According to the 2018 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), one in three children under the age of 18 have experienced stressful or traumatic events that are strongly related to a wide range of health problems throughout a person’s lifetime. The NSCH is an annual survey conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration collecting information on several of these experiences, including: having divorced/separated parents or a deceased parent, living with anyone with a drug or alcohol problem or who is mentally ill, having a parent who served time in jail, seeing or hearing parental violence, and witnessing or being the victim of neighborhood violence. Last year, the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health & Human Services examined adverse childhood experiences from a rural perspective and made recommendations to federal policymakers. The data can be accessed by clicking here.
