BLAIR HOPKINS
All in a Day’s (Sex) Work and SWOP behind Bars*
The Correlation between Intergenerational Poverty and Intergenerational Trauma by Laura Lemoon ACES is also known as Adverse Childhood Experiences, a term created by the CDC in Partnership with Kaiser Permanente. The groundbreaking study found that children who experience trauma have more negative health outcomes as an adult. A study by the National Institutes of Health also found that brain development of children can be negatively impacted from growing up in poverty. This is due to factors such as exposure to greater levels of stress, cold or lack of proper heating, and high-fat diets. Intergenerational poverty has a very strong relationship to intergenerational trauma. The nature of poverty has the potential to facilitate the propensity for trauma. An example would be a teenager whose parents are rarely home because they have to work so much that the child ends up getting into trouble and going to jail. A second example is the mom who can’t participate fully in parenting her child because unemployment and a limited income has meant she can no longer access her mental health care, which leaves her unable to function. There are many more examples of how interrelated poverty and trauma are correlated.
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