An Opportunity for Our Children

By Lawrence Blum, M.D., Claudia Gold, M.D., Leon Hoffman, M.D., Jack Novick, Ph.D., and Kerry Kelly Novick

Shortly into her victory speech on November 7th, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris addressed the nation’s children and said, “Our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.” Millions of eyes watered. For the first time in four years, a nationally elected official expressed concern for our children, our most treasured asset. We should not forget this precious moment. We should build on it.

As clinicians, we call on our new leaders to officially make our nation’s children our highest priority. An understanding of human development suggests that taking care of our youngest citizens is the best way to assure the progress of our society. The newly passed American Rescue Plan has substantial new provisions to help bring a great many children out of poverty, an excellent start, but we need explicit, dedicated, further efforts on behalf of our children.

Our children are our future, but more than any other developed nation, and despite our prevalent capitalist, market-driven ideology, we have been reluctant to invest in them. Other than trying to stop global warming so that we continue to have a planet that supports human life, it is hard to think of a more important investment.

We now have abundant evidence that Adverse Childhood Experiences (which include emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional and physical neglect; exposure to violence, substance abuse, or mental illness in the family; parental separation or divorce; and incarceration of a family member) have substantial, detrimental effects on later mental and physical health. We have ample proof that helping young mothers who are ill or who have postpartum depression has significant benefits for their children. We know that healthy people have happier, more satisfying lives; they also have lower medical costs and pay more taxes. Similarly, adequate early childhood education programs reduce the likelihood of children turning to crime and also save later expenditures to fight crime and fund prisons. Despite their obvious advantages, most efforts to assist children, especially those who are in need, are decried as “radical socialism” rather than seen as what they should be: the best thing we can do for our country.

A stable childhood gives children additional essential tools needed. It gives them a sense of being valued, and an experience of participation, that leads to future civic engagement. And it gives them grounding in reality. Children who are abused or neglected are less likely to accept reality because reality was intolerable. They are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories because strange and awful things really have happened to them. Democracy requires emotional health. In the words of elementary school report cards, we need to be “able to play well with others.” Given the many advantages of helping our children and our peculiar national reluctance to do so, we suggest further study of American cultural psychology to better understand this puzzle.