Dr. Asa Don Brown will give a talk at TRU on March 17 about his doctoral dissertation The Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Perception and World View and his latest book Waiting to Live.
The request for the talk came from the nursing, psychology and library departments but will also be open to the public.
The presentation will be held in the TRU Gathering Place from 7 to 9 p.m. March 17.
Brown says he will also talk about his professional practice and his background including briefly mentioning his work in politics and his time spent as a member of the U.S. Olympics Band.
His doctoral dissertation was published in 2008 and included 38 local participants from Williams Lake, four of whom dropped out, leaving 34 who completed the research.
He says the three-year study examined traumatization in childhood and the potential effect upon the adult individual.
The study took a multidimensional look at trauma including child sexual abuse, psychological, verbal, emotional, and physical trauma.
“Previous research has focused on safeguarding children and minimizing the effects of trauma,” Brown says.
“The intent was to determine the underlying factors that contribute to an adult’s perception and world view in relationship to childhood traumatic experiences.”
He says the participants were adult men and women who self-reported traumatization in childhood.
The core of the research was a semi-guided interview protocol. The research used three supporting questionnaires as a basis for demographics.
“The research anticipates clarification between the effects of childhood trauma and the plausibility that the trauma may be a source of difficulty for adults, therefore perpetuating one’s life struggles or being a source of inspiration to move forward,” Brown says.
“It was discovered that those children who possessed the factors that reinforce resiliency tended to have a more positive perception and world view.”