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Early Life Stress Effects on Children's Biology, Behavior, and Health: Evidence, Mediators, Moderators, and Solutions

Nicole R. Bush et al.

Annual Review of Psychology2025https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072225-121053review
AJG 4ABDC A*
Weight
0.37

Abstract

This review synthesizes and critiques research on early life adversity and stress effects on multidomain health outcomes in child samples to fill a gap in the literature that has largely focused on adults. Prioritizing evidence from meta-analytic and systematic reviews as well as findings from (quasi-)experimental or large prospective longitudinal studies, we integrate interdisciplinary findings to characterize patterns of evidence for stress associations with child outcomes, including mental, physical, and positive health; academic, social, and justice system-related domains; and intermediary phenotypes that may predict disease, including biomarkers. We note cohesive evidence for sensitive periods of susceptibility to stress exposure and describe key mediators and moderators of stress effects, especially family-level factors. Then we highlight interventions targeting malleable factors that hold promise for ameliorating the effects of stress on children. Leveraging a developmental lens, we conclude with field-wide limitations and propose future directions for stress and health research that centers child development.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072225-121053

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@article{nicole2025,
  title        = {{Early Life Stress Effects on Children's Biology, Behavior, and Health: Evidence, Mediators, Moderators, and Solutions}},
  author       = {Nicole R. Bush et al.},
  journal      = {Annual Review of Psychology},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072225-121053},
}

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Early Life Stress Effects on Children's Biology, Behavior, and Health: Evidence, Mediators, Moderators, and Solutions

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.