Stress in early childhood

Last updated

Early childhood is a critical period in a child's life that includes ages from conception to five years old. [1] [2] Psychological stress is an inevitable part of life. Human beings can experience stress from an early age. Although stress is a factor for the average human being, it can be a positive or negative molding aspect in a young child's life. [3]

Contents

A certain amount of stress is normal and necessary for survival. A few stressors can be manageable for young children; stress can be beneficial by helping children develop skills needed to adapt to a new set of circumstances and deal with dangerous and intimidating situations. Some experts have theorized that there is a point where prolonged or excessive stress becomes harmful and can lead to serious health effects. [4] When stress builds up in early childhood, neurobiological factors are affected. [1] In turn, levels of the stress hormone cortisol exceed normal ranges. [1] This theory however is based on animal studies and cross-sectional studies in humans, and the proposed impacts on brain centers have not been found in a landmark twin study [5] and studies where neurobiological factors were measured in humans prior to stress or trauma exposure. [6] [7]

Researchers have proposed three distinct types of responses to stress in young children: positive, tolerable, and toxic. [8] These labels are based on theorized differences in lasting physiological changes occurring as a result of the intensity and duration of the stress response. [9]

Stress is caused by internal or external influences that disrupt an individual's normal state of well-being. [10] These influences are capable of affecting health by causing emotional distress and leading to a variety of physiological changes. [4] Internal stressors include physiological conditions such as hunger, pain, illness or fatigue. Other internal sources of stress consist of shyness in a child, emotions, gender, age and intellectual capacity. [3] Childhood trauma has lifelong impact.

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences can include separation from family, home violence, racial/ethnic disparities, income disparities, neighborhood violence, mental illness or substance use disorder of caregiver, physical/sexual abuse, neglect, divorce, a new home or school, illness and hospitalization, death of a loved one, poverty, natural disasters, and adults’ negative discipline techniques (e.g. spanking). [3] Additional external stressors include prenatal drug exposure, such as maternal methamphetamine use, other maternal and paternal substance abuse, maternal depression, posttraumatic stress and psychosis. [3] [11] [12]

Levels of stress

Researchers have proposed three different levels of stress seen in children during early childhood; positive, tolerable and toxic. [1] [9]

Positive stress is necessary and promotes resilience, or the ability to function competently under threat. [13] Such stress arises from brief, mild to moderate stressful experiences, buffered by the presence of a caring adult who can help the child cope with the stressor. [9] This type of stress causes minor physiological and hormonal changes to the young child; these changes include an increase in heart rate and a change in hormone cortisol levels. [4] The first day of school, a family wedding or making new friends are all examples of positive stressors. [4] Such experiences can promote healthy development within an environment of supportive relationships, giving children the chance to observe and practice healthy responses to stressful events. [9]

Tolerable stress comes from adverse experiences that are more intense in nature but short-lived and can usually be overcome. [4] The body's stress response is more intensely activated due to severe stressors. [14] Some examples of tolerable stressors are family disruptions, accidents or a death of a loved one. It is important though to realize that such stressors are only tolerable when managed the correct way. Tolerable stress can turn into positive stress. [14] With appropriate care from adults, young children can easily cope with tolerable stress and turn it into positive stress. However, if adult support is deficient in a child's coping stages, then tolerable stress can become detrimental. [4]

Toxic stress can occur when experiences are long in duration and intensity. [14] Children need caring and supportive adults to help them because it is difficult for children to handle this type of stress on their own. [4] Therefore, the stress response may be activated from weeks to months or even years. [4] Prolonged stress leads to adverse effects such as permanent emotional or developmental damage. [4] If sufficient support is not available, this type of stress can result in permanent changes in brain development. [4] Research has found that children experiencing severe and long-term abuse have smaller brain sizes. [15] If the situation is not as severe, toxic stress will still alter the stress response system; these changes will cause children to react to a wider variety of stressors. [15] However, with sufficient care and support from adults, children can return their stress levels to tolerable or good. [4] Examples of toxic stress are abuse, neglect, violence and overall hardship without adult support. [14] Toxic stress can have a cumulative effect on physical and mental health.

