Patrick Anderson

Every so often a framework arrives that is right in a way the field can feel before it can fully explain. Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences is one of those. Robert Sege and his colleagues took the hard-won lesson of the ACE literature — that childhood adversity drives toxic stress and lifelong risk — and asked the question that reorients everything: would positive childhood experiences mitigate it? Drawing on Bethell and colleagues' 2019 findings, they showed a dose-response running in the protective direction — that enough positive experiences can soften the depression and anxiety carried by adults who report four or more adverse ones. From a review of what effective interventions held in common, they distilled four building blocks: nurturing relationships; safe, stable, and equitable environments; social and civic engagement; and opportunities for emotional growth. And they turned it into a practice — the shift from asking what is wrong with a family to building on what is strong.

A lot of lawmakers are unchallenged this year, but that doesn't mean there is nothing at stake in the September primary and November general races.

Providence Journal The Trump administration denied Rhode Island's request for federal disaster aid following a record-breaking blizzard.

Providence Journal Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has withdrawn his support for Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner following new sexual assault allegations.

Providence Journal Rhode Island has secured an additional $25 million in federal funding for a new bus hub in Providence.

A recent Lurie Children's survey of 859 U.S. parents found that 81% of children under 13 now have their own device, and kids are averaging 21 hours of screen time every week.

The Adversity No One Counts The most common childhood adversity in America may be the one the Adverse Childhood Experiences study never counted.

The Most Expensive Thing in Your Organization Isn't on the Balance Sheet W. Edwards Deming, who taught the world how to build quality, spent decades asking why organizations produce defects.

Awareness is Not The Current Problem Thirty years ago, the ACE Study told us that childhood adversity shapes the whole arc of a human life.

We are trained to spot coping when it looks like damage. The drinking, the using, the rage that breaks a household — we recognize these as someone reaching for relief from something that happened to them long ago. What we are not trained to spot is coping that looks like success. The resident who hasn't taken a weekend in four years. The athlete who comes apart when the season ends. The colleague whose output everyone admires and no one questions. These are relief behaviors too. They run on the same machinery as the ones we treat. The only difference is that the culture claps instead of intervening.