Biography

Megan R. Gunnar received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University in 1978 and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Psychoneuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. In 1979 she became an assistant professor at the Institute of Child Development, moving through the ranks to full professor in 1990. Professor Gunnar has spent her career studying how stress biology affects human development and the processes that help children regulate stress and emotions. She is a recipient of lifetime achievement awards from APA, APS, and ISPNE. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. She is involved in activities to translate developmental science for use by policy makers including being a founding member of the Harvard’s National Scientific Council and serving on the Advisory Council to Children’s Cabinet for the State of Minnesota.

Website: https://innovation.umn.edu/gunnar-lab/

Social Regulation of Stress in Early Development: 20 Years Later

Session Type: Invited Talk

Abstract

Two decades ago, Bonny Donzella and I published our first statement that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis comes under strong social regulation early in life. This paper was the result of a talk I gave in 2001. The talk reviewed developmental studies of children, birth to 5 years, describing seminal studies of social buffering and the association of care quality with HPA axis regulation. At that time, there were few studies of children who experienced neglect and abuse. In this 2021 talk, I will bring us up-to-date after 20 years of significant advances, including evidence of sensitive periods for stress regulation, periods of recalibration, and evidence that adaptation of the axis to chronic stress is associated with emotional and behavioral problems.

Sub Unit

• Invited Program

Moderator

• Kathryn L. Humphreys, Vanderbilt University

Speaker

• Megan R. Gunnar, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Introducer

• Erin Hoffman, DePaul University