Review
Early experience and the development of stress reactivity and regulation in children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.05.007Get rights and content

Abstract

Children who spend early portions of their lives in institutions or those maltreated in their families of origin are at risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems reflecting disorders of emotion and attention regulation. Animal models may help explicate the mechanisms producing these effects. Despite the value of the animal models, many questions remain in using the animal data to guide studies of human development. In 1999, the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States funded a research network to address unresolved issues and enhance translation of basic animal early experience research to application in child research. Professor Seymour Levine was both the inspiration for and an active member of this research network until his death in October of 2007. This review pays tribute to his legacy by outlining the conceptual model which is now guiding our research studies.

Section snippets

Conceptualizing early life stress

There is no agreed upon definition of ELS; indeed, there is considerable controversy about the definition of stress more generally (Levine and Ursin, 1991). Our research network adopted a working definition of ELS based on the following arguments. Stressors are events or conditions that threaten, or are perceived to threaten, physiological equilibrium (Weinstock, 2005). Stress responses involve activity in the central nervous system to mobilize endocrine, autonomic, and behavior systems to

Early life stress model

As pictured in Fig. 1, this model notes that caregiving experienced early in life regulates the activity of critical stress-sensitive systems, which in turn influence the development of systems involved in rapid appraisal and response to threat. Low parental nurturance results in chronic stress to the infant. This biases the developing threat system to rapidly orchestrate larger defense responses (fight/flight/freeze). Overactivity of both stress-and threat-response systems may then impact the

Model in action

Many of the studies described as supporting evidence for each of the components of the ELS model present examples of the feasibility of this model for translational ELS research. By drawing connections across each of the sections, one can start to see the utility of using this model to enhance our understanding of the how early caregiving experiences impact the neuroendocrine and neurobiological processes that contribute to the development of emotion- and attention-regulatory systems. For

Implications and future directions

Despite the prevalence of conditions of ELS and knowledge of the resultant behavioral difficulties, because researchers are just starting to better understand the impact of deprived conditions on development, there are relatively few studies of interventions. The cohesive neurobehavioral model presented here has large implications for consideration of intervention efforts. For example, intervention could target aspects of parenting in order to have a direct effect on the caregiving portion of

Acknowledgements

This manuscript reflects work of the Early Experience, Stress, and Prevention Science (now Neurobehavioral Development) network (now Center) supported by grant number R21 MH65046 from the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States. The members of the network were (in alphabetical order): Mary Dozier, Philip Fisher, Nathan Fox, Megan Gunnar, Paul Plotsky, Seth Pollak, Mar Sanchez, and Stephen Suomi. In addition to these network members, the Center now also includes (in alphabetical

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    This NIMH Interdisciplinary Developmental Science Center members are Jacqueline Bruce, Mary Dallman, Mary Dozier, Philip Fisher, Nathan Fox, Megan Gunnar, Kai McCormack, Katherine Pears, Paul Plotsky, Seth Pollak, James Ritchie, Mar Sanchez, and Stephen Suomi. Seymour Levine was a member of the research network that gave rise to this NIMH Center. He passed away as we were in the process of producing the grant revision that was funded.

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