By Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Photo: Shutterstock, December 1, 2022 The stress of pandemic lockdowns prematurely aged the brains of teenagers by at least three years and in ways similar to changes observed in children who have faced chronic stress and adversity, a study has found. The study, published Thursday in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science , was the first to compare scans of the physical structures of teenagers’ brains from before and after the pandemic started, and to...

By Elizabeth Aguilera, Illustration: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters/iStock, Cal Matters, November 29, 2022 In 2020 the state launched the adverse childhood experiences initiative, with the goal of cutting the number of those experiences in half within one generation. Today the number of doctors screening patients for adverse experiences is growing, but the state is failing to track whether patients receive the follow-up services or support they might need. State officials say they are...

“I feel like all my textbooks in elementary school glossed over reality and today's session leaves me wanting to read ‘what really happened,’” said one attendee during the most recent session of the PACEs Connection Historical Trauma in America series . Nearly 80 people attended the webinar on November 17, 2022. Focused on Historical Trauma in the Northeast, this most recent event was facilitated by Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection’s chief executive officer, and supported by St. David's...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, November 17, 2022 A sprawling report released today by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union describes civil rights issues within the child welfare system as a “national family separation crisis” that needs “immediate attention and action.” The analysis of federal and state data and dozens of interviews with parents draw attention to the harms of child welfare investigations and the disproportionate involvement of Black and Indigenous...

By Amy Qin, Photo: Ruth Fremson, The New York Times, November 10, 2022 The traditional Japanese lantern in the driveway of Inaba Produce Farms offers just a hint of the richly layered history behind this once-humble agricultural operation in eastern Washington. Tucked off a dusty desert road on the Yakama Reservation, past fields of spindly hop plants and apple orchards, the farm for nearly a century has been an unlikely bridge between two American communities and a living symbol of their...

By Jan Hoffman, Photo: Allison V. Smith/The New York Times, The New York Times, November 7, 2022 The little girl who will soon be known by the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court as Y.R.J. is now 4 years old. For much of her short life she has been living with Dr. Jennifer Brackeen and Chad Brackeen, a suburban Texas couple fighting with the Navajo Nation to adopt her. Y.R.J.’s birth mother is Navajo. The Brackeens are white. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments...

By John Kelly, Image: Screenshot from article, The Imprint, November 1, 2022 The number of youth in foster care dropped below 400,000 for the first time since 2012 last year, according to data released today by the Administration for Children and Families. There were 391,098 youth in foster care in 2021, according to today’s report from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, which uses a point-in-time count from September 30 of a given year to track the nation’s foster...

Over 130 people gathered on November 1, 2022, to learn more about how to create a system that supports child and family well-being during the 4CA Flourishing Families, Centering Justice webinar. The event focused on trauma-informed primary, secondary, and tertiary policy approaches to support struggling families and keep them together. The webinar began with a brief overview of historical and current policies that have contributed to racism, inequity, and family separation in the United...

"Extremely important" and "very needed" were among the comments of the nearly 100 attendees of the second Connecting Communities One Book at a Time book study webinar when they described Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media . The book, published on September 13, 2022, was the focus of a conversation between the author, Donna Jackson Nakazawa , and Carey Sipp, PACEs Connection director of strategic partnerships, on...

By Christina Caron, Illustration: Nathalie Lees, The New York Times, October 29, 2022 About a year into the pandemic, Kianna, a high school student in Baltimore, was feeling increasingly isolated. While sitting alone in her bedroom there was too much time to think, she said, so sometimes she would fixate on her seclusion or start critiquing her appearance. “I remember just being on TikTok for hours during my day,” added Kianna, 17, who asked to be referred to by only her first name when...

By Upasna Gautam, Photo: Samuel Hall, CNN Health, October 26, 2022 Sahaj Kohli, whose family immigrated to the United Kingdom from India, struggled with an identity crisis familiar to many children of immigrants. As the first in her family to marry a non-Indian, the first to go to therapy and the first to start talking openly about mental health, she found herself needing an outlet to share her challenges. In 2019, she founded Brown Girl Therapy , an online mental health community for...

