Early childhood exposure to violence (child abuse, intimate partner violence) and other chronic stressors (poverty, neglect, and emotional abuse) can result in injury, disease, and premature death. A growing body of research on adverse childhood experiences has demonstrated that toxic, chronic stress harms brain development and leads to lifelong effects on learning, behavior, and health.
Early experience with violence is a social determinant of health; violence may also result from the environments where people live, and children grow. For example, those who grow up and live in environments with limited social, education, and economic opportunities and where violence, racism, and community and domestic instability are daily stressors are at an increased risk of multiple forms of violence. Therefore, to prevent violence, the conditions and underlying social determinants of health must be addressed through preventative measures, including root causes of inequity and social disadvantage. āā