New Approaches to Uncovering the Developmental Effects of Child Adversity

• In Event: Trauma Among Individuals, Families, and Communities: Situating Adversity in Context

Abstract

Discovering the processes through which early adverse experiences affect children’s development is critically important for developing effective prevention and interventions for youth, and also for understanding the basic science of human development. Research on childhood adversity has generally been anchored on the specific events that have (or have not) occurred in a child’s life. Yet, there is increasing evidence that children’s perceptions of their experiences can deepen our understanding of adversity related outcomes. Variability in how individuals construe and make meaning of their life circumstances is likely to drive specificity in both behavioral and neurobiological stress responses. Extending research approaches to include more than sole reliance on measurement of event exposures holds tremendous promise for advancing knowledge about the neurobiological mechanisms through which stress affects human development.

Author

• Seth David Pollak, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author