Allostatic load is "the wear and tear on the body" that accumulates as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress. [16] It represents the physiological consequences of chronic exposure to fluctuating or heightened neural or neuroendocrine response that results from repeated or chronic toxic stress. The term was coined by Bruce McEwen and E. Stellar in 1993. [17]

Stages of stress

Stress is encountered in four different stages in early childhood. [3] In the first stage, stress usually causes alarm. [3] Next, in the second or appraisal stage, the child attempts to find meaning from the event. [3] Stage three consists of children seeking out coping strategies. [3] Lastly, in stage four, children execute one or more of the coping strategies. [3] However, children with lower tolerance for stressors are more susceptible to alarm and find a broader array of events to be stressful. [3] These children often experience chronic or toxic stress. [3]

Causes

In the US, non-white children from a lower socioeconomic status are more prone to exposure to adverse childhood experiences. Black children from a lower socioeconomic status in particular are most at risk for exposure to adverse childhood experiences. [18] Socioeconomic status can be measured by education and income level. [19] A chronic exposure to stress will lead to the decline of physical health and increase susceptibility to diseases. [20]

Situations that may promote stress in childhood include: [4] [14] [21]

Stress and brain development

Brain circuits and testosterone's systems are formed and activated in early life. [4] These neurobiological systems of the body help maintain viability and are necessary for survival in early childhood and along the course of life. [23] When a child or adult experiences a stressor, the body will attempt to regulate the stress through releasing hormones that pass through the body. [4] However, effects of the prolonged or frequent biological stress response may increase the risk for future physical and mental health problems in early childhood. [23] Since brain circuits are vulnerable in early childhood, early stressors may impact the development of necessary brain connections. [4] Therefore, the theory of toxic stress is that stress might alter or impair brain circuit formation and essentially result in a small brain size in young children. [4] There are however no studies yet that have measured these brain circuits or volumes of brain centers prospectively in young children to prove this theory.

Stress response pathway in humans

In humans, the stress response pathway consists of the sympathetic-adrenomedullary (SAM) system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). [23] The SAM system is a part of the sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system. [23] These systems are responsible for releasing epinephrine and norepinephrine (NE), also known as the flight or fight response hormones. [23] When epinephrine is released it will bind to various receptors in various target organs; this will exhibit multiple roles in the fight or flight mechanism. [23] The HPA system is responsible for producing glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex; the main glucocorticoid in humans is the steroid hormone cortisol. [23] In contrast to epinephrine, which takes a short amount of time for production, cortisol takes up to 25 minutes to reach peak levels. [23] Also, cortisol is able to penetrate the brain through the blood–brain barrier, unlike epinephrine. [23] Therefore, cortisol takes more time to form, but impacts the brain for a longer period of time. [23] In conjunction, the SAM and HPA systems work to regulate stress and unite at the hypothalamus, which in turn regulates behavior. [23]

Infancy, early childhood, and stress

When the body undergoes a stressful situation, the stress hormone cortisol is released. Cortisol helps the body prepare for stressful and dangerous situations. It gives a quick burst of energy, heightened memory and lower sensitivity to pain, among other things. [24] When cortisol is present in the body at high levels and for extended periods of time, however, the body's immune response may be suppressed. [4] This leaves the developing bodies of children extremely vulnerable to damage and illness. Cortisol is usually bound to proteins in adults. The protein is called the corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG). [23] In newborn babies, CBGs remain low and increase during the first six months after birth. [23] Therefore, as the amount of CBGs increase, more cortisol becomes bound to the CBGs. Due to this occurrence, plasma and total cortisol levels increase. [23] Although there are low levels of cortisol at birth, the levels are sufficient to have serious physiological effects. [23]

Newborns do not manifest typical adult circadian rhythms in cortisol production. Usually, newborns have peak cortisol levels every 12 hours and this does not depend on the time of day. [23] After three months of life, babies begin to experience the adult cortisol production patterns, an early morning cortisol peak and low evening levels of cortisol. [23] These cortisol rhythmic changes occur throughout infancy and early childhood, along with changes in sleep patterns. [23] The activity of the HPA stress system adapts by repeated exposure to stressful stimulation. [25]

