High levels of community violence, like a January shooting at Sacramento’s Grant High School, can weigh upon youth over time, affecting how their brains detect and respond to threats and even cause long-term mental health challenges, new research has found.
The challenge of helping kids overcome stressors often falls to their parents, placing a heavy burden on adults who may be struggling with broader societal inequities, said Luke Hyde, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan who co-authored the study.
“We shouldn’t keep expecting parents to fix big societal problems,” Hyde said.
