ABSTRACT
Trauma essentially overwhelms a person's sense of security, stability, control, connection, and meaning in life. It promotes a sense of fear, helplessness, and isolation in all those affected. For children and adolescents, trauma may directly affect the growth and the development of appropriate responses in a child's brain. School-aged youths are most likely to show severe impairment following a traumatic event: In certain studies, 62% of school-aged samples experienced severe impairment, compared to 39% of adult survivor samples. The National Institute of Mental Health, a component of the federal government's National Institutes of Health, supports research on the brain and on the wide range of mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions. Children and adolescents, as well as adults who care for them, increasingly experience stressful events on a daily basis. Although there are different levels of coping, some events overwhelm almost everyone's ability to cope.
