Question: How can stress effect children compared to adults?

Laura Ginesi answered on 6 Nov 2017:

Everybody reacts to stress. It’s important to our survival that we can respond to challenges or predators, so the response evolved very early in biological time. Children and adults all react to things that are unfamiliar or scary – and our physiology means that the changes which happen in both children and adults are similar.

Whenever people are challenged by stress, their immediate response is for the heart rate to increase, for their breathing to get quicker and for muscles to tense up. If people are afraid, they will release some adrenaline which makes people feel as if their heart is pounding in their chest, makes their mouth feel dry and tummy might feels butterflies are fluttering around – maybe even feel a bit sick.

All of this happens because the person is getting ready to respond to whatever is stressing them. They are preparing :-

a) for flight – to run away or climb a tree to get away
b) to fight – to struggle with the predator or whatever is bothering them
or
c) to freeze – staying still might mean the predator might ignore you.

If stressor (or predator) that is confronting people doesn’t go away then the healthy response is to make more of a hormone called cortisol – which comes from the adrenal glands – for a while and that makes sure there is enough energy available.

All of these things happen to both children and adults alike – everybody gets stressed sometimes.

All of these feelings are part of the normal reaction to stress and to things that worry us. everything should go back to normal – we call this homeostasis – when the stressor (or predator) has gone away.