Impact of Stress on a Developing Child

Impact of Stress on a Developing Child

Diana Greene

Liberty University

Bennett, G., Palliser. K., Shaw, C., Walker, D., & Hirst, J. (2015).  Prenatal stress alters hippocampal neuroglia and increases anxiety in childhood: Developmental neuroscience 37:533-545 doi:10.1159/000437302

SUMMARY:  This article states, analyzes, and illustrates the impact of stress on a

developing child during the embryonic and fetal stages of pregnancy.  Stress for the

mother at any time of pregnancy, but especially during the 20th through the 36th week

can affect the development of the child’s brain, Hippocampal Neuroglia. This article

targets the behavioral pathologies caused by the mother’s elevated levels of stress. In the studies in this article, it is evident that there are indications of anxiety behaviors well into the childhood of a child who experienced prenatal stress from the mother.

 STRENGTHS OR WEAKNESSES:   The weakness of this article could exist in

 that none of the evaluations were performed on humans which would alter the facts

 in the finding for these evaluations.  However, not to put a mother or her child at    

 risk and use guinea pigs in the stressful environments for this evaluation was a    

 strength.

EVALUATION: Based on the information in this article, it provided information of

considerable importance for expecting or for those who are considering to have a

child, to consider the environment they are bringing the child  up in, even before the

conception.

Huggenberger, H., Suter, S., Blumenthal, T., & Schachinger, H. (2013). Maternal social stress modulates the development of prepulse inhibition of startle in infants:  Development cognitive neuroscience, 3, 84-94. doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2012.09.006

 SUMMARY:  This article establishes environmental stress in human newborns because of the lack of evidence in humans, these studies are typically done using rodents. Prepulse inhibition of startle, a neurological phenomenon in which a weaker prepulse inhibits the reaction of an organism to a subsequent strong startling stimulus or pulse, was used to determine the stress associated in the infants. The study began at the birth of the infants in a quiet controlled environment, they were tested again at four months of age to see how postnatal stress of the mothers was associated with the prepulse inhibition of startle.  The infants and their mothers were tested for stress levels through saliva samples for each test and the determination was made that when the mothers of infants are exposed to environmental stress the infants experienced the same level of stress.  The infants also had elevated stress levels which also impacted the process of maturing and development of the infants.  

                   STRENGTHS OR WEAKNESSES:  The strength of the article is that the infants          

                   were tested for stress at birth and again at the age of four months, more than once, to        

                   show, environment stress will affect the development of a child. 

EVALUATION:  My observation of this article is that it exhibits a parent’s stress levels and the environment they create for their children is a direct result of the development of their children. 

Ping, E., Laplante, D., Elgbeili, G., Hillerer, K., Brunet, A., O’Hara, M., & King, S. (2015).

            Prenatal maternal stress predicts stress reactivity at 2½ years of age: The Iowa Flood

            Study, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 56, 62-78. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen

SUMMARY:  This article is addressing the prenatal stress in mothers and discusses          

PNMS, which is prenatal maternal stress.  The guess work from the study in this article is that glucocorticoids, which are any of a group of corticosteroids, steroid hormones produced in the adrenal cortex that is involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats and has anti-inflammatory activity, are transferred from the stressed mother, through the placenta to the fetus.  When this transfer occurs the results abnormality or impairment in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis. 

                       STRENGTHS OR WEAKNESS:   The information in this article was based on the

actual evaluation of pregnant women during the floods in Iowa in 2008, and the severe suffering, emotional anxiety, and mental anguish they experienced during the floods.  These women and their children were evaluated 2 ½ years after the flood to measure post stress and physiological responses to stress.  Based on this information I believe this strengthened the information in this article.

EVALUATION:  I found this article to helpful because addresses not only that prenatal maternal stress affects the mother, but that this stress will lead to an extended period of changes in the child’s regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis after birth. 

Rash, J., Campbell, T., Letourneau, N., & Giesbrecht, G. (2015). Maternal cortisol during

            pregnancy is related to infant cardiac vagal control, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 54,

            7889.doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen,

                   SUMMARY:  This article studied 194 mothers, proceeding the birth of their child,                  

who were exposed to psychological stress.  The target of the study was the evaluation of the difficulties the children of these mothers would experience in their childhood because of their mother’s stress, glucocorticoids in the fetus’ nervous system, and salivary cortisol examined in the 14 to 32-week fetuses. Studies of the infant at the age of six months were examined and determined that a mother’s cortisol while pregnant has an established influence with infant cardiac vagal control, which is indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and is a measure of parasympathetic nervous system function.  This also has a direct effect on a child’s psychological and physical well-being.