Forty years of research on stress and development: What have we learned and future directions.

Abstract

Psychoendocrine research on stress in healthy children and adolescents is entering its fifth decade. Forty some years ago, the questions we were asking about the role of stress hormones in human development, most notably, cortisol, were quite different, and much more humble, than the ones we are asking today. From these humble beginnings, human developmental psychoendocrine research has burgeoned, until today the search terms "cortisol and children and emotion" returns over 11,000 citations. This review will not cover the entire field of work on this system in pediatric populations. It will focus for the most part on physically healthy children. Where psychiatric disorders are discussed, it will be within the context of the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis in transducing early life stress (ELS) into psychopathological outcomes. What will be covered in some detail is work on parent-child relationships as regulators of the HPA axis in childhood and adolescence, child care, peer relations, and early life stress (ELS) and its effects of stress reactivity.

Assessing unpredictability in caregiver–child relationships: Insights from theoretical and empirical perspectives

“…It is plausible that capacities to evaluate those experiences that are more relevant to the basic elements of survival directly tied to infants' biological needs, such as the predictability of feeding patterns, may develop first. Additionally, both in infancy and across development, it is likely that both the actual experience and the perception of unpredictability guide processes of neural and behavioral adaptations (Gunnar, 2021). Nonetheless, Smith and Pollak's (2021a) introduction of the notion of perception re-centers the conversation on the ubiquitous nature of tendencies to make predictions and regulate development based on the violation of these predictions (Frankenhuis et al, 2013).…”

The role of social-evaluative threat for cortisol profiles in response to psychosocial stress: A person-centered approach.

“…Although the sample was racially diverse and ranged in age from 18 to 52 years, it was comprised predominantly of healthy young adults at two university communities. Both puberty and older adulthood have been linked to altered cortisol stress responding, though findings are not unequivocal (Gunnar, 2021; Kudielka et al, 2009). In addition, adolescents and young adults may be more sensitive to SET (Sumter et al, 2010).…”

Persistence of Anxiety/Depression Symptoms in Early Adolescence: A Prospective Study of Daily Life Stress, Rumination, and Daytime Sleepiness in a Genetically Informative Cohort

“…There is a robust literature supporting links between stressors and child and adolescent psychopathology (Grant et al, 2004;Gunnar, 2021). Early adolescence is marked by significant transitions in stress reactivity, as pubertal development and stress interact to impact one of the body's main stress response systemsthe hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Romeo, 2010).…”

“…Indeed, studies in rats show that HPA axis function in response to stressors is prolonged in adolescence, compared to adulthood (McCormick & Mathews, 2007). While most studies to date have focused on the effects of adverse life events (Grant et al, 2004;Gunnar, 2021), perceived stress in relation to everyday stressors has also emerged as a marker for risk of developing a mental disorder (Lindholdt et al, 2021). School-related stressors have been identified as a major source of subjective stress in adolescents (Anniko et al, 2019;Kaczmarek & Trambacz-Oleszak, 2021).…”