Proceeds from the Margaret McCain Lecture Series go to the Upstream Endowment Campaign.

The 2004 Lecture

The Inaugural Margaret McCain Lecture was delivered on September 23, 2004 by Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D., the Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas. His lecture was entitled:

Maltreatment and the Developing Child: How Childhood Experience Shapes Child and Culture

Researchers repeatedly find statistical correlations between living with violence -- at home and in the community -- and problematic outcomes in children. The most sophisticated studies show us how the correlations are mediated and moderated by factors themselves correlated with violence, including economic poverty, child maltreatment, emotional and physical neglect, parental substance abuse, parental stress, and parental mental illness.

These large studies prove what front-line workers already know: children living with adult domestic violence rarely experience violence as the only life adversity. At the Centre, we call this the "adversity package," a term used by Dr. Robbie Rossman. Dr. Perry calls it the "malignant combination of experience."

Simply put, the more obstacles in front of a child, the harder time he or she has navigating the journey down the road of childhood, especially if progress is judged against peers racing forward unencumbered by adversities. What causally links the "adversity package" and poor child outcome? What mechanism or mechanisms is at work to reduce a child's chances for success in life?

Finding those mechanisms is the key to designing effective prevention and intervention strategies.

Some observers focus on learning and modelling, while others see psycho-dynamic factors as important. Feminist thought and gender analysis have had a great impact on our collective understanding of violence. Each view has different implications for intervention. Dr. Perry posits another causal mechanism, hidden from view deep inside the brain. Traumatic features of a violent world – noise, chaos, fear, isolation, deprivation, neglect – alter the developing brain of fetuses, babies, and toddlers. Their brains adapt appropriately to toxic environments, but these adaptations are at odds with requirements for school and social relationships. These children are primed to survive their world, leaving them ill-prepared to achieve their full potential in our world.

For those not able to attend Dr. Perry's lecture, we prepared a summary of his dynamic and stimulating talk:

Maltreatment and the Developing Child: How Early Childhood Experience Shapes Child and Culture

Alison Cunningham, M.A.(Crim.)
Director of Research & Planning
Centre for Children & Families in the Justice System