From Resources to Routines: The Importance of Stability in the Developmental Environment 

Beginning before birth, children’s health and development are shaped by a constellation of influences in their developmental environment—the full range of experiences and exposures in the places where they live, grow, play, and learn.

Stability is an essential part of a healthy developmental environment, and promoting stability across the web of influences in children’s lives offers a vital opportunity to support early development and lifelong health. Strengthening stability in one area—such as housing, caregiver relationships, or financial security—can have a multiplier effect across other parts of a child’s environment.

The decisions we make as a society can help promote or derail stability in the communities where caregivers are raising young children, including policies that may at first glance seem far removed from young children—such as zoning laws, labor policies, and climate response. Over time, these decisions have created an unfair distribution of both adversity and opportunity across communities, leaving some families more likely to experience instability than others. Yet when children encounter instability, stabilizing their situations can improve behavior and support cognitive and emotional development.  Designing policies and programs that create, maintain, and restore stability can help strengthen the foundations for healthy development.  

This working paper from the Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment explores how stability shapes children’s health and development. It offers strategies for policymakers, community leaders, service providers, and others to increase stability, as well as practical recommendations for developing more resilient systems that support young children and their caregivers. 

Sections include:

• Stability and Predictability in Caregiver Responses  
• When Unpredictable Environments Disrupt Stability   
• Creating Stability Through Routines  
• The Beneficial Balance of Stability and Novelty  
• How Different Types of Stability Interconnect   
• What We Can Do to Create, Maintain, and Restore Stability 

^{Suggested citation: Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment. (2026). From Resources to Routines: The Importance of Stability in the Developmental Environment Working Paper No. 4. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu}