educate
J
Generation Stress
maskmatters.org
SPRING 2018
44
A
s parents, we try to
protect our children from
physical harm and making
poor decisions. But what
happens when what is
harming our child is something
invisible and intangible?
We want our children to be
happy, but each generation seems
to be exposed to greater amounts
of stress at a younger and younger
age. Things like fewer carefree
recess periods at school, more
cyberbullying, and the increased
need to keep up with the Joneses
are just a few things creating more
stress in our children.
The child and adolescent brain
goes through significant changes
during development, first growing
larger and then being “pruned
back” to fine tune and streamline
things, similar to how we allow rose
bushes to grow and then we thin
them out to keep the most desired
and beneficial parts of the plant.
During this period of brain
maturation, stress can lead to more
psychological and physiological
vulnerabilities, leading to
neurobehavioral changes.
Development is a crucial time that
can affect the direction the brain
will go, similar to how we can
easily influence the direction a tree
leans while growing, as opposed
to changing the direction of a tree
once it is fully grown.
STRESS
ON
THE BRAIN
By // Dr. Yukari Kawamoto, M.D.
