Similarly, many of the risk factors for toxic stress responses that are the targets of secondary interventions are also potential barriers to the development of SSNRs that need to be identified and addressed (eg, child ACE scores, parent ACE scores, SDoHs, or even a strong biological sensitivity to context). A public health approach that includes primary universal preventions to promote wellness (like promoting positive parenting practices), secondary targeted interventions for those deemed to be at risk for poor outcomes (like using biomarkers both to identify those at higher risk and to monitor the effectiveness of various interventions), and tertiary evidence-based treatments for the symptomatic (like referring to providers trained in TF-CBT). ACE = Events/Incidents which harm social, cognitive, and emotional functioning causing a dramatic upset in the safe, nurturing environments children require to thrive. Along these lines, the Aspen Institute has created the Social Fabric Project to incentivize local projects that prioritize the building of relationships and community connections over a focus on self-absorption and hyperindividualism.183 Similarly, more attention could be given to the built environment and need for public green spaces, such as parks, to promote social cohesion and a sense of community belonging.184,185. Thinking Developmentally: Nurturing Wellness in Childhood to Promote Lifelong Health. What is ecobiodevelopmental theory? The common factors are communication skills that help to build a therapeutic alliance (the bond felt between the clinician and patient and/or family, a powerful factor in facilitating emotional and psychological healing), which, in turn, increases the patient and/or familys optimism, feelings of well-being, and willingness to work toward improved health. Changing community contexts will require healthy, trusting, and robust partnerships with a wide array of local community partners from multiple sectors (education, social services, and businesses), not only to facilitate family access to the requisite community interventions but also to coordinate effective advocacy campaigns to secure both those interventions and family-friendly public policies. Other investigators have applied the term ACEs to additional adversities known to affect child health, such as poverty, neighborhood violence, and exposure to racism. Intimate Partner Violence Exposure in Early Childhood: An Ecobiodevelopmental Perspective | Health & Social Work | Oxford Academic Abstract. Available at: https://psych.utah.edu/research/labs/biological-sensitivity.php. The commitment of the AAP to the well-being of all children requires that it not only address a wide spectrum of adversities but, also, that it speak against public policies, social constructs, and societal norms that perpetuate the ongoing, chronic precipitants of toxic stress responses such as poverty87,88 and racism166 and for public policies that promote relational health, inclusion, and equity.111,188191. The ecobiodevelopmental framework asserts that the ecology becomes biologically embedded, and there is an ongoing but cumulative dance between the ecology and the biology that drives development over the life span. Both genetic and epigenetic factors interact with. Tertiary preventions in the toxic stress framework are focused on the evidence-based practices that treat toxic stress-related morbidities such as anxiety, depression, oppositional defiant disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse disorder. In fact, there is increasing evidence that strong social-emotional supports, such as high family resilience and connection and the provision of positive childhood relational experiences, are associated with children who are resilient and flourish despite their level of adversity.59,121 This finding has renewed interest in defining the critical elements that children, families, and communities need to thrive despite adversity.18,19,65,122124 Resilience, for example, is now understood to be the manifestation of capacities, resources, or skills that allow some children, families, and communities to respond to adversity in a healthy, adaptive manner.16,83,124 At the child level, foundational capabilities (such as social skills, emotional regulation, language, and executive functions like impulse inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, abstract thought, planning, and problem solving) are the building blocks of resilience and need to be modeled, taught, learned, practiced, reinforced, and celebrated.16 A recent literature review identified 5 modifiable resilience factors relevant to clinical pediatric care: (1) addressing maternal mental health problems; (2) encouraging responsive, nurturing parenting; (3) building positive appraisal styles and executive function skills; (4) teaching children self-care skills and routines; and (5) using trauma-focused interventions and educating families about trauma.83 The emphasis on building new skills underscores the AAPs concern that excessive screen time might limit opportunities to develop more adaptive and generalizable skills.125, Flourishing despite adversity is another construct that has been studied. Transactional theory emphasizes that: The biological theory asserts that most behaviors are inherited and shaped by adaptation to one's external environment. Reaffirming an ecobiodevelopmental framework2 because early childhood experiences, both adverse and nurturing, are biologically embedded and influence the development of both disease and wellness later in life. Posted on June 1, 2022 by Identify and address potential barriers to SSNRs. Periods of Development 1. Reciprocal experiences with engaged and attuned adults (like those that occur during developmentally appropriate play) that build SSNRs; they are warm, affirming, and inclusive, and they promote early relational health. Routine versus catastrophic influences on the developing child, Childhood neglect: the role of the paediatrician, Inside the adverse childhood experience