Childhood trauma is a significant risk factor for the development of personality disorders (PDs), with most research focusing on categorical models. A dimensional PD model has been introduced to explore the impact of childhood trauma on neurobiological systems and development. Trauma during development, along with dysregulation of biological stress systems, can adversely impact childhood brain development. One primary way child trauma stunts emotional growth is by disrupting the development of secure attachments and trust.
Cognitive development (CT) can have a significant impact on a child’s brain, leading to delayed or disrupted cognitive development. This article examines the impact of childhood trauma on children’s wellbeing and adult behavior from the perspective of 9 clinical professionals in Ireland. Childhood trauma, especially complex trauma, can cause neurobiological changes that impact human development and cause significant effects. Children who have experienced complex trauma often have difficulty identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for feeling states. They often internalize or externalize stress reactions, leading to significant depression, anxiety, or anger.
Individuals with childhood trauma show much more depression, anxiety, distorted cognition, personality deficits, and lower levels of social skills. Early onset of trauma may result in low self-esteem, leading to depression and anxiety. Sleep disturbance did not appear as a significant factor in the development of PTSD.
Early childhood trauma can have severe impacts even in cases when the traumatized individual does not develop it. For children, early-life traumas can alter their young brains and result in developmental and behavioral problems.
📹 How Childhood Trauma Shapes Your Personality
Have you ever wondered how your childhood trauma shape your personality as you grow up? Trauma can shape the way you …
How does childhood trauma affect personality development?
A child with a complex trauma history may exhibit unpredictable, oppositional, volatile, and extreme behavior due to their struggle with self-regulation and impulse control. They may also be overcontrolled, rigid, and unusually compliant with adults. This can lead to a sense of “spacey” and detachedness, and they may engage in high-risk behaviors such as self-harm, unsafe sexual practices, and excessive risk-taking.
They may also engage in illegal activities, such as alcohol and substance use, assaulting others, stealing, running away, and prostitution, making them more likely to enter the juvenile justice system.
Cognition is another area where children with complex trauma histories may struggle with thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving. They may struggle to plan ahead, anticipate the future, and act accordingly. They may struggle with acquiring new skills or taking in new information, and may show deficits in language development and abstract reasoning skills. Learning difficulties may require support in the academic environment.
Self-concept and future orientation are also affected by a child’s experiences with caregivers, who have the greatest influence on their sense of self-worth and value. Abuse and neglect can make a child feel worthless and despondent, leading to feelings of shame, guilt, low self-esteem, and a poor self-image.
How do traumatized children act as adults?
Stress in an environment can hinder the brain and nervous system’s development, leading to chronic physical complaints in children and adults. Complex trauma histories can result in body dysregulation, where individuals over- or under-react to sensory stimuli, leading to physical problems and risky behaviors. Children with complex trauma may also struggle with identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for feeling states. They may experience depression, anxiety, or anger, with unpredictable or explosive emotional responses.
Emotional responses can be unpredictable or explosive, with children reacting often, powerfully, and having difficulty calming down when upset. Even mildly stressful interactions with others can trigger intense emotional responses. Children often develop a defensive posture in their interactions, viewing situations as stressful or dangerous. This defensive posture is protective when under attack, but becomes problematic in situations that do not warrant such intense reactions. Additionally, many children learn to “tune out” to threats in their environment, making them vulnerable to revictimization.
In summary, stress in an environment can impair the brain and nervous system’s development, leading to chronic physical complaints and risky behaviors. Children with complex trauma histories often struggle with identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, leading to significant depression, anxiety, and anger.
Why is childhood trauma so damaging?
Children with complex trauma histories often struggle with thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving, as their internal resources are primarily focused on survival. They may struggle with acquiring new skills, sustaining attention, and acquiring abstract reasoning skills. Many children with complex trauma have learning difficulties that may require academic support.
Self-concept and future orientation are also affected by trauma, with caregivers playing a significant role in shaping a child’s sense of worth and value. Abuse and neglect can lead to feelings of worthlessness and despondency, leading to shame, guilt, low self-esteem, and a poor self-image. To plan for the future with hope and purpose, a child needs to value themselves, have a sense of hope, control, and the ability to see their actions as having meaning and value.
