Toxic Stress on

young children

-Abigail Torres-Jimenez ECE 250

What is Stress? What is toxic stress?

- Stress is defined as a mental/emotional strain/tension from a result of a demanding

circumstance.
- Stress is normal and is an essential part to child development because it helps
develop self-regulation & coping skills. Ex: hard test at school

- Toxic stress is stress that is frequent, severe, and unaddressed and has immediate
and long term neurodevelopmental impacts.
- Examples. mental/physical/verbal abuse , and neglect
Toxic Stress continued..
Homeostasis and Toxic Stress.

- Homeostasis= the state of stable equilibrium

- When we stress our bodies shift out of homeostasis and as adults throughout our lives we have
come to learn how to come back to our homeostasis but children are still learning. when stress
become so constant (TOXIC STRESS) the body can stop returning to homeostasis, adults
encounter this but it is most dangerous in children because they are still adjusting on how to
achieve homeostasis.
- If we are trying to master a skill but don’t have the proper experience or help mastering a certain
task, mastering anything is difficult.
- Homeostasis to children is a task they have not mastered so when there is so much of it
children's bodies & minds can dangerously & permanently become misaligned by Toxic
stress.
Toxic stress & child development

Research has linked toxic stress in childhood to ..

- Increased risk of depression

- Addiction
- Teen pregnancy
- Alcoholism
- Liver disease
- Heart disease
- Suicidality
- Developmental delays
ACE study

What is ACE?

- Adverse childhood experiences

- Study conducted by Vincent Felitti in 1985 in San Diego, California
- Provided solid evidence that early physical & emotional experiences contribute to negative adult
physical & mental health issues
- How it worked?
- A survey was given to 17,421 adults
- Survey asked about ACE experiences before the age of 18
- Aces included; physical,emotional,and sexual abuse, drugs/alcohol abuser w/in their home,
incarcerated family member, violence, no parents/divorced parents, mental illness w/in
their home, and emotional or physical neglect
ACE continued..

Calculations were different participate to participate but overall conclusion was that 1 in 8
participants had at least one ACE experience and those with an ACE experience had negative
health issues. For example when comparing ACE experience to 0, the results were as followed.

- 240% increased risk of stroke

- 260% increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- 1,220% increased risk of suicidality

There are still ACE studies being conducted with new ACE experiences such as poverty,
discrimination, and community violence, etc .
Things to look out for...

- Death of a loved one

- Parent struggling with addiction
- absent / neglectful parent
- Teen parents (who may both work & study)
- Family stress ex; loss of a job
- Change in behavior ex; fearfulness, depression, enthusiasm, lack of interest etc.
What can we do?
- Be there for the child ( most important)
- Having an ACE experience does not necessarily destine children to health issues and a troubled
adulthood, How ? Children can handle stress, as long as they have one thing a nurturing supportive
caregiver, teacher, guardian etc
- “The most toxic part of toxic stress is not the stress itself, it’s stress w/o a supportive caregiver to
help alleviate it”. - Letourneau, Nicole & Joschko, Justin
- Promote social and emotional development
- Establish a personal, nurturing responsive relationship with every child.
- Listen with care and ask the child about thing that interest them
- Promote positive approaches to learning
- Communicate with families of children
- Be Aware
- Being aware may seem hard if you have a large group of children but establishing a connection
with children can help ease the stress of being aware of everything because if a child trust you they
can confide in you.
Conclusion

Toxic stress can impact a child tremendously from development issues to life long health issues, The
most toxic part of toxic stress is not the stress itself, it’s stress w/o a supportive caregiver to help
alleviate it. As future caregiver, teachers, directors etc we can make that difference in a child's life from
helping alleviate the stress to promoting the best social and emotional development we can possibly
provide. Let us help Children thrive through their ACE’s so they don’t become just another statistics.
Sources.
1. “Toxic Stress.” Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University,
developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-stress/.
2. Dowd, M. D. (2017). Early adversity, toxic stress, and resilience: Pediatrics for today.
Pediatric Annals, 46(7), e246-249.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/19382359-20170615-01
3. Letourneau, N., & Joschko, J. (2014, Jul 03). How toxic stress is hurting our children.
Eckville Echo Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1542993
650?accountid=27953
4. Copple, Carol Ed., and Sue Ed. Bredekamp. “The Preschool Years.” Developmentally
Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through
Age 8. Third Edition, pp. 119–129.
5. Clemmitt, Marcia. "Students Under Stress." CQ Researcher, 13 July 2007, pp. 577-600,
library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2007071300.