> made me wonder if this is something that could affect them later in life.
There are plenty of study's that carried out experiments into learned helplessness[1,2] whats interesting now is how its being associated with things like depression [3] later on in life.
I'd go so far to say people who have suicided themselves or attempted could be because of their childhood abusers and certainly in the past, there was no evidence back then and very little surveillance, so clever well connected individuals could get away with alot.
I know here in the UK the Police and NHS do not investigate attempted suicides, even when they have been told. In fact, I do know a GP could tell you how to suicide yourself with off the shelf ingredients, which might seem to be against the hippocratic oath, but who is that GP prioritising, the patient they have just told to suicide themselves or their other patients?
Words can be so vague especially in the legal system.
I can remember my time as a toddler in Terry's nappy's with rubber pants, that chaffed the groin area, and with todays improved food standards and food diversity, access to multi vitamins, I think the younger generation will find it easier to remember their childhood.
In the case of childhood abuse, some just regress or some come out fighting, the legal system is very skewed here because it only wants to punish the individual, it doesnt want to take responsibility for allowing the abuse to occur by not teaching kids law in order to avoid abuse. Even the state doesnt hold primary school teachers to account, but then the state also carries out secret experiments on kids on all ages, some of them pre-emptive in order to control individuals later on in life based on the existing theories of the day.
Things might be better in the US by virtue of having private healthcare, but state healthcare like the UK's NHS enables the state to carry out more experimentation in secret.
The NHS is not all that its cracked up to be, far from it, but then most users dont know nothing about healthcare which is why they are using it in the first place.
All parts of the UK state data share whilst denying it until they have to come up with something called parallel construction to use a US legal term.
Bottom line is, with kids every action has a reaction and some things, your beliefs they might choose to disagree with later on in life.
Factors like are they kept busy with their own adult life or do they have plenty of time on their hands to reflect, will also determine how much their agree with from their childhood.
Above all else, make sure you have a relationship with them so that they can talk to you. I didnt have a relationship with any adult where I could talk to them about stuff, and its only later on in life, that you come to realise especially when aware of law that criminals acts were carried out on you and other elements of your childhood were stolen. I think this is why law is not taught to kids, it keeps those pontificating lawyers and judges in employment, but it doesnt tackle the causes of crime, it just enables it by keeping kids innocent and in the dark. Taking away that cotton wool you want to wrap kids in, is a very delicate matter, too much cotton wool, will set them up for exploitation later on in life, take it away too quickly and that could be traumatic if not a path that some choose to walk. Its a tightrope to walk.
I'd also be wary about moving them around to different schools and different parts of the country. Its a legal form of isolation when considering how the new kid is bullied at school often overseen by teachers and can be used to isolate people later on in life.
Its probably why the Police and Military move people around, breaking down friends networks, forcing new friends networks on people. Its that divide and conqueror mentality which has existed since before Roman times.
I think a good approach is to not be dictatorial, which can be simple instructions of dont do this, dont do that, be quiet without the explainantions in a concept understandable format. Thats hard when kids are young, but explain why something can or cant be done. That was harder in the past because there was no internet, but with the internet today, its easier to find out things. Example, putting things in mouths, explaining the concept of germs and how some of them like bacteria can go dormant in the body (biofilms) desite antibiotics and some viruses never leave the body (herpes), and some viruses get into parts of the body where the adaptive immune system cant go and importantly, clinicians cant test for their existence except at the time of autopsy.
I know the medical profession like to portray themselves as experts, but if you look at how medical theories are being rewritten all they time especially now when new tech becomes available or cheaper to use to allow more testing and data acquisition occurs, that's when you realise even dominant personalities can skew the interpretation of data.
[1] 1975 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1150935/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Learned+helplessness
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11522522/