As newborns progress through the early months of life, babies experience increased cortisol levels during medical examinations. This is physically characterized by the fussing and crying of babies. [23] After three months of life, babies do not respond to physical examinations with the HPA stress response system. However, babies can still respond to behavioral distress. [23] As another example, if blood is drawn from a baby, the baby experiences an increased cortisol level. [25] When this process is repeated 24 hours later, the same increase in cortisol is observed. [25] In addition, during the first year of life, it becomes difficult to induce cortisol level increases to some mild stressors. These stressors include the approach of a stranger, strange events, few-minute separations from parents, and more. [23] The decreased sensitivity of the HPA stress response may be due to physiological changes that occur in the system during early ages. The physiological changes that may occur include improved negative feedback regulation of the HPA system, and decreased sensitivity of the adrenal cortex to ACTH. [23] Also, the availability of adult support for young children helps safeguard the activity of the HPA stress system. [23]

The effects of repeated increases in cortisol levels have been researched in many animal studies, but these types of controlled studies are not ethical to conduct in humans. [25] It has been determined that when glucocorticoids, including cortisol, are placed into various parts of rats' brains for many days, CRH is produced in increased quantities. [25] In turn, this causes fear behaviors, increased caution, and activation of competing regulatory systems. The hypothesized mechanism of action that causes permanent damage in the toxic stress theory is that excessive levels of cortisol may cause neuronal cell death, particularly in the hippocampus, which has relatively high levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Because children's brains are developing relatively more compared to later in life, there is concern that their brains might be relatively more vulnerable to stressors compared to adults. [26] Research has shown that children who have experienced extended periods of extreme stress have smaller brains. Children who had experienced more intense and lasting stressful events in their lives posted lower scores on tests of spatial working memory. [26] They had more trouble navigating tests of short-term memory as well. The region of the brain that is most affected by increased levels of cortisol and other glucocorticoids is the hippocampus. [25]

Research has found that infants and young children with higher cortisol levels produce smaller electrical changes in their brain when they are forming memories. [25] This impairs new memory formation. [25] In addition, children who have increased levels of cortisol, during daycare or nursery school time, experience extreme hardship upholding attention. [25] Maintaining attention is a part of self-regulation, and these children are not able to regulate their behaviors due to the high cortisol levels. [25] Therefore, memory, attention-span, and self-regulation are influenced by cortisol production. [25]

Despite the concerns about the impact of stress and cortisol on developing brains, the existing data are inconsistent. Some children manifest low levels of cortisol production under stress, and some experience high cortisol levels. While one concern is that children with higher levels of glucocorticoids may be prone to have the most problems with physical, social, mental, and motor development, [25] research has neither determined whether these effects are permanent, nor whether these associations would hold up under more rigorous prospective studies.

Toxic stress

Toxic stress is a term coined by pediatrician Jack P. Shonkoff of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to refer to chronic, excessive stress that exceeds a child's ability to cope, especially in the absence of supportive caregiving from adults. [27]

According to Shonkoff, extreme, long-lasting stress in the absence of supportive relationships to buffer the effects of a heightened stress response can produce damage and weakening of bodily and brain systems, which can lead to diminished physical and mental health throughout a person's lifetime. Extreme exposure to such toxic stress can result in the stress response system becoming more highly sensitized to stressful events, producing increased wear and tear on physical systems through over-activation of the body's stress response. This wear and tear increases the later risk of various physical and mental illnesses. [15]

Other symptoms and effects of stress on children

Physical

Stress may make the body more susceptible to infections, cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure, obesity, slower healing, viruses and gastrointestinal problems. [4] [28] Stress can affect children's growth and development, including the onset of puberty. [28] Some of the physical cues that may be indicative of stress in children are rashes on skin and skin diseases such as eczema, acne and hair loss, worsening asthma, insomnia or hypersomnia, frequent headaches, muscle aches, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. [28] Extreme fatigue, chest pain, racing heartbeat, shaking, cold and clammy hands and feet, frequently ill, and even ulcers are some other physical symptoms manifested due to stress. [28]

Emotional

When children cannot handle stress they may begin to develop emotional problems. They may become severely depressed, lacking in energy and motivation. [28] They may develop strange personality traits such as violence and disobedience. [28] Personality disorders may arise as well. Posttraumatic stress disorder may come about in children who have experienced stressors that are traumatic such as abuse or neglect. [29]

Psychological

Changes in mood or personality, increased irritability or aggressiveness are some psychological symptoms indicative of stress in children. Frustration, feelings of guilt or confusion, isolating themselves from family and friends. Children may also exhibit symptoms of anxiety. They may begin to have new fears and nightmares or even paranoia.[19] They may lie to others to avoid situations to cover up their feelings. [30] Most often anxiety in children stems from academic stressors and being overwhelmed with responsibilities with workload. [30]

