Yesterday the NZ Herald produced a headline that read, “Nine in 10 Kiwi kids endure trauma by age 8 - new research.” This was subsequent to an Auckland University press release titled, “Childhood trauma the norm, but positive experiences help” which began,
“Almost all children in Aotearoa, New Zealand (87 percent) have experienced significant trauma by the time they are eight, far more than earlier thought, according to new research.”
Trauma is what I expect refugee children from war-torn countries to have experienced. Turns out though trauma can now include a child answering ‘yes’ when asked, "Do other children put you down, call you names, or tease you in a mean way?"
The researchers (funded by the taxpayer via an MSD grant) used the longitudinal Growing Up in New Zealand cohort and assessed experience of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) by age eight. Some of the experiences are serious, for example, having a parent sent to prison, but others are just part and parcel of being a child. Being shouted at by Mum for being naughty or having a Mum who believes she’s been treated unfairly because of her ethnicity.
To describe the latter two as experiencing trauma destroys the word’s meaning.
NewstalkZB host Tim Beveridge interviewed the lead researcher and was justifiably skeptical. He later observed that academics risk losing the public when they over-dramatise their press releases; that the public may switch off at that point and miss any important findings which may follow.
What bothers me even more is the bastardization of a rich language abundantly capable of intricate and nuanced description. It has happened with many words beyond trauma. For instance, words like ‘assault’ and ‘violate’ get regularly employed in totally overblown and inappropriate ways. Guilty parties risk being accused of ‘crying wolf’ – a timeless adage that describes how repeated exaggeration will only result in them being ignored or worse, laughed at.
When it comes to children, New Zealand has enough real problems without manufactured crises.
Money spent on more of this melodrama is money misdirected.
2 comments:
So, this just in: Government researchers find even more acute need to study the thing they happen to study.
Same researchers.
2 months earlier.
"Families who set screen time rules for their children promote healthier childhoods with better sleep patterns which could reduce the risk of obesity, according to a new study.
Research from the University of Auckland and City St George's, University of London used data from 5733 children and their mothers, derived from the Growing Up in New Zealand study to investigate how family screen time rules at age two affected childhood obesity at age four-and-a-half.
.. the findings suggest that adhering to family screen time rules effectively reduced young children's screen use by ensuring they got enough sleep. Inadequate sleep has been previously associated with obesity, and children who spend less time on screen devices usually sleep better according to previous studies.
Hashemi said establishing simple, consistent screen time rules early in a child's life was a helpful strategy to support healthier habits and address obesity on a larger scale."
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/11/20/setting-screen-time-rules-lowers-childhood-obesity-risk-study/
Post a Comment