5 Ways Childhood Trauma Impacts Young Adults

What happens to us in our first 10 years or so of life will affect every single decade that follows. During this incredibly rapid period of growth and development, our bodies, brains, and personalities are imprinted by our early experiences. That’s why childhood trauma can have such a significant impact on our mental and physical health and well-being throughout our entire lives. 

What constitutes childhood trauma varies widely. Physical or sexual abuse, neglect, and witnessing violence in the home are all common forms of childhood trauma. In addition, children can experience relational trauma—a disruption in the primary bond with parent or caregiver. Events outside the home can also catalyze trauma, ranging from extreme bullying to the collective trauma created by disastrous events like a pandemic.

How does the childhood trauma effect impact an individual’s ability to thrive as they grow older? Here are five ways that trauma can manifest psychologically and physiologically as children mature into adolescence, young adulthood, and beyond. 

Key Takeaways

• Childhood trauma impacts young adults on multiple levels, including psychologically, physically, and cognitively.
• Research shows that people who have experienced traumatic events in childhood are up to three times more likely to develop a mental health condition and 15 times more likely to develop borderline personality disorder.
• Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) can negatively impact relationship skills and brain function.
• With effective, evidence-based treatment, young adults can address the effects of childhood trauma and lead thriving lives.

The Impact of Childhood Trauma and PTSD

Undergoing traumatic experiences in childhood leaves a long-lasting impact on an individual’s overall well-being. Over decades of research, experts have come to understand that certain types of experiences during our formative years can have long-lasting effects on our mental and physical health. 

Trauma and PTSD are categorized as either simple or complex. Simple trauma is typically related to a specific, significant traumatic event, such as natural disaster or a car accident. Complex trauma is chronic and pervasive. This kind of ongoing stress impacts individuals both physically and psychologically for the rest of their lives. When children grow up in an environment where they are exposed on a regular basis to what they perceive as a threat, their nervous system is perennially in a state of fight-flight-or-freeze.

As a result, toxic neurochemicals are constantly flowing through their organs. This traumatic stress can actually change the cells in the brain and body and potentially trigger physiological and psychological symptoms, such as depression or disease.

Below are the five primary ways that childhood traumatic events and ongoing traumatic stress can influence a person’s experiences in adulthood.

#1: Higher Risk of Mental Health Conditions

Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) are associated with a significantly higher risk of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder. In fact, recent research shows that experiencing childhood traumatic events increases the risk of developing a mental health disorder in adulthood as much as three times.

In addition, children who undergo traumatic experiences are 15 times more likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) later in life. That’s because exposure to trauma at an early age negatively affects a young person’s sense of self, brain function, ability to make attachments, and emotion-regulation strategies, which are all related to the development of BPD.

Moreover, a 2023 study finds that having conscious memories of childhood trauma can make mental health conditions worse. According to study author Andrea Danese, “Our study reveals that how a person perceives and remembers experiences of childhood abuse or neglect has greater implications on future emotional disorders than the experience itself.”

#2: Lack of Self-Worth

How we are treated from birth onward by those closest to us is fundamental in shaping our sense of ourselves as valuable and worthy of love and care. Children who are abused or neglected by primary caregivers internalize the message that they are not lovable. Even loving parents who fail to empathize with a child to the extent that their nature requires may unintentionally give them this message. In cases of parentification—when parents rely on their children to meet their emotional needs—children learn the lesson that their own needs are not important. 

As a result, traumatized children develop a core belief that they are not good enough. They may blame themselves for the way they are treated, believing that if they were somehow “better,” their parent would “love them more.” Even when this perception of self is subconscious or semi-conscious, it can be extremely difficult to reverse later in life. An individual may eventually come to understand why their parent acted the way they did—perhaps because of their own unhealed childhood trauma or because of a mental or physical illness. But simply understanding may not be enough to change the adult child’s self-image and sense of self-worth.

Moreover, this primal wound, as it is sometimes referred to, creates a deep well of emotional pain. Consequently, young adults who have experienced childhood trauma and the accompanying guilt and shame are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and maladaptive coping mechanisms such as substance abuse and self-harm. 

#3: Struggles in Relationships

Chronic and relational traumatic experiences in the early years of life have an enormous influence on our ability to form authentic connections with others. Our first connection with our primary caregiver sets the stage for our relationships and interactions throughout our lifetime. When that relationship creates traumatic stress, confusion, fear, shame, and an inability to depend on the other person, those feelings translate to all our other relationships—with friends, romantic partners, and even colleagues and authority figures. People who struggle with childhood trauma symptoms often have a very hard time trusting others and sharing their inner selves and emotions. And this in turn negatively affects mental health.

A disrupted bond with our parent or primary caregiver typically results in what is known as insecure attachment. There are several types of insecure attachment, which express themselves in different ways within relationships. An adult who experienced physical or sexual abuse or neglect as a child may have an “insecure avoidant” attachment style—they avoid relying on others because of their fear of betrayal or rejection.

People who experienced inconsistent nurturing from parents often have an “insecure anxious” attachment style: They are clingy and needy in relationships, and require constant assurance that they are loved. One study of emerging adult women (ages 18–24) found that childhood trauma was associated with higher levels of anxious attachment. In addition, children whose parents relied on them to fulfill their emotional needs may become “people pleasers,” afraid of saying no or setting appropriate boundaries with others.