system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can young children become traumatized by something they don't understand?

I don't mean like seeing their mother or father being abused, because the children understand their parent is being hurt, whether or not they know why.

What I mean is something along the lines of walking in on people having sex, or seeing the insides of a body. They wouldn't know what the people having intercourse is actually doing, nor would they know that the insides of a person are what keeps them alive and that they shouldn't be on the outside/visible.

So why would it phase young children, but not something like a cub or baby animal?
Unless it really doesn't phase them, just there are typically other circumstances involved I don't understand.
gpt
Fear, and subsequently, anxiety and mental trauma can be the result of an experience that feels so alien to what we normally experience. The lack of an adrenaline rush and positive reinforcement can cause the mind to try to find answers. If no good answer is provided, than our primal instincts tell us that it was something that we must avoid. When it involves our personal space, or own peers, we will try to find ways to avoid the encounter, but also try to find a way to deal with the peers involved.

In other words: if you see your grandma with a face mask on, it can be scary - you don't know what it is, and your mind goes primal. If your grandma (without the mask) then quickly explains that she was wearing a mask, showing you how it works, and lets you try it on, this positive reinforcement will prevent mental trauma.

But: this is also a tool for the "battered wife syndrome", where a spouse provides lots of positive stimuli to make the trauma a "mere unpleasant experience". This leads to cognitive dissonance, etc., etc.

So: explain everything to children, and help them find answers. Never use positive reinforcement for something that is bad. Address a destructive relationship, again, by explaining the situation, offering a better alternative, instead of just pointing out the bad stuff.