This month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a landmark warning that  toxic stress can harm children for life. The policy statement, published in Pediatrics (29:1), asserts that to have a well-educated healthy workforce, we must focus on reducing toxic stress in childhood. Severe or ongoing stress in childhood can harm the emerging brain structure and result in lifelong deficits in learning, behavior and health that can even be passed down to following generations, the authors say.

In drawing their conclusions, the authors cite seminal research conducted here at Cornell by the late Urie Bronfenbrenner, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of human development and of psychology, and by John Eckenrode, professor of human development and director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.

Links

Op-Ed Story in New York Times: A poverty solution that begins with a hug

AAP Policy Statment: Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health

AAP Technical Report: The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress