Excessive stress disrupts the development of brain architecture

Abstract

Purpose – Drawing on the scientific literature, the purpose of this paper is to elucidate the harmful effects of toxic stress on the developing brain. It explains how severe, chronic adversity during development, in the absence of responsive caregiving, can impair brain architecture. It also outlines policy implications for preventing or mitigating the effects of toxic stress in early childhood. Design/methodology/approach – The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, based at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, is a multidisciplinary, multiuniversity panel of scholars that seeks to bring science to bear on public decision making. Council members selected excessive stress as a topic meriting translation for a general audience and conducted extensive peer review in drafting the paper's key scientific concepts. Findings – The paper discusses how healthy development can be derailed by excessive or prolonged activation of the biological stress response systems and how that increases lifetime risk for certain behavioural and physiological disorders. It finds that supportive relationships with caregivers can help buffer the negative consequences of toxic stress. Social implications – The paper calls for improvements to family support programmes, mental health services, and the quality and availability of early care and education. Originality/value – This paper describes an original taxonomy of positive, tolerable, and toxic stress and demonstrates the need to translate scientific knowledge about the developing brain into actionable strategies for the prevention and treatment of the effects of adverse childhood experiences.