TROUBLE
IN THE FAMILY

Topics: Abuse; Anxiety; Children; Conflict; Family; Fatherhood; Health; Motherhood; Stress

References: Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21

Childhood can be a very stressful time, but there is a difference between stresses caused inside and outside the home. Family stressors cause the most devastation.

Researchers measured levels of cortisol, a hormone that is produced in a child’s saliva when under stress. They also collected health records and interviews to get a complete picture of the effects of stress. What they found was that stress that continues over days, weeks, or years will put a child’s developing systems on hold, sometimes permanently. Unusually high cortisol levels from constant stress will slow physical growth, delay sexual maturity, and stunt the growth of brain cells.

Poverty, schoolwork, or conflicts with peers raises cortisol levels very little. Rather, family issues cause the most harm, such as when a family experiences some sort of trauma, Father and Mother fight, Dad leaves, or Grandma hits a child.

The continual absence of a mother or father in the home also has a major effect. The study showed that “girls between the ages of nine and sixteen are much more affected by the absence of their mother than are boys of this age. And infant boys respond to the absence of their father with abnormally low cortisol levels and slow growth.”

Other findings: Children react the same way each time parents fight or leave home. While adults learn to adapt to relentless stressful circumstances, children always react as if they are encountering it for the first time. Many diseases suffered by middle-age adults, such as heart disease or high blood pressure, can be traced back to unresolved patterns of stress initiated during childhood.

—Meredith F. Small, “Trouble in Paradise,” New Scientist (December 16, 2000)