Where children live early in their lives can have a lasting impact on their ability to handle stress later, a new study with children in Romanian orphanages shows.
The research, believed to be the first to identify a sensitive period during early life when children’s stress response systems are particularly likely to be influenced by where they are cared for, also shows that the negative effects of a deprived environment can be made less painful by changing it—but only if that happens before the child turns 2.
“The early environment has a very strong impact on how the stress response system in the body develops,” says lead author Katie McLaughlin, assistant professor of psychology at University of Washington. “But even kids exposed to a very extreme negative environment who are placed into a supportive family can overcome those effects in the long term.”