Social

Children under extreme stress tend to withdraw from their family and friends. [28] They spend more time alone and lack motivation. Children may begin to struggle in school and on their assignments. [31] They may have difficulties in paying attention and act with anger and irritability towards others. [4]

Behavioral

Children may exhibit behavioral symptoms such as over-activity, disobedience to parental or caretaker's instructions. New habits or habits of regression may appear, such as thumb-sucking, wetting the bed and teeth grinding. Children may exhibit changes in eating habits or other habits such as biting nails or picking at skin due to stress. [28] They may become more accident-prone, cry more often, stutter, or get into fights. [31]

Long-term effects of stress on children

The ACE Pyramid represents the conceptual framework for the ACE Study, which has uncovered how adverse childhood experiences are strongly related to various risk factors for disease throughout the lifespan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ACE Pyramid.gif
The ACE Pyramid represents the conceptual framework for the ACE Study, which has uncovered how adverse childhood experiences are strongly related to various risk factors for disease throughout the lifespan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) conducted between 1995 and 1997 on 17,337 participants by Dr. Vincent Felitti from the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization and Dr. Robert Anda from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated the association of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with health and social problems as an adult.

Participants were asked about the following types of childhood trauma:

The ACE study found that ACEs have a dose–response relationship with many health problems. As researchers followed participants over time, they discovered that a person's cumulative ACEs score has a strong, graded relationship to numerous health, social, and behavioral problems throughout their lifespan, including substance use disorders. Furthermore, many problems related to ACEs tend to be comorbid, or co-occurring.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Poulsen, Marie K., and Karen M. Finello. "Foundations of Early Childhood Mental Health: Public Health & Life Course Perspectives." Preventive Medicine 583 Lecture. University of Southern California, Los Angeles. 25 Aug. 2011. Lecture.
  2. ↑ Lewis, Andrew James; Galbally, Megan; Gannon, Tara; Symeonides, Christos (2014). "Early life programming as a target for prevention of child and adolescent mental disorders". BMC Medicine. 12 (33): 33. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-12-33 . PMC   3932730 . PMID   24559477. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jewett, Jan (1997). "Childhood Stress". Childhood Education. 73 (3): 172–73. doi:10.1080/00094056.1997.10522682.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Middlebrooks, J.S.; Audage, N.C. (2008). The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan (PDF). Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-02-05.
  5. ↑ Gilbertson, MW; Shenton, ME; Ciszewski, A; et al. (2002). "Smaller hippocampal volume predicts pathologic vulnerability to psychological trauma". Nature Neuroscience. 5 (11): 1242–1247. doi:10.1038/nn958. PMC   2819093 . PMID   12379862.
  6. ↑ DiGangi, JA; Gomez, D; Mendoza, L; et al. (2013). "Pretrauma risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review of the literature". Clinical Psychology Review. 33 (6): 728–744. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.05.002. PMID   23792469.
  7. ↑ Schmidt, U; Willmund, GD; Holsboer, F; et al. (2015). "Searching for non-genetic molecular and imaging PTSD risk and resilience markers: Systematic review of literature and design of the German Armed Forces PTSD biomarker study". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 51: 444–458. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.08.020. PMID   25236294. S2CID   207459216.
  8. ↑ "Key Concepts: Toxic Stress". Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Shonkoff, J. P; Garner, A. S; Siegel, B. S; Dobbins, M. I; Earls, M. F; Garner, A. S; McGuinn, L; Pascoe, J; Wood, D. L (2011). "The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress". Pediatrics. 129 (1): e232–46. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2663 . PMID   22201156.
  10. ↑ Effects of Stress on the Body | Lachina. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://lachina.com/blog/effects-stress-body/
  11. ↑ Schechter, Daniel S; Willheim, Erica; McCaw, Jaime; Turner, J. Blake; Myers, Michael M; Zeanah, Charles H (2011). "The Relationship of Violent Fathers, Posttraumatically Stressed Mothers and Symptomatic Children in a Preschool-Age Inner-City Pediatrics Clinic Sample". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 26 (18): 3699–719. doi:10.1177/0886260511403747. PMID   22170456. S2CID   206562093.
  12. ↑ Schechter, Daniel S; Willheim, Erica (2009). "Disturbances of Attachment and Parental Psychopathology in Early Childhood". Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 18 (3): 665–86. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2009.03.001. PMC   2690512 . PMID   19486844.
