Early childhood is a critical period in a child's life that includes ages from birth to five years old. 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. 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. When stress builds up in early childhood, neurobiological factors are affected. In turn, levels of the stress hormone cortisol exceed normal ranges. 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 and studies where neurobiological factors were measured in humans prior to stress or trauma exposure. Researchers have proposed three distinct types of responses to stress in young children: positive, tolerable, and toxic. These labels are based on theorized differences in lasting physiological changes occurring as a result of the intensity and duration of the stress response. Stress is caused by internal or external influences that disrupt an individual's normal state of well-being. These influences are capable of affecting health by causing emotional distress and leading to a variety of physiological changes. 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. 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). Additional external stressors include prenatal drug exposure, such as maternal methamphetamine use, other maternal and paternal substance abuse, maternal depression, posttraumatic stress and psychosis.
Levels of stress Researchers have proposed three different levels of stress seen in children during early childhood; positive, tolerable and toxic. Positive stress is necessary and promotes resilience, or the ability to function competently under threat. 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. 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. The first day of school, a family wedding or making new friends are all examples of positive stressors. 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. Tolerable stress comes from adverse experiences that are more intense in nature but short-lived and can usually be overcome. The body's stress response is more intensely activated due to severe stressors. 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. 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. Toxic stress can occur when experiences are long in duration and intensity. Children need caring and supportive adults to help them because it is difficult for children to handle this type of stress on their own. Therefore, the stress response may be activated from weeks to months or even years. Prolonged stress leads to adverse effects such as permanent emotional or developmental damage. If sufficient support is not available, this type of stress can result in permanent changes in brain development. Research has found that children experiencing severe and long-term abuse have smaller brain sizes. 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. However, with sufficient care and support from adults, children can return their stress levels to tolerable or good. Examples of toxic stress are abuse, neglect, violence and overall hardship without adult support. 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. 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.
Stages of stress Stress is encountered in four different stages in early childhood. In the first stage, stress usually causes alarm. Next, in the second or appraisal stage, the child attempts to find meaning from the event. Stage three consists of children seeking out coping strategies. Lastly, in stage four, children execute one or more of the coping strategies. However, children with lower tolerance for stressors are more susceptible to alarm and find a broader array of events to be stressful. These children often experience chronic or toxic stress.
Causes
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