score: strengths, limitations, and misapplications, Interventions to improve cortisol regulation in children: a systematic review, Rethinking evidence-based practice and two-generation programs to create the future of early childhood policy, Family resilience and connection promote flourishing among US children, even amid adversity, Biological pathways for historical trauma to affect health: A conceptual model focusing on epigenetic modifications, The impact of historical trauma on health outcomes for indigenous populations in the USA and Canada: a systematic review, Promotion of positive parenting and prevention of socioemotional disparities, Primary care strategies for promoting parent-child interactions and school readiness in at-risk families: the Bellevue Project for Early Language, Literacy, and Education Success, Parenting skills and emotional availability: an RCT, Beyond the ACE score: examining relationships between timing of developmental adversity, relational health and developmental outcomes in children, Reading aloud, play, and social-emotional development, The pediatricians role in optimizing school readiness, Literacy promotion: an essential component of primary care pediatric practice, Early childhood investments substantially boost adult health, Depressive symptoms in young adults: the influences of the early home environment and early educational child care, Lifetime Effects: the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40, Enhancing parent talk, reading, and play in primary care: sustained impacts of the video interaction project, Integrating a parenting intervention with routine primary health care: a cluster randomized trial, COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH, The power of play: a pediatric role in enhancing development in young children, Thinking developmentally: the next evolution in models of health, Maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy alters the epigenetic signature of the glucocorticoid receptor gene promoter in their offspring: a meta-analysis, Prenatal exposure to maternal depression, neonatal methylation of human glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and infant cortisol stress responses, Effects of prenatal and postnatal depression, and maternal stroking, at the glucocorticoid receptor gene, Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior in the human infant, income inequality and the differential effect of adverse childhood experiences in US children, The changing nature of childrens health development: new challenges require major policy solutions, The health development organization: an organizational approach to achieving child health development, Modifiable resilience factors to childhood adversity for clinical pediatric practice, Healthy Steps for Young Children: sustained results at 5.5 years, Healthy steps in an integrated delivery system: child and parent outcomes at 30 months, Parents adverse childhood experiences and their childrens behavioral health problems, Mediators and adverse effects of child poverty in the United States, Poverty and child health in the United States, Cultures influence on stressors, parental socialization, and developmental processes in the mental health of children of immigrants, Incorporating recognition and management of perinatal depression into pediatric practice, Quality of early family relationships and the timing and tempo of puberty: effects depend on biological sensitivity to context, Biological sensitivity to context: the interactive effects of stress reactivity and family adversity on socioemotional behavior and school readiness, Individual differences in behavioral, physiological, and genetic sensitivities to contexts: implications for development and adaptation, The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive, SECTION ON DEVELOPMENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS, Addressing early childhood emotional and behavioral problems, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up: an evidence-based intervention for vulnerable infants and their families, Attachment and biobehavioral catch-up: addressing the needs of infants and toddlers exposed to inadequate or problematic caregiving, Enhancing attachment organization among maltreated children: results of a randomized clinical trial, Effectiveness of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) in the treatment of young childrens behavior problems. The case studies by Chilton and Rabinowich provide poignant and compelling qualitative data that support an ecobiodevelopmental approach towards understanding and addressing both the complex. The first is that pediatric providers will have the financial supports needed to expand their capacity for developing respectful, continuous, trusted, and nurturing relationships with both the patients and caregivers of the patients who they serve. Taken together, these diverse lines of inquiry suggest that it may not actually be the wide spectrum of childhood adversity that drives poor outcomes but the degree to which that adversity drives shame, guilt, anger, alienation, disenfranchisement, and degree of social isolation.181,182 If so, the proposed public health approach toward the promotion of SSNRs is needed, not only to buffer adversity and promote resilience but also to begin bridging political, religious, economic, geographic, identity-based, and ideological divides that increase social isolation, encourage tribalism, diminish empathy, and, ultimately, drive poor outcomes in the medical, educational, social service, and justice systems. But underlying this approach are 2 fundamental assumptions. For younger children, these therapies may include attachment and biobehavioral catch-up (ABC),9698 parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT),99102 and child-parent psychotherapy (CPP).103105 For older children, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) may be beneficial.106,107 The effectiveness of these evidence-based therapies may be reduced if targeted