  13. ↑ Davies, Douglas. "Chapter 3: Risk and Protective Factors: The Child, The Family, and Community Contexts." Child Development, A Practitioner's Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press. Print.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Toxic Stress: The Facts". Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
  15. 1 2 3 National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2014). "Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain: Working Paper 3" (PDF). Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.
  16. ↑ McEwen, Bruce S. (1998). "Stress, Adaptation, and Disease: Allostasis and Allostatic Load". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 840 (1): 33–44. Bibcode:1998NYASA.840...33M. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1998.tb09546.x. ISSN   1749-6632. PMID   9629234. S2CID   20043016.
  17. ↑ McEwen, B.S.; Stellar, E. (1993). "Stress and the individual. Mechanisms leading to disease". Archives of Internal Medicine. 153 (18): 2093–2101. doi:10.1001/archinte.153.18.2093. ISSN   0003-9926. PMID   8379800.
  18. ↑ "Toxic stress and children's outcomes: African American children growing up poor are at greater risk of disrupted physiological functioning and depressed academic achievement".
  19. ↑ Slopen, Natalie; Shonkoff, Jack P.; Albert, Michelle A.; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Jacobs, Aryana; Stoltz, Rebecca; Williams, David R. (2016). "Racial Disparities in Child Adversity in the U.S." American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 50 (1): 47–56. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2015.06.013. PMID   26342634.
  20. ↑ Fagundes, Christopher P., and Baldwin Way. "Early-Life Stress and Adult Inflammation." Current Directions in Psychological Science 23.4 (2014): n. pag. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/23/4/277.full>.
  21. ↑ Tennant, V. (2005). School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-The Powerful Impact of Stress. Johns Hopkins School of Education - Home. Retrieved February 2013, from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/ Archived 2013-05-01 at the Wayback Machine topics/Keeping%20Fit%20for%20Learning/stress.html.
  22. ↑ "Racism is an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)". 2 July 2020.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Gunnar, Megan, and Karina Quevedo. "The Neurobiology of Stress and Development."Advance (2007): 145–65. Annual Reviews. Web. 8 October 2011. <www.annualreviews.org>.
  24. ↑ Cortisol and Stress: How Cortisol Affects Your Body, and How To Stay Healthy in the Face of Stress. Stress and Stress Management - Causes, Symptoms, Stress Relief Tips and Stress Tests. Retrieved from http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Gunnar, Megan R.; Barr, Ronald G. (1998). "Stress, Early Brain Development, and Behavior". Inf Young Children. 11 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1097/00001163-199807000-00004.
  26. 1 2 Hanson, J. L; Chung, M. K; Avants, B. B; Rudolph, K. D; Shirtcliff, E. A; Gee, J. C; Davidson, R. J; Pollak, S. D (2012). "Structural Variations in Prefrontal Cortex Mediate the Relationship between Early Childhood Stress and Spatial Working Memory". Journal of Neuroscience. 32 (23): 7917–25. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0307-12.2012. PMC   3375595 . PMID   22674267.
  27. ↑ "How does the 'toxic stress' of poverty hurt the developing brain?". PBS NewsHour. 27 June 2015.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 WebMD. Stress Symptoms: Effects of Stress on the Body. WebMD - Better information. Better health. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body.
  29. ↑ PTSD in Children. Dendrite Forest, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.forests.com/ptsdchil1.html.
  30. 1 2 DeNoon, Daniel J. "Your Child and Anxiety: School Stress Starts Early". WebMD.
  31. 1 2 Children and Stress: Caring Strategies to Guide Children - Home - Virginia Cooperative Extension. Publications and Educational Resources - Home – Virginia Cooperative Extension. Retrieved from http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/350/350-054/350-054.html.
  32. ↑ "The ACE Pyramid". Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. May 2014. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016.
  33. ↑ "About the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causes of mental disorders</span> Etiology of psychopathology

A mental disorder is an impairment of the mind disrupting normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, or social interactions, and accompanied by significant distress or dysfunction. The causes of mental disorders are very complex and vary depending on the particular disorder and the individual. Although the causes of most mental disorders are not fully understood, researchers have identified a variety of biological, psychological, and environmental factors that can contribute to the development or progression of mental disorders. Most mental disorders result in a combination of several different factors rather than just a single factor.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life or well-being. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stress (biology)</span> Organisms response to a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus

