Childhood troubles vs. troubled childhoods
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A bad day does not a bad childhood make.
While a team at the Centers for Disease Control recently found that 60 percent of adults say they had at least one difficult childhood experience, coverage of the study has asserted that 60 percent of adults say they had a difficult childhood.
It's not the same thing.
The survey was composed entirely of "yes and no" questions. Respondents did not evaluate their childhoods to declare them wonderful, horrible or in-between.
About 40 percent reported no adverse childhood experiences, while 22 percent reported just one. More than 90 percent of respondents reported fewer than five adverse childhood experiences, and some of the experiences were not necessarily dire, such as divorcing parents.
About 15 percent of those polled said they had been physically abused, while 12 percent said they had been sexually abused. Tellingly, people older than 55 were less likely to report abusive childhoods than younger respondents. Either they didn't feel comfortable acknowledging it or they have more perspective on what abuse is.
Still, when studies like this are mischaracterized, it does damage. It spotlights the idea that everyone is whining about their childhood, and that could tempt us to dismiss serious child abuse along with it. hN