Children surrounded by violence in their homes and communities learn from an early age that they cannot trust, the world is not safe, and they are powerless to change their circumstances. Negative expectations interfere with positive problem-solving and foreclose opportunities to make a difference in their lives. A complexly traumatized child may view themselves as powerless, “damaged”, and perceive the world as a meaningless place, making it difficult for them to feel hopeful.
In summary, children with complex trauma histories often struggle with thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and learning, often requiring support in the academic environment.
How does early childhood trauma contribute to the development of personality disorders?
A study of 793 mothers and children found that children who experienced verbal abuse were three times more likely to develop borderline, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, or paranoid personality disorders in adulthood. High reactivity, a trait characterized by sensitivity to light, noise, and texture, may also contribute to these disorders. Overly sensitive children are more likely to develop shy, timid, or anxious personalities. However, the role of high reactivity in personality development is not clear-cut, with only 20% of infants being highly reactive.
How does trauma affect a child’s behavior?
Traumatic stress in young children is characterized by behavioral and physiological symptoms, such as fear, overwhelm, and helplessness. These children struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviors, often exhibiting clinginess, fear, and aggression. They may also struggle with sleep, lose developmental skills, and show regression in functioning. Symptoms include poor verbal skills, memory problems, excessive screaming or crying, poor appetite, low weight, digestive problems, difficulties in school, learning disabilities, poor skill development, social behavior, imitation of abusive events, verbal abuse, trust issues, self-confidence issues, and stomach aches or headaches.
How does childhood trauma affect adult behavior?
Adverse childhood experiences can have a detrimental impact on a child’s emotional and cognitive development, leading to academic and social difficulties, and an increased risk of mental and physical health conditions in adulthood. It is imperative that individuals suffering from childhood trauma seek assistance, as psychotherapy and other forms of intervention can facilitate coping and healing in both adults and children.
Do people with childhood trauma mature faster?
A meta-analysis of 80 studies found that children who experienced threat-related trauma, such as violence or abuse, were more likely to enter puberty early and show signs of accelerated aging on a cellular level. However, children who experienced poverty or neglect did not show these signs of early aging. A second analysis of 25 studies with over 3, 253 participants found that adversity was associated with reduced cortical thickness, a sign of aging.
Different types of adversity were associated with cortical thinning in different parts of the brain. Trauma and violence were associated with thinning in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, while deprivation was more often associated with thinning in the frontoparietal, default mode, and visual networks. These types of accelerated aging might have descended from useful evolutionary adaptations, such as reaching puberty earlier in violent environments to increase reproduction and faster development of brain regions involved in emotion processing. However, these once-useful adaptations may have grave health and mental health consequences in adulthood.
How does childhood trauma affect human development?
Trauma can have a lasting impact on children, leading to learning problems, increased use of health services, involvement in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, long-term health issues like diabetes and heart disease, and a risk factor for behavioral health and substance use disorders. However, there is hope that children can recover from traumatic events, and parents can play a crucial role in their child’s recovery.
What personality is shaped by childhood trauma?
Childhood adversity can lead to various negative traits, including anger, aggression, low agreeableness, and external success orientation. High neuroticism, influenced by early adversity, can lead to aggressive and impulsive behaviors, possibly learned from childhood experiences or as a protective measure against loss or maltreatment. Neglect or neglect can also result in difficulty getting along with others, leading to frequent arguments and a preference for “go it alone”.
Additionally, early negative experiences can lead to arrogance and unhealthy pride, bolstering an underlying sense of inadequacy or vulnerability. This can result in a desire for fame and financial success, often to ease the pain and privation of the past.
At what age is childhood trauma the most impactful?
Only a few studies have examined the risk of depression or PTSD during sensitive periods, and no consensus has emerged regarding whether earlier or later exposure is predictive of elevated risk. Three prospective studies found that individuals with maltreatment prior to age 5 had higher levels of teacher-reported internalizing symptoms in early childhood and self-reported depressive symptoms in early 16 and early to mid-adulthood compared to those who were either never exposed or exposed during later stages.
