ratory and skin disorders, malnutrition, and anemia),
emotional health problems (such as depression, anxi-
ety, psychosis, and suicidal tendencies), and health-
compromising behaviors (such as substance abuse,
prostitution, violence, and delinquency). Intervention
efforts have included reuniting families, providing
shelter, and improving access to counseling, health
care, education, and vocational training.
See also: DELINQUENCY; MALNUTRITION; POVERTY
Bibliography
Raffaelli, M., and R. W. Larson. Homeless and Working Youth around
the World: Exploring Developmental Issues. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Evelyn K. Kumoji
Debra Mekos
STRESS
Children are confronted with many challenges
throughout their childhood. What types of challenges
do children encounter at various ages? How do stress-
ful experiences influence their psychological and
physical health? How do children’s personal qualities
and their environments affect how they react to these
challenges? These are all questions that psychologists
have been trying to answer to learn more about the
causes and consequences of stress in children’s lives
and to develop programs that help children cope with
stress.
Conceptualizations and Types of Stress
The study of stress has a long and rich history,
which is characterized by diverse perspectives on how
to examine stress and its impact on people’s lives. In
one early definition from 1974, Hans Seyle conceptu-
alized stress in terms of external events that elicited
certain distress responses, called the general adapta-
tion syndrome. This approach proved valuable in elu-
cidating the effects of the environment on
physiological functioning, but it created the difficulty
of disentangling the stressor itself from individuals’
responses to stress. Two other perspectives have re-
ceived more attention in the investigation of stress in
children. The first ‘‘stimulus-based’’ approach, pio-
neered in 1967 by Thomas H. Holmes and Richard
H. Rahe, viewed stress in terms of exposure to disrup-
tive or demanding environmental circumstances.
This definition emphasized that stress can be defined
based on objective characteristics of one’s environ-
ment. The second ‘‘transactional’’ approach, advocat-
ed in 1984 by Richard S. Lazarus and Susan Folkman,
incorporated not only environmental events and con-
ditions but also individuals’ subjective appraisals of
these circumstances. According to this perspective,
individual perceptions of events may determine their
stressfulness.Regardless of whether the definition focuses on
objective events or on the transaction between exter-
nal events and internal appraisals, several types of
stress may emerge in the lives of children. Daily has-
sles and minor life events involve everyday occur-
rences—such as interpersonal conflicts, pressures at
school, or minor physical illnesses—that may accu-
mulate over time to pose a threat to well-being.
Chronic strains involve ongoing stressful conditions,
such as family adversity (e.g., marital conflict, mental
illness in a parent), relationship problems (e.g., social
isolation), or economic hardship. Acute, severe stres-
sors involve traumatic events such as the death of a
close family member, victimization, or exposure to a
natural disaster. Finally, normative stressors involve
events or situations that occur as a part of typical de-
velopment, such as starting school or moving away
from home for the first time.Stress across Development
Research has suggested that children experience
increasing stress as they move through adolescence.
Some research has focused on the entrance into ado-
lescence itself as one type of normative experience
that accounts for higher levels of stress during this
stage. This transition is characterized by both biologi-As children move through adolescence, they begin to experience stress
more intensely. Studies have shown that adolescent boys are
particularly vulnerable to noninterpersonal stress, such as school-
related difficulties. (Robert J. Huffman/Field Mark
Publications)STRESS 389