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Journal Article Review

“The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan”

Abbey M. Schwab

Department of Family & Consumer Sciences, Pittsburg State University

FCS 390: Interacting with Children

Dr. Amber Tankersley

October 14, 2021

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Journal Article Review

Stress can be both beneficial and detrimental to a person’s development and overall

health. Adults are not the only ones who struggle with forms of stress, but the reasons why they

may be dealing with more issues in adulthood could stem from the stress they endured

throughout their childhood. The article “The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the

Lifespan,” written by Jennifer S. Middlebrooks and Natalie C. Audage, digs deep into what

happens to adults, developmentally and physically, who experienced stress as a child. I chose

this article to review because, as an academic counselor, I will be helping students who are going

through a highly stressful time in their lives. I also chose this article because I was exposed to

emotional abuse from my father as a child. This article piqued my interest to explore how my

childhood could have affected who I am now.

Summary

Short-term stress is beneficial to our development because it prepares us to handle the

difficult things life throws at us. When stress becomes a crisis event, where the caregiver is

neglectful to support the child, or it becomes a long-term, intense situation, issues arise. Stress

over an extended period is responsible for both long-term and short-term health issues, changing

the brain's development and inhibiting both the nervous and immune systems. The article looks

at three specific kinds of stress.

Positive and tolerable stress is short-term and beneficial in building resilience if

adequately supported by an adult; these stresses might include a trip to the doctor or losing a

family member. If the child is not supported adequately through tolerable stress, it will lead to

serious health issues throughout their lifespan. Toxic stress is long-term and extremely harmful;
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examples include child abuse and neglect. A child cannot handle this kind of stress on their own,

and it leads to permeant changes in their brain development because the response system for

stress is functioning too much for too long. With the support of a trusting adult, the child can

become resilient and return to normal response system functioning. One in every seven children

ages two to seventeen experience maltreatment, and the perpetrator is most often a family

member.

The article goes into detail about what happens in our bodies when we are experiencing

stress. When hormones are released through our body over a long period of time, it leads to brain

impairment. One way we see this in development is a smaller brain where the brain circuits are

highly vulnerable, causing an individual to inadequately handle stress throughout their life. The

body also releases cortisol while under stress which weakens the immune system leading to

infections and chronic illnesses. When cortisol is released for too long in a child experiencing

stress, it damages a part of the brain called the hippocampus, responsible for learning and

memory; the damage done to the hippocampus in infancy continues into adulthood.

The article used the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) to further research how

childhood stress affects adults throughout their lifespan. ACE is used to understand the link

between abuse, neglect, and exposure to intimate partner violence during childhood and the

dangerous behaviors and health problems present in these same individuals as adults. Some of

the outcomes they found in individuals who scored above one on the ACE were alcohol abuse,

liver disease, depression, obstructive pulmonary disease, suicide attempts, and unintended

pregnancies. The higher an individual’s ACE score, the greater the probability for multiple risky

behaviors, health issues, and suicide attempts.

Reflection
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Reading this article, I was extremely heartbroken. Children are being exposed to horrible

things such as mistreatment, abuse, and neglect for long periods of time. Before reading this

article, I had some knowledge about how stress experienced during childhood affects us as adults

since I have watched multiple TedTalks on this topic. I did not know the specific types of stress

we experience and how some are beneficial to our development, such as positive and tolerable

stress. I was shocked at how many people scored over a one on the ACE. I would have scored at

least a two, and it leads me to wonder if my impaired immune system and depression are from

the stress I experienced as a child.

Connection to Class

With the right support system and positive home environment, children will most likely

experience beneficial stress and be able to handle it effectively. We have talked a lot about

resilience in class, which is overcoming and bouncing back from life’s challenging situations and

experiences. When a child’s home life is wrought with abuse and neglect, they are experiencing

risk factors for resilience within their family. One of the reasons the child will not be able to

handle future stress is because they were never able to build resiliency. If a child can be honest

and open about their anxiety with a parent or caregiver, they are likely to resolve their stress

effectively and learn to handle it better in the future. When the parent engages in these

supportive behaviors, they are using protective factors for resilience. Along with support, if the

parents or caregivers teach the child about inevitable changes, coping mechanisms for stress, and

keeping a good perspective, they are furthering the protective factors. Acute and chronic stress,

which we discussed in class, is similar to positive, tolerable, and toxic stress referenced in the

article. Acute stress is short-term like positive, and tolerable, while chronic stress is ongoing,
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causing many issues like toxic stress. It is essential to know the signs of abuse and neglect in

children to step in and advocate for the child if needed.

Application

I want to use the information presented in this article in my career as an academic

counselor as I advocate for this research to be presented in classes and workshops. In my career,

I will be talking to many different academic committees on campus about course material. I

could suggest psychology, nursing, and pre-med classes include information about how child

maltreatment can lead to numerous health issues later in life. It will be necessary for our future

nurses, doctors, and psychologists to be aware of the signs of child abuse and how someone’s

childhood experiences can negatively affect their mental and physical well-being as an adult. I

would also hold workshops where we talked about how one’s childhood could affect their habits

in drinking, choosing a partner, and engaging in other risky behaviors. As I am counseling my

students one-on-one, I could encourage them to take the ACE to understand if the stress they

experienced as a child could be causing some of their difficulties at college.

Conclusion

Although stress is inevitable in childhood and adulthood, we never want it to hit a

breaking point. Children are being exposed to things they never should be, causing issues

throughout their lifespan. If children are supported through stressful, difficult situations, they can

build resilience. As an academic counselor, I can implement a curriculum to educate people on

how their childhood stress could be causing lifelong issues. When we are trained to spot child

maltreatment, we can all step up to advocate for change; the toxic cycle stops with us.