HI everyone! Today I’m going to be breaking down my big inquiry question, How do early childhood experiences influence long-term health outcomes, into three sub-questions that will help me better answer the Inquiry question.
- How do adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact physical and mental health in adulthood?
This sub-question is essential because it helps to identify how negative environments and traumas in childhood lead to life long physiological changes, like stress responses or weakened immune systems. These changes impacts a person’s health in the long run, even if the ACE experiences happened when they were a child. By focusing on ACEs, I can explore different reasons and interventions that decrease these effects before they worsen over time.
2. What role does early childhood nutrition play in shaping long-term health outcomes?
Nutrition during early years is important to a child’s physical and mental development. Malnutrition, can delay brain development, immune function, and more. For example, a lack of proper nutrition during early childhood may lead to stunted growth, increased infections, and mental delays. Another example being childhood obesity, which results from poor eating habits, is linked to risks of diabetes, diseases, and even some cancers. So, this sub-question shows the importance of healthy diet practices early in life as a key of both short- and long-term health, and I will focus on both the prevention of malnutrition and the importance of balanced diets.
3. How does the quality of early caregiving and parental involvement influence emotional and social well-being in later years?
The emotional and social development of a child is deeply rooted in their early interactions with caregivers. Positive early experiences, such as emotional support, love, and security, contribute to better emotional regulation, higher self-esteem, and improved social skills in later years. On the other hand, inconsistent caregiving, emotional neglect, or lack of involvement can lead to difficulties in emotional control, behavioral problems, and troubled adults. To add, poor caregiver-child bonding is linked to long-term mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, and more. This sub-question is important because it dives into the mental aspects of childhood development, showing how early emotional bonds influence the development of children, which can have lasting impacts throughout life.
This inquiry has significant implications for parents, educators, healthcare providers, and policymakers in our community and around the world. For parents and caregivers, it shows the importance of creating a nurturing, stable, and healthy environment during the early years of a child’s life and to maintain it throughout that childs life. For communities, especially those dealing with poverty or trauma, understanding these long-term health effects could create initiatives for early intervention programs to support children and parents, better access to healthcare, mental health support, and education and nutrition. As a result, this Inquiry question is both relevant in our community and around the world, especially with the increase of technology and false narratives being passed around quickly through such platforms.
5 sources that will help me with my future research:
- https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-on-childrens-development/#:~:text=Significant%20early%20adversity%20can%20lead%20to%20lifelong%20problems.&text=Adults%20with%20more%20adverse%20experiences,%2C%20heart%20disease%2C%20and%20diabetes.
- https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10732-w
- https://sycamoretn.org/adverse-childhood-experiences/
- https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/from-aces-to-early-relational-health
- https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/how-early-childhood-experiences-affect-lifelong-health-and-learning/
I am excited to learn more about this topic and look forward to writing more about it!
Hi Perla! It’s fascinating someone would actually choose to approach such an important topic when speaking of the roots of our society’s character, I would like to explore deeper into the sense of “love = future self-esteem, social skills” The thing is, you haven’t thought yet of why would someone even be impacted by social skills, According to what someone’s objective pesonality is, it will affect the instinctual needs for social skills, maybe reflecting more of that would lead you to answer why do early experiences affect our character (something highly emphasized in sociality and Conscientiousness.) Meanwhile I’m just saying you’re coming along extremely fortunate with your inquiry so far, you’ve impressed everyone with how well thought this sounds.
Hello Perla!
This is such a great, thought-provoking inquiry question! I agree the “What role does early childhood nutrition play in shaping long-term health outcomes?” part is a significant problem children face that threatens their health as adults. As someone who has noticed a large increase in processed and unhealthy foods, I am eager to see where your research into the causes of poor eating habits will lead you.
Here is a website that might help you look at how obesity affected kids during COVID:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8459649/#:~:text=Almost%2025%25%20of%20the%20School,more%20than%20once%20a%20week.
I look forward to reading your research for this inquiry project!
-Maisie
Hi Perla!
Great blog post! I love that you’re really diving into such an interesting topic, I rarely see people researching this. You have made such a complex idea easy to understand. Have you look into how ACE’s can affect brain development throughout childhood and into adulthood? I would love to read more about that in the future, I am eager to see your future work!
Here’s a website that might help you look into how ACE’s can impact the brain’s development: https://njpediatricneurosurgery.com/posts/news/how-adverse-childhood-experiences-ace-affect-brain-development/
Hi Perla,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post especially because my question is very similar, “How do childhood memories influence our identity as individuals”, and I am looking forward to reading more about a subject that is important to me as well. You split the questions up perfectly, that all make up the big inquiry question. Your pictures are integrated into the post very well, which explains what you are trying to explain. You made the whole concept, that carries a lot of depth, very simple and easy to read, which adds a lot to the flow of your writing.
I have used a couple websites in my research that I believe will be beneficial to your posts:
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_childhood_roots_of_adult_happiness_an_annotated_bibliography
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-brain-plasticity-2794886
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2017/caring-relationships-heart-early-brain-development
– Ariana
Hi Perla,
The topic you chose both surprised and inspired me! I found it very in-depth and significant, and one that should be considered in the greater awareness of everyone in society. Early childhood plays a major role in our development and who we end up becoming later on in life, so outlining various ways in how our environment shapes us is interesting and important. Firstly, the structure of your details in the blog is very clear and concise. It has a main topic with sub-topics listed which makes it very easy to follow. Secondly, the information about the influence of nutrition is very relevant and a topic that is worth paying attention to. I like how you included early emotional development. It is an area that seems to be very appropriate because many people nowadays deal with anxiety, depression and many other illnesses. Thirdly, I like how you included other communities with people of lower social-economic status. People tend to suffer the most in these communities and need all the support that they can get. I think that it is great how you brought the topic up. Lastly, I wonder how you might include other factors such as the ones you have already listed when it comes to childhood development. Some examples that play a big role in our society today include social media, phone usage and internet influencers. If you feel pulled to consider this topic further, here is a website that might be helpful in your research: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/org/od/directors_corner/prev_updates/digital-media-child-development-feb2023
Hope this helps and I look forward to what else you come up with in the future!
Best regards,
Isabella
Hey Perla!
I liked your blog post; you brought up how children growing up in communities that experience poverty, or trauma and the effects it can cause. This made me think of how these things could also affect children at an even earlier stage in life. You could further look into how mothers and their unborn children are effect by malnourishment and other hazards like trauma. I remember hearing about how children who are born in environments or communities that deal with a lot of air pollution can increase the likelihood of those children having lung issues or communities that deal with alcohol abuse which can lead to the child developing physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities.
Here are two links that may help you.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2016/05/how-does-air-pollution-harm-unborn-babies/
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21486_NIAAA_Fetal_Alcohol_102020.pdf
Hey Perla!
I loved reading your blog post and found it so fascinating and well-structured! You did an amazing job breaking down such a complex question into clear, insightful, and well-researched sub-questions. Each one highlights an essential aspect of early childhood development. I found the section on adverse childhood experiences especially eye-opening as it’s incredible to see how early traumas can have such long-term effects. I appreciate how relevant your topic is in today’s world and can’t wait to read more of your posts as you dive deeper into this inquiry!
Here are some useful websites;
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10732-w
https://sycamoretn.org/adverse-childhood-experiences/
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/child-health-development/early-adversity