Stress and allostatic load in childhood and adolescence

Abstract

Research conducted over the past century has confirmed that severe and chronic stressful experiences undermine physical and mental health across the lifespan. In recent decades, McEwen's model of allostatic load has become one of the leading explanatory frameworks for understanding the mechanisms by which stressors affect health. Allostatic load reflects “stress getting under the skin,” or the cumulative damage to multiple neurobiological systems due to the persistent and extreme demands that chronic stress place upon the body over time. As such, allostatic load is inherently a developmental model. This chapter reviews foundational and current perspectives on stress and allostatic load, with particular focus on evaluating the evidence that the allostatic load model can be applied effectively to understand the effects of stress on health in childhood and adolescence. The chapter concludes with several issues that should be considered in efforts to continue building a developmental perspective on stress and allostatic load in the first two decades of life.