The Biology of Stress and the Implications for Our Practice

In studying the emotional lives of early childhood educators, I am learning about the impact of stress in the early childhood environment. We all have stress in our lives, and the Harvard Center for the Developing Child shares the three types of stress individuals experience.

Positive stress is a moderate, brief, and generally normal part of life (e.g., entering a new childcare setting). However, learning to adjust to this type of stress is an essential component of healthy development.

Tolerable stress is an event that has the potential to alter the developing brain negatively, occurs infrequently, and gives the brain time to recover (e.g., the death of a loved one).

Toxic stress is an intense, frequent, and prolonged activation of the body’s stress response system (e.g., chronic neglect).

While we cannot eliminate stress, healthy stress levels in our lives are essential in building our resiliency and ability to cope with life. Reactions to stress are individualized. Our ability to cope relies on a complex and ever-changing equation of individual and environmental factors.

When we experience negative stress, we produce one of two biological responses in our brains, adrenaline or cortisol. 

Adrenaline generally occurs in a spike pattern as a response to a stressor. For example, imagine stepping off a curb without looking. When a car approaches, a spike of adrenaline is what allows you to leap back onto the sidewalk without thinking. Adrenaline is what triggers our fight, flight or freeze response. Once the threat has passed, our bodies reset, and our state of hyperawareness relaxes.

Cortisol is another type of biological response to stress. Cortisol can remain at heightened levels over time, differing from the spike pattern of adrenaline. Cortisol levels measure longer durations of heightened awareness. In healthy interactions, cortisol levels elevate and then reset. The resetting of cortisol leads to long-term resiliency as the body learns to navigate stress and then returns to a low-stress state, supporting long-term self-regulation.

A lack of resetting cortisol levels can lead to hyper-vigilance, long-term health, and emotional outcomes for children. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) study documents the long-term effects of chronic stress, from an inability to read emotional signals to shorter life expectance.

There is a relationship between adults, young children, and cortisol. The cortisol levels of adults impact the cortisol levels in children. In parents with high cortisol levels, their children also have heightened cortisol levels.

However, new evidence shows that early childhood educators’ cortisol levels also impact the children in their care. Impacts on cortisol levels come from various factors in the early childhood environment, including high teacher turnover, many transitions, lack of activity choice, and lack of space in the classroom environment.

In nine studies, direct correlations exist between children’s cortisol levels, group size, and classroom space. The smaller the classroom space or larger the group size, the greater the stress level was in children.

The program environment has a direct effect on children’s cortisol levels. For example, warm and nurturing early childhood educators influence cortisol levels in young children. Friendly, open classroom environments support lower cortisol levels and mirror the cortisol levels in warm, nurturing home environments.

Our role as educators is to create program environments that support interactions and experiences that enhance the health and well-being of the children in our care. Taking time to examine how our stress contributes to the overall health of our classroom environment is the path toward building a safe and nurturing learning community.