Child and family’s experience of trauma
According to one of the core concepts, traumatic experiences are inherently complex. All traumatic events usually involve varying traumatic experiences. In the case of Amarika and her family, their traumatic experience was that of witnessing an injury that was life threatening. Amarika’s mother, Makisha Lawrence, had been shot in the presence of her daughter. This was traumatizing to the child (Amarika) since she actually witnessed the incident. She watched her mother fall on her back after the bullet hit her.
Such traumatized children usually experience subjective reactions to such experiences. Amarika showed these reactions by behaving differently. She refused to eat and could not go to sleep. She also behaved differently when with her aunt, Latanya. She did not want to play with her and could not calm down even when her favourite show was on.
Similar to any traumatized child, Amarika considered a possible protective action during her trauma. She could not let her mother off her eyes since she was scared of losing her. However, this led to feelings of conflict. Her mother did not like the fact that she followed her around everywhere and this led to feelings of anger in Amarika’s part since she did not understand why her mother avoided her. Her mother’s reactions further added layers of complexity to Amarika’s traumatic event.
Understanding risk factors
Amarika’s trauma occurred within a context that included both child-intrinsic and child-extrinsic factors. The child-extrinsic factors included her familial environment since her grandmother always left her behind when she went to visit her daughter in hospital. The risk that is associated with such traumatic experiences is the fact that they usually generate secondary adversities and may act as reminders to the child of such traumatizing moments (core concept).
Even after Amarika’s mother was discharged, Amarika always wanted to accompany her wherever she went since her mother’s absence acted as a trauma reminder and this affected her recovery. Amarika’s doll also acted as Makisha’s trauma reminder since it reminded her that she was not with her daughter at the time of the incident.
According to another core concept, children usually exhibit varying reactions to trauma and loss. Amarika’s reactions varied in intensity, frequency and duration. For example, she could not go to sleep and did not want to eat either. She only took milk. Her mother also observed that she usually fell intentionally on her back and lied down there motionless.
This particular course of posttraumatic reaction was influenced by the nature of her traumatic experience. She had witnessed her mother being shot and also watched as she fell on her back and lied motionless. Imitation of this event was in an attempt to understand what it felt like for her mother when she fell to the ground after being shot. This was also her only way of communicating her concerns for her mother’s well being.
Traumatic experiences not only affect the child but also the entire family and other caregivers (according to another core concept). In Amarika’s case, her grandmother was obviously affected. She feared mostly for her daughter’s safety. However, this usually disrupts the interaction between the caregiver and the child.
In this case, the grandmother seemed to be neglecting Amarika as she went to see Makisha in hospital. She was so worried about her daughter that she did not realize what she was doing to her granddaughter. Therefore, her concerns impaired her ability to provide care. Consequently, this reduced sense of protection and security caused Amarika to react negatively to Latanya and Mrs. Lawrence’s efforts to support her. Amarika’s family needed to know how to provide care for her in order for her to adjust.
Carla explained to Mrs. Lawrence about how her actions were affecting little Amarika. She knew that something bad had happened to her mother and instead of her grandmother attending to her, she left her alone. Her grandmother’s concern about the effects on her granddaughter helped in Amarika’s adjustment from the traumatic experience.
Traumatic experiences may significantly affect development in children (core concept). Carla had suspected that Amarika’s development had been affected. Particularly, she thought that Amarika’s ability to walk had been affected. Fortunately, Amarika was only trying to communicate something with actions.
According to another concept, culture may influence the traumatic experiences that a child and family go through. Amarika’s family is made up of black Americans and their neighbourhood is characterised by frequent violent. Amarika’s grandmother explained to Carla about the history of shootings in the neighbourhood.
She disclosed personal information and explained how she lost several close family members to such violence. The fact that their own people killed among themselves made them feel that they could not be safe in their own neighbourhood.
Challenges to the social contract usually influence how one responds to trauma and how he or she recovers from it (core concept). This usually happens when the influential figures in the society such as police officers and judges do not protect them from harm or ensure that justice is served.
In the case of Amarika and her family, the police officers in the region did not do anything to help them in their situation. This was also the case for the previous cases of violence that resulted in the loss of family members such as Gus. Mrs. Lawrence complained that the police did not do anything.
Instead, they asked if Gus was involved in drugs. To make things even worse, they did the same thing when it came to Makisha’s case. They inquired whether she was involved in a gang. This made the grandmother feel as if the people who were meant to help bring solutions only made things worse.
Another risk involved in working with traumatized children is that it may cause distress in providers. This may make it difficult for the care provider to care for the victims effectively. For example, Carla had to reassure Amarika severally that her mother loved her. In several occasions, Amarika’s mother neglected her daughter since she did not understand what she wanted.
She also denied her cookies claiming that Amarika had to understand that she could not always get whatever she wanted. Makisha was also not comfortable when Amarika followed her everywhere. However, this was negatively affecting her since she had expectations about her mother’s social roles and responsibilities.
According to Amarika, Makisha was not fulfilling them. Therefore, Carla had to strengthen the child’s belief in the social contract. She had to reassure Amarika that her mother understood that she was scared and that she had missed her too. She also explained to her that her mother was not neglecting her but only wanted her privacy at some occasions.
An understanding of protective factors
Danger and safety are major concerns in the lives of traumatized children (core concept). What Amarika experienced greatly undermined her sense of protection and safety. Watching her mother being shot and lying helplessly on the park grounds was very traumatizing to her and this explains her weird behaviour thereafter.
The fact that she could not let her mother go away from her without showing concern shows that she felt insecure. Her mother had to understand how to tell her that they were safe and that Amarika did not have to follow her around everywhere. In order to ensure her recovery from the traumatic experience, her mother had to reassure her that she recovered from the ‘injury’ and that the incident was not going to happen again. Amarika had to win over her trust in order to feel secure.
Protective and promotive factors are usually helpful in the reduction of the adverse impacts of trauma (core concept). Promotive factors played a role when Amarika’s mother was in the hospital. Amarika had to be encouraged in order to ensure that she positively adjusted even as her mother was still in the hospital.
Promotive factors were introduced after the traumatic effects and Carla played an important role in guiding Amarika’s mother and grandmother in the proper way of handling the situation. The protective and promotive factors were mainly the child-extrinsic factors.
Amarika had a strong social support network that consisted of her mother, grandmother and aunt, Latanya. Her family members cared and supported her and this shows that these factors were strong. The strength of these factors both before and after the traumatic experience ensured that Amarika could quickly recover from the harmful effects of the particular traumatic experience.