[ad_1]
Adversity at the beginning of life tends to affect the skills of a child's executive functions – their ability to focus, for example, or to organize tasks.
Experiences such as poverty, residential instability, parental divorce or addiction can also alter a child's brain chemistry and reduce the effects of stress hormones. These hormones rise to help us cope with challenges, stress, or simply "get up and go."
Together, these impacts on executive function and stress hormones create a snowball effect, adding to the social and emotional challenges that can continue throughout childhood. A new study from the University of Washington examines how adversity can change how children develop.
"This study shows how adversity affects many systems in a child," said Liliana Lengua, lead author of the study, professor of psychology at UW and director of the Center for the Well-Being. to be of the child and the family. "The disruption of multiple systems of self-control, both intentional planning efforts and automatic responses stress hormones, triggers a cascade of neurobiological effects that begins early and continues throughout the entire life." childhood."
The study, published on May 10 in Development and psychopathology, evaluated 306 children at intervals of more than two years, starting when the participants were about 3 years old, until the age of 5 and a half years. Children belonged to a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, with 57% of them clbadified as having a lower income or close to poverty.
Income was a key marker of adversity. In addition, mothers of children were asked about other risk factors related to poor health and behavior, including family transitions, residential instability and negative events such as abuse or incarceration of a parent.
Based on these data, the Lengua team tested the skills of children's executive functions through a series of activities and, by means of saliva samples, 39, a stress response hormone called diurnal cortisol.
The hormone that "helps us meet the challenge," said Lengua, cortisol tends to follow a daily or daytime pattern: it rises early in the morning, helping us to wake up. It is higher in the morning – think of it as the energy needed to cope with the day – and then begins to fall throughout the day. But the trend is different among children and adults who face constant stress, said Lengua.
"What we see in people with chronic adversity is that their morning levels are quite low and stagnant all day, every day, when a person is constantly facing high levels of stress, the response to Cortisol becomes immune and the system stops responding. This means that they do not have the cortisol levels they need to be alert, awake and emotionally ready to meet the challenges of the day, "she said. .
To badess the executive function, the researchers chose activities that were appropriate for preschool children, which measured each child's ability to follow instructions, to be cautious and to take steps contrary to impulse. For example, in a game titled "Feet to the Head, Knees and Shoulders", children are asked to do the opposite of what a researcher tells them to do – if the researcher says, "touch your head ", the child is supposed to touch their toes. In another activity, the children interact with two puppets – a monkey and a dragon – but are supposed to follow only the instructions given by the monkey.
When children better understand the instructions given during these activities and similar activities, they generally have better social skills and manage their emotions when they are stressed. Children who did these tasks well also tended to have more typical diurnal cortisol patterns.
However, children in families with lower incomes and greater adversity tended to have both lower executive function and atypical diuretic cortisol regimen. Each of these contributed to more behavioral problems and decreased socio-emotional skills among children while they were about to start kindergarten.
The study shows that not only low income and adversity affect children's adjustment, but also these self-regulation systems, which add to the problems of childbirth. Adaptation of children. "Taken together, it's like a snowball effect, with adverse effects adding up," Lengua said.
Although previous research has highlighted the effects of adversity on executive function and the specific relationship between cortisol and executive function, this new study shows additive effects over time, said Lengua.
"The executive function is an indicator that shows the functioning of cognitive regulation.Cortisol is the neuroendocrine response, an automatic response, and both appear constantly as being related to each other and having an impact about the behavior of children, "she said.
The research could be used to inform parenting programs, early childhood and school-based interventions, Lengua said. Safe and stable environments and communities, as well as positive parenting practices, encourage child development, while the focus on healthy relationships and behaviors in preschool environments can help children of all ages. backgrounds – those who have great or low adversity.
Source link
