.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/how-to-implement-trauma-informed-care-to-bui
ld-resilience-to-childhood-trauma
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2017). Supporting brain development in traumatized
children and youth. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/braindevtrauma.pdf
Cousijn, J., Luijten, M., & Feldstein Ewing, S. W. (2018). Adolescent resilience to addiction: A
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6373770/
Dhungana, S., Koirala, R., Prasad Ojha, S., & Bahadur Thapa, S. (2022). Resilience and its
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Veterans Affairs. (2022). Spirituality and Trauma: Professionals Working Together.
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/care/spirituality_trauma.asp#:~:text=Research
%20suggests%20that%20for%20many,or%20even%20loss%20of%20faith
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