Hormonal Response to Stress Dictates Temperament in Children

A new study published in the latest online issue of the journal Development and Psychopathology shows that hormonal responses to stressful situations are what dictate children's temperaments.

Kids take on different approach patterns to navigating threatening environments and new situations, but these behaviors are in fact a consequence of how the young ones handle stressful stimuli.

Some children tend to be cautious and submissive when they enter an unknown environment, or when they have to handle social interactions with people they don't know. Conversely, others tend to be both bold and assertive in the same situations.

These temperamental patterns are nothing more than behavioral and chemical responses to stress, that evolved to protect the brain and body from the negative consequences of misjudging a certain situation.

“Divergent reactions – both behaviorally and chemically – may be an evolutionary response to stress,” explains Dr. Patrick Davies, the lead author of the study, and a professor at the University of Rochester.

“These biological reactions may have provided our human ancestors with adaptive survival advantages. For example, dovish compliance may work better under some challenging family conditions, while hawkish aggression could be an asset in others,” the expert goes on to say.

What's very interesting about this research is that it provides a new angle on psychology. Until now, experts believes that there is only one healthy way in which an individual could possible develop, and that all other courses of development were maladaptive.

The new investigation – from an evolutionary perspective – shows that vision to be more limited than once thought. “When it comes to healthy psychological behavior, one size does not fit all,” professor Melissa Sturge-Apple, PhD, adds. She is the coauthor of the new study.

The new discovery “give us insight into how basic behavioral patterns are also chemical patterns,”she goes on to say. The new study was carried out on 201 two-year old toddlers, who were part of families in low socioeconomic conditions.

“Research has shown that exposure to repeat aggression between parents is a significant stressor [stress factor] for children,” Davies explains. He adds that the work was focused on analyzing how aggression between parents influenced their children, PsychCentral reports.