interventions are not used to address emerging areas of risk or if universal primary preventions are not applied as well.59,108 A layered public health approach mirrors the concept of proportionate universalism (see the Appendix for a glossary of terms, concepts, and abbreviations), in which the delivery of universal services is at a scale and intensity that is proportionate to the degree of need.109112 For example, if access to healthy foods is a universal objective, a proportionate response would recognize that some families may only need education about which foods are healthy, whereas some may need education about healthy foods and additional financial resources to purchase those healthy foods, and still others may require education about healthy foods, additional financial resources, and access and/or transportation to stores that sell healthy foods. Emerging data supporting a biological sensitivity to context (see the Appendix for a glossary of terms, concepts, and abbreviations) begin to explain heterogeneous responses to both adversity and interventions at the population level.92,131136 Consequently, there is an urgent need for a battery of biological, behavioral, and contextual markers that might better stratify both the risks and predicted responsiveness to interventions at the individual level.37 FCPMHs (see the Appendix for a detailed description) are well placed to begin matching levels of need with specific types of interventions, a process known as vertical integration.82. The Theory of Architecture Paul-Alan Johnson 1994-04-18 The Theory of Architecture Concepts, Themes & Practices Paul-Alan Johnson Although it has long been thought that theory directs architectural practice, no one has explained precisely how the connection between theory and practice is supposed to work. For example, the AAP currently recommends screening parents for postpartum depression90 and food insecurity.87,88 Similarly, when clinical markers for an individual childs biological sensitivity to context9194 (see the Appendix for a glossary of terms, concepts, and abbreviations) are available, children of high (versus low) sensitivity may also benefit from different types of interventions.95 In concordance with a layered public health approach, these various targeted interventions will supplement but not replace the universal primary preventions. Embrace restorative justice and social inclusion (over punitive measures and exclusion). Provide or support positive parenting classes; participate in ROR, VIP, and other programs that support the dyad. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to, COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH, SECTION ON DEVELOPMENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS, COUNCIL ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, The Ecobiodevelopmental Model of Disease and Wellness, Components of a Public Health Approach to Toxic Stress, The Emerging Science of Relational Health, Links Between Relational Health and Resilience, A Public Health Approach to Build Relational Health, Vertical Integration to Match Levels of Need With Specific Interventions, Horizontal Integration Across Sectors at the Community Level, The Centrality of Relationships in Pediatric Care, Acknowledging the Role and Toll of Social Isolation, A Renewed Commitment to Science-Based Policy Formation, Application of Science-Based Principles to Strengthen Pediatric Practice, Reduce External Sources of Stress on Families, Glossary of Terms, Concepts, and Abbreviations, Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, 20202021, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 20202021, Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health, http://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score, https://psych.utah.edu/research/labs/biological-sensitivity.php, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/wp1/, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/supportive-relationships-and-active-skill-building-strengthen-the-foundations-of-resilience/, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/wp3/, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/building-the-brains-air-traffic-control-system-how-early-experiences-shape-the-development-of-executive-function/, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/the-timing-and-quality-of-early-experiences-combine-to-shape-brain-architecture/, https://helpmegrownational.org/hmg-system-model/, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/three-early-childhood-development-principles-improve-child-family-outcomes/. To move forward (to proactively build healthy, resilient children), the pediatric community needs to embrace the concept of relational health.15 Relational health refers to the ability to form and maintain SSNRs, as these are potent antidotes for childhood adversity and toxic stress responses.57,113 Not only do SSNRs buffer adversity and turn potentially toxic stress responses into tolerable or positive responses, but they are also the primary vehicle for building the foundational resilience skills that allow children to cope with future adversity in an adaptive, healthy manner.16,17 These findings highlight the need for multigenerational approaches that support parents and adults as they, in turn, provide the SSNRs that all children need to flourish. It calls for pediatricians to serve as both front-line guardians of healthy child development and strategically positioned, community leaders to inform new science-based strategies that build strong foundations for . Fortunately, adversity in childhood is only half the story, as positive experiences in childhood are associated with improved outcomes later in life. HealthySteps is an evidence-based, interdisciplinary pediatric primary care program that promotes positive parenting and healthy development for infants and toddlers, with an emphasis on families living in low-income communities. Doing so will require all health professionals to address their implicit biases, develop cultural humility, