CDC: Majority of U.S. Adults Had Troubled Childhoods

[Liberal_in_LA]

Majority of U.S. Adults Had Troubled Childhoods: CDC

Study finds nearly 60 percent lived with abuse or other difficult family situations

Almost 60 percent of American adults say they had difficult childhoods featuring abusive or troubled family members or parents who were absent due to separation or divorce, federal health officials report.

In fact, nearly 9 percent said that while growing up they underwent five or more "adverse childhood experiences" ranging from verbal, physical or sexual abuse to family dysfunction such as domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse, or the absence of a parent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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"Adverse childhood experiences are common," said study coauthor Valerie J. Edwards, team lead for the Adverse Childhood Experiences Team at CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "We need to do a lot more to protect children and help families," she said.

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Since the data are self-reported, Edwards believes that the real extent of child abuse may be still greater. "There is a tendency to under-report rather than over-report," she said.

http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/647618/main.html

[get the red out]

1. Sounds like we should look at society

To produce numbers like that, our whole society is in need of an over-haul. :(

[marions ghost]

2. I think it could be greater...

with a fairly wide definition of abuse.

While I wasn't abused in the physical sense, I felt abused by the fact that my extended family shunned my parents because of their "unconventional" open-minded liberal views. I felt true hate as a child, merely for being part of a family that was not prosperous. We embarrassed our relatives. At least we were ostracized as a group, but it was very stressful.