Stress, whether physiological, biological or psychological, is an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition. Stress is the body's method of reacting to a condition such as a threat, challenge or physical and psychological barrier. There are two hormones that an individual produces during a stressful situation, well known as adrenaline and cortisol. There are two kinds of stress hormone levels. Resting (basal) cortisol levels are normal everyday quantities that are essential for standard functioning. Reactive cortisol levels are increases in cortisol in response to stressors. Stimuli that alter an organism's environment are responded to by multiple systems in the body. In humans and most mammals, the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are the two major systems that respond to stress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis</span> Set of physiological feedback interactions

The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis is a complex set of direct influences and feedback interactions among three components: the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands. These organs and their interactions constitute the HPA axis.

Gender is correlated with the prevalence of certain mental disorders, including depression, anxiety and somatic complaints. For example, women are more likely to be diagnosed with major depression, while men are more likely to be diagnosed with substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder. There are no marked gender differences in the diagnosis rates of disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Men are at risk to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to past violent experiences such as accidents, wars and witnessing death, and women are diagnosed with PTSD at higher rates due to experiences with sexual assault, rape and child sexual abuse. Nonbinary or genderqueer identification describes people who do not identify as either male or female. People who identify as nonbinary or gender queer show increased risk for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. People who identify as transgender demonstrate increased risk for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allostatic load</span> Wear and tear on the body due to stress

Allostatic load is "the wear and tear on the body" which accumulates as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress. The term was coined by Bruce McEwen and Eliot Stellar in 1993. It represents the physiological consequences of chronic exposure to fluctuating or heightened neural or neuroendocrine response which results from repeated or prolonged chronic stress.

Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse, witnessing abuse of a sibling or parent, or having a mentally ill parent. These events have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts and can have negative, lasting effects on health and well-being such as unsocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep disturbances. Similarly, children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Prenatal stress is exposure of an expectant mother to psychosocial or physical stress, which can be caused by daily life events or by environmental hardships. This psychosocial or physical stress that the expectant mother is experiencing has an effect on the fetus. According to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), a wide range of environmental factors a woman may experience during the perinatal period can contribute to biological impacts and changes in the fetus that then causes health risks later in the child's life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Schechter</span> American neuroscientist

Daniel S. Schechter is an American and Swiss psychiatrist known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children. His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11, 2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship, formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal. This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory, psychological trauma, developmental psychobiology and neuroscience literatures

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of stress on memory</span> Overview of the effects of stress on memory

The effects of stress on memory include interference with a person's capacity to encode memory and the ability to retrieve information. Stimuli, like stress, improved memory when it was related to learning the subject. During times of stress, the body reacts by secreting stress hormones into the bloodstream. Stress can cause acute and chronic changes in certain brain areas which can cause long-term damage. Over-secretion of stress hormones most frequently impairs long-term delayed recall memory, but can enhance short-term, immediate recall memory. This enhancement is particularly relative in emotional memory. In particular, the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and the amygdala are affected. One class of stress hormone responsible for negatively affecting long-term, delayed recall memory is the glucocorticoids (GCs), the most notable of which is cortisol. Glucocorticoids facilitate and impair the actions of stress in the brain memory process. Cortisol is a known biomarker for stress. Under normal circumstances, the hippocampus regulates the production of cortisol through negative feedback because it has many receptors that are sensitive to these stress hormones. However, an excess of cortisol can impair the ability of the hippocampus to both encode and recall memories. These stress hormones are also hindering the hippocampus from receiving enough energy by diverting glucose levels to surrounding muscles.

Child neglect, often overlooked, is the most common form of child maltreatment. Most perpetrators of child abuse and neglect are the parents themselves. A total of 79.4% of the perpetrators of abused and neglected children are the parents of the victims, and of those 79.4% parents, 61% exclusively neglect their children. The physical, emotional, and cognitive developmental impacts from early childhood neglect can be detrimental, as the effects from the neglect can carry on into adulthood.

Social stress is stress that stems from one's relationships with others and from the social environment in general. Based on the appraisal theory of emotion, stress arises when a person evaluates a situation as personally relevant and perceives that they do not have the resources to cope or handle the specific situation.

