The effects of early experience and stress on children’s brain and behavioral development

Special Issue: The effects of early experience and stress on brain and behavioral development

From International Journal of Behavioral Development 

The collection of papers in this special issue reflects presentations from a 2010 conference, The theme was the effects of stress and early adversity on children’s development. Ranging from individuals studying stress resilience in nonhuman primates to researchers studying the effects of exposure to political violence within the context of the Middle East.

Three themes emerged from this series of papers. First, and most obvious, was the evidence that infants and children exposed to different types of adversity (specifically, trauma, neglect, or violence) are significantly affected by such exposure, and that these effects often persist. Second was identification of the underlying neurobiology of stress adversity. A third theme of the presentations provided a balance to the dire consequences and outcomes of early exposure to adversity. A number of papers suggested that individual differences in genetic, temperamental, or contextual factors could moderate exposure to stress such that certain children may     flourish or at least show a diminution of negative outcomes over time.

Read the introduction to this special issue for free

Article detqils
Fox, N., Zeanah, C., & Nelson, C. (2011). Introduction to the special issue on the effects of early experience and stress on brain and behavioral development International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36 (1), 1-1 DOI: 10.1177/0165025411407149

Link to table of contents for this special issue

Contents include:

• Differential susceptibility to long-term effects of quality of child care on externalizing behavior in adolescence?
• Impact of institutional care on attachment disorganization and insecurity of Ukrainian preschoolers: Protective effect of the long variant of the serotonin transporter gene (5HTT
• The confluence of adverse early experience and puberty on the cortisol awakening respons
• Cumulative effects of prenatal substance exposure and early adversity on foster children’s HPA-axis reactivity during a psychosocial stressor
• Neural responses to peer rejection in anxious adolescents: Contributions from the amygdala-hippocampal complex
• Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis physiology and cognitive control of behavior in stress inoculated monkeys
• Cortisol response to behavior problems in FMR1 premutation mothers of adolescents and adults with fragile X syndrome: A diathesis-stress model
• Parenting style as a moderator of effects of political violence: Cross-cultural comparison of Israeli Jewish and Arab children
• Living in the crossfire: Effects of exposure to political violence on Palestinian and Israeli mothers and children
• Genetic moderation of cortisol secretion in Holocaust survivors: A pilot study on the role of ADRA2B

 

Tags: cognitive control, cortisol secretion, developmental psychology, institutional care, substance exposure