Retrospective studies have also found earlier abuse (before age 5 or before age 12) or trauma (between 4–6 and before age 12) particularly elevates risk for depressive symptoms and major depressive disorder.
For PTSD symptoms or PTSD diagnoses, similar mixed findings have been observed. For instance, children with PTSD tended to report a lower age at first exposure (between 3–5), and sexual assault or physical abuse before age 11, but not childhood neglect, conferred the highest risk for PTSD. Retrospective studies have also found older children (ages 13–18) had higher risk for PTSD relative to their peers exposed at other ages.
Evidence regarding the effects of age at onset to natural disasters appears more consistent, with both retrospective and prospective studies observing higher levels of PTSD symptoms or PTSD diagnoses among older children (around age 7 and above) compared to younger children (those younger than about age 7).
These studies suggest the developmental timing of trauma exposure may be associated with subsequent risk for depression or PTSD, but they are limited by a focus on a small subset of adversities, reliance on small clinical or convenience samples, and failure to account for the correlated nature of adversities. Additionally, relatively few studies have examined the time-dependent effects of specific trauma types, leaving open the possibility that earlier trauma exposure may be confounded by the number of times exposed.
What are the 5 personalities of childhood trauma?
Childhood trauma can lead to specific personality traits, such as codependency, helper, fixer, perfectionistic, anxious, or controlling. Life Coach and author Lisa A. Romano discusses how growing up in a dysfunctional home impacts the developing personality. She explains that our authentic self is waiting to emerge, but without inner child and emotional recovery work, our trauma personality remains a mask. It is possible to find the road back to the authentic self, set healthy boundaries, and cope with troubling family dynamics in healthier and more productive ways.
📹 Childhood Trauma and the Brain | UK Trauma Council
A general introduction to what happens in the brain after children face traumatic experiences in childhood, like abuse and neglect.
I love and support your articles, they are really insightful and help advocates mental health and other subjects that aren’t talked about as much as they should. But I’m disappointed that bullying wasn’t included. Yes, family is a big influence to your childhood but not the only one. Even though I have wonderful parents, my personality changed a lot because of the bullying I’ve experienced throughout my childhood.
My Dad died when I was 2. I wasn’t told he was dead until I was 4. My mother was so heartbroken she never got over it . She got ill when I was 12,refused all medical intervention and died when I’d just turned 16. My life has been a mess. I didn’t drink,get into trouble or become promiscuous,but I had terrible relationships with violent controllers and was bullied all my life, at school, work and in marriages. I’ve just been left again after a 19 years relationship. I’m 65. I’m done.
Recently I began to wonder if my childhood was truly happy? I realized that this is not entirely true. From the age of 4, every day I listened to my parents yell at each other. I locked myself in the room and cried. From the age of 9, after the death of my grandfather, my father began to drink. I won’t say that no one cared about my feelings at all then, they didn’t ask me exactly how I felt after my grandfather’s death, and then I felt so much anger at myself. But that’s not the point. My father started drinking and my mother did not see a problem in this, or she saw it, but ignored it. My father often hit me on the head, and then enjoyed life and drank. There were still not the most pleasant moments that I would not like to remember at all. Now scandals have become more frequent. I’m 17, I still live with my parents and it’s unbearable. They don’t talk to each other for months, they send each other away, and I feel like that same 4-year-old girl who still locks herself in her room and sobs. My mother always punished me by ignoring me and now I do the same with people. I realized that I don’t know what it is to love, much less how to show love. I have only one friend, I’m afraid to get close to others because of mistrust. I hope one day I will recover from this and be able to live a full life. Now I have been suffering from terrible panic attacks and agorophobia for about 5 years now. I have an insane feeling of guilt all the time. I can go a whole day without eating because I’m lazy.
I find that my perfectionism doesn’t come from my parents asking high standards of me, in fact they didn’t ask anything of me at all I could even skip school. My perfectionism came as a coping mechanism as a way to feel I had something to control, as if I could overachieve and maybe feel worthy that way.