By The Statesman, October 22, 2022 As a result of strict parenting, the way the body perceives the children’s DNA might alter. Children who grow up with restrictions may have these modifications “hard-wired” into their DNA, increasing their biological risk of depression in adolescence and later in life. Presenting the work at the ECNP Congress in Vienna, Dr Evelien Van Assche said: “We discovered that perceived harsh parenting, with physical punishment and psychological manipulation, can...

By Jeremy Loudenback, Illustration: Christine Ongjoco, The Imprint, October 25, 2022 Former foster youth Christina Torrez turned 26 in May. And although she was a first-generation college student pursuing an admirable future after overcoming homelessness, the mother of three hit a new barrier. Her eligibility for the program that had provided her with everything from the cost of books to bus passes while attending Bakersfield College came to an abrupt end. The state-funded NextUp program...

By Andrew Gregory, Photo: Anthony Devlin/PA, The Guardian, October 18, 2022 Children whose parents lack warmth are more likely to grow up overweight or obese, according to the first study of its kind. The effects of different parenting styles on children’s weight have been determined for the first time – and suggest parental warmth is key to a healthy weight, researchers at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne, the biennial congress of the World Obesity Federation, will say on...

By Becky Harlan and Summer Thomad, Photo: Meredith Rizzo/NPR, National Public Radio, October 17, 2022 Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? So much of the day was directed by adults. Wake up. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Eat your breakfast. Get in the car. Go to school. Sometimes kids listen to the instructions — and sometimes they don't. And when they don't, that can be very frustrating for parents. So how can parents get their kids to be more apt to comply? It might sound...

Hearing Multiple Languages in the Home Research shows that being exposed to multiple languages in the home can improve children's executive function skills, like attention, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. Plus, speaking in their native language can allow caregivers to express their full range of thought and emotion.

Babies Need a Safe Place to Explore Creating a “yes” environment means having a safe space for babies to explore on their own. With careful baby proofing, parents can promote autonomy, and reduce the amount of times they need to say “no.”

By Claire Cain Miller, Photo: Timothy Mulcare/The New York Times, The New York Times, October 1, 2022 The pandemic, at first, left many American parents feeling stranded, cut off from school and other support systems. But then something momentous happened. The government invested billions of dollars in children, including cash payments to families, free school meals and money for child care centers and public schools. In 2021, the federal government spent $10,710 per child, through a mix of...

By William Siu, Illustration: Irene Suosalo, The New York Times, October 2, 2022 Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has just signed legislation that would require social media companies to make sure new products won’t be harmful to minors. The focus is on Big Tech and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Flying under the radar are video games even though kids in the United States spend much more time playing video games than engaging in social media, according to a recent...

The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) invites you to join us for a discussion on Flourishing Families, Centering Justice: Policy Solutions for Prevention-focused, Trauma-informed Supports for Children and Families . This webinar will explore trauma-informed primary, secondary, and tertiary approaches to supporting struggling families and keeping them together. Our expert panelists will: Reframe our understanding of neglect Provide a brief overview of historical and...

By Alan Rappeport, Photo: Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times, The New York Times, September 28, 2022 President Biden promised on Wednesday to end hunger in the United States by the end of the decade, unveiling an expansive government effort during the first White House conference on health and nutrition in 50 years. The meeting of hundreds of policymakers, health activists, farmers and business leaders came at a time of steep inflation in the United States. Lines at food banks are swelling.

PACEs Connection is thrilled to share that our first-ever Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative involved thousands of people; scores of book studies! The PACEs Connection's Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative helps people bring their community together around books that help us have critical conversations about trauma, racism, inequity, protective factors, positive childhood experiences, and the role community plays in preventing and healing trauma and...

By Hannah Schneider, Photo: Getty Images/LWA/Dann Tardif, Well+Good, September 25, 2022 hen you're pregnant, a full medical team is looking out for you and your baby. But after the baby arrives, most new parents go home with their newborn, some pamphlets and postpartum pads, and an ob/gyn appointment card for a few weeks. Support for new parents during the postpartum period—aka the "fourth trimester"—is far from robust. in the United States, postpartum medical care is "too limited to meet...