Assess children's interpretations of stressors, environmental predictability, and cues of safety alongside event exposures to elucidate mechanisms of early adversity¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The review recommends moving beyond event-based assessment of early life stress by incorporating factors that influence children's interpretation of stressors. It argues that approaches focusing only on events miss other sources of variation in perceptions, and that further incorporation of factors shifting how individuals interpret their environment, combined with event-based methods and rigorous longitudinal studies with assessments at multiple timepoints, can illuminate specific neurobiological mechanisms and identify what produces resiliency. Specific factors named include perceived stress, controllability, predictability, environmental unpredictability, and cues of safety such as parental support.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Assessment instruments capturing children's perceptions and interpretations of stressors, environmental predictability and contingency, and cues of safety, in combination with event-based stress measures

Constraints¶

• The review notes there are probably bidirectional effects between exposure to stressful events and children's perceptions, making causality harder to establish through perception-focused approaches

Target Learners¶

• children exposed to chronic or extreme stress in early life

Target Learning Goals¶

• elucidating neurobiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in children's outcomes after early life stress and identifying sources of resiliency

Claims¶

• Children's perception and interpretation of stressors, rather than event type alone, shapes neurobiological stress responses [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Karen E. Smith and Seth D. Pollak. (2020). Early life stress and development: potential mechanisms for adverse outcomes. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-020-09337-y