Stress Response In Children

Stress Response In Children

This article discusses how children are much less likely to use the classic “fight or flight” response and instead use other responses when faced with certain threats. Although the physiological pathway of the stress response are the same in adults as they are in children, children seem to exhibit their stress response in different ways. According to the article, two major neuronal response patterns that children exhibit are hyperarousal continuum and the dissociative continuum.

The hyperarousal response causes a child to scream and cry. The response is designed to get the attention of a caretaker that should come and fight for or flee with the male or female child. When a child has a hyperarousal response, there is a dramatic increase in the activity in the locus coeruleus and ventral tegmental nucleus. Areas that are involved in stress-induced responses are also involved in regulating arousal, vigilance, affect, behavioral irritability, locomotion, attention, and sleep. After a traumatic event, the brain will trigger the acute fear response when there is a reminder of the event. Over time, if the traumatic event is not dealt with then chronic reactivation will occur. If chronic reactivation occurs then sensitization of the (LC/VTN-amydaloid) happens and leads to a cascade of functional changes in brain-related functions. A traumatized child may exhibit motor hyperactivity, anxiety, behavioral impulsivity, sleep problems, tachycardia, hypertension and multiple neuroendocrine abnormalities.

If the threat continues throughout the hyperarousal state then they usually move to the dissociative continuum. The increasing anxiety and decreasing cognitive processing that the persistent threat causes, causes the children to freeze. The freezing mechanism is supposed to help with keener observation, better sound localization, and reduction of attracting the predator by movement. From this state they can move into a complete dissociative state. A dissociative state is when one disengages from external stimuli from the outside world and moves into an “internal” world.

According to the article not only is there a difference between children and adults in stress-response, but there is a difference in stress-response between male and female children. The authors of the article questioned why maltreated boys were more likely to exhibit symptoms of sensitized hyperarousal states following a threat, while maltreated girls exhibit more evidence of sensitized dissociative states following a threat. They believed that these differences were caused by other adaptive response patterns that may be more adaptive for children and women than for adult males.

The classic total body response has evolved into a highly adaptive method of survival for adult males. For example, if an adult male was about to get attacked by a lion he would most likely try to flee and if he were about to take on an attack from another human he would most likely fight. However, this method may not work as well for children. The chances of a child successfully outrunning a lion or fighting a grown man even with a full-blown body response are pretty slim. Instead of the fighting or fleeing, children and sometimes women have developed responses that allow them to be obedient. The authors point out, that historically, women and children had a higher chance of survival when they didn’t fight or run. So therefore children have evolved to have different reactions than adults to the same threat response and males have evolved to have different reactions than females to the same threat response.

Perry, Bruce C. et al. Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation, and “use-dependent” development of the brain: how “states” become “traits.” Infant Mental Health Journal. 16 (1995). 271-289.