Recent research has looked into the effects of alcohol on the amount of cortisol that is produced in the human body. Continuous consumption of alcohol over an extended period of time has been shown to raise cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is released during periods of high stress, and can result in the temporary shut down of other physical processes, causing physical damage to the body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgenerational trauma</span> Psychological trauma

Transgenerational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that the trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations in that group. The primary modes of transmission are the uterine environment during pregnancy causing epigenetic changes in the developing embryo, and the shared family environment of the infant causing psychological, behavioral and social changes in the individual. The term intergenerational transmission refers to instances whereby the traumatic effects are passed down from the directly traumatized generation [F0] to their offspring [F1], and transgenerational transmission is when the offspring [F1] then pass the effects down to descendants who have not been exposed to the initial traumatic event - at least the grandchildren [F2] of the original sufferer for males, and their great-grandchildren [F3] for females.

Early childhood trauma refers to various types of adversity and traumatic events experienced during the early years of a person's life. This is deemed the most critical developmental period in human life by psychologists. A critical period refers to a sensitive time during the early years of childhood in which children may be more vulnerable to be affected by environmental stimulation. These traumatic events can include serious sickness, natural disasters, family violence, sudden separation from a family member, being the victim of abuse, or suffering the loss of a loved one. Traumatic experiences in early childhood can result in severe consequences throughout adulthood, for instance developing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety. Negative childhood experiences can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. However, not all children who are exposed to negative stimuli in early childhood will be affected severely in later life; some children come out unscathed after being faced with traumatic events, which is known as resilience. Many factors can account for the invulnerability displayed by certain children in response to adverse social conditions: gender, vulnerability, social support systems, and innate character traits. Much of the research in this area has referred to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) study. The ACE study found several protective factors against developing mental health disorders, including mother-child relations, parental health, and community support. However, having adverse childhood experiences creates long-lasting impacts on psychosocial functioning, such as a heightened awareness of environmental threats, feelings of loneliness, and cognitive deficits. Individuals with ACEs are more prone to developing severe symptoms than individuals in the same diagnostic category.

Maternal fetal stress transfer is a physiological phenomenon in which psychosocial stress experienced by a mother during her pregnancy can be transferred to the fetus. Psychosocial stress describes the brain's physiological response to perceived social threat. Because of a link in blood supply between a mother and fetus, it has been found that stress can leave lasting effects on a developing fetus, even before a child is born. According to recent studies, these effects are mainly the result of two particular stress biomarkers circulating in the maternal blood supply: cortisol and catecholamines.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. The categories are verbal abuse, physical abuse, contact sexual abuse, a battered mother, household substance abuse, household mental illness, incarcerated household members, and parental separation or divorce. The experiences chosen were based upon prior research that has shown to them to have significant negative health or social implications, and for which substantial efforts are being made in the public and private sector to reduce their frequency of occurrence. Scientific evidence is mounting that such adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a profound long-term effect on health. Research shows that exposure to abuse and to serious forms of family dysfunction in the childhood family environment are likely to activate the stress response, thus potentially disrupting the developing nervous, immune, and metabolic systems of children. ACEs are associated with lifelong physical and mental health problems that emerge in adolescence and persist into adulthood, including cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune diseases, substance abuse, and depression.

Epigenetics of anxiety and stress–related disorders is the field studying the relationship between epigenetic modifications of genes and anxiety and stress-related disorders, including mental health disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and more. These changes can lead to transgenerational stress inheritance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological stress and sleep</span> Effects of stress on sleep patterns

Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity, and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and reduced interactions with surroundings. An essential aspect of sleep is that it provides the human body with a period of reduced functioning that allows for the systems throughout the body to be repaired. This time allows for the body to recharge and return to a phase of optimal functioning. It is recommended that adults get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Sleep is regulated by an internal process known as the circadian rhythm. This 24-hour cycle regulates periods of alertness and tiredness that an individual experiences. The correlation between psychological stress and sleep is complex and not fully understood. In fact, many studies have found a bidirectional relationship between stress and sleep. This means that sleep quality can affect stress levels, and stress levels can affect sleep quality. Sleep change depends on the type of stressor, sleep perception, related psychiatric conditions, environmental factors, and physiological limits.

In social psychology, social buffering is a phenomenon where social connections can alleviate negative consequences of stressful events.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.