How Do Acute and Chronic Stress Impact the Development of Self-Regulation? This brief explores how stress has been linked to long term physical health and numerous indicators of wellbeing, and there is increasing evidence that stress experienced in childhood and adolescence may lead to physiological changes in the brain and to disruptions in development. However, much of the data suggesting these connections are based on associations rather than on causal evidence from experiments. There are also many unanswered questions related to the relationship between stress and self-regulation, particularly with regard to the impact of social adversity during sensitive developmental periods, the variability in stress responsiveness across individuals, and the possibility for reversing negative effects.

This brief is one of several from a series on self-regulation from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You can access all briefs from the series here.

Each brief is available for free and for re-use without permission.