Videos

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development

Content in This Guide

Step 1: Toxic Stress 101

Step 2: The Science and Social Causes of Toxic Stress

Step 3: Preventing and Addressing Toxic Stress

Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy development. While moderate, short-lived stress responses in the body can promote growth, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body’s stress management system in the absence of protective adult support. Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health.

This video is from Three Core Concepts in Early Development, a three-part video series from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

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