When the lights went out over a huge swath of the U.S. and Canada in August, the number of people who jumped to a worst-case conclusion—that a terrorist attack was to blame—probably outstripped the number who were left without power. It was a stark reminder that September 11, 2001 and the events that followed upon it have quite literally changed the way we think.

Most of the adults I know have a made a kind of pact with their fears. For some, it was enough to stock up on emergency household supplies or beef up the first-aid kit. For others, it’s been a more complicated negotiation involving things like finding commuting routes with no tunnels, or deciding to avoid certain places or modes of travel.

As a parent, I try to see how my children are faring in their own changed world. I’m pleased to see that they remain armored in a pretty strong sense of safety in their own community…even here in Washington, D.C., where the sniper attacks and the impact of the Iraq war on our large community of military families have had a strong effect on school life.

But I know that my kids are lucky…relatively unscathed, so far, by personal trauma in their own lives. It’s been estimated that more than 25 percent of American children experience a serious traumatic event by the time they are 16, and many of them suffer multiple and repeated traumas. Examples of a serious traumatic event would be the violent or accidental death of a family member, physical or sexual abuse, serious accidental injury to themselves, exposure to community or family violence.

At least in some communities, that figure is probably too low. Researchers studying the effects of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on New York City schoolchildren in grades 6 through 12 made the following discovery: almost two-thirds of the children had already experienced one or more significant traumatic event before the attacks.

Trauma experts Robert Pynoos and John Fairbank, co-directors of the federally-funded National Child Traumatic Stress Network, termed this “an enormous backlog of previous trauma exposure,” in a recent essay on the network Web site. The word “backlog” reflects the current understanding that despite our cherished belief in the resiliency of children, the effects of trauma on young people are cumulative, and that trauma that has been unrecognized or untreated in the past can make kids more likely to be traumatized by subsequent events, and deepen the effect of fresh trauma.

This backlog may be part of the reason that six months after the attacks, according to the New York City study, an astonishing 90 percent of schoolchildren were found to be suffering at least one symptom of post traumatic stress, and almost 10 percent had enough symptoms—six or more—to be diagnosed with the disorder. That’s an estimated 75,000 children with a serious stress disorder, and many thousands more with troubling symptoms such as agoraphobia (the fear of venturing outside the home).

The New York City study was lead by Columbia University epidemiologist Christina Hoven, who noted the potential impact of these findings on the school system. “They are trying to do a job with students who are very troubled, very troubled today because of 9/11,” Hoven was quoted as saying in a CBS News report.

Researchers will undoubtedly learn more about the long-term effects of trauma on children as this New York City cohort grows up. Whatever they find, it seems doubtful that our current system for identifying and treating traumatic stress disorders in children is up the task of helping all the children in New York and across the nation who are traumatized, whether the cause of the trauma is a terrorist attack or a drive-by shooting.

On July 22, President Bush’s New Freedom Commission issued its report on mental health, calling for federal legislation to require health insurers to cover mental health care at the same level as physical health care. As Pynoos and Fairbank noted in their essay, this makes particular sense in the area of treating childhood trauma, given the evidence that traumatic stress in childhood has ongoing physical effects, including changing the development of the brain.

The Freedom Commission also made specific mention of the need to pay more attention to children’s mental health issues, to fund research, development and diffusion of effective screening tools and treatments for under-served groups such as very young children and ethnic and linguistic minorities,

As Congress prepares to take up the President’s request for $87 billion in funds for continuing operations and rebuilding efforts in Iraq, the chances of a strong federal investment in research, education and training for first responders, teachers, and clinicians who might encounter child victims of trauma seems remote. But it’s hard to think of a more worthwhile investment in our children’s healthy future.

Resources:

• Read the Freedom Commission Report
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has information and tips for parents, teachers, and providers.

Talk Back

If you’ve got comments or questions about this story, we’d like to hear them. Send your response to Susan Phillips.

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Susan Phillips is executive editor at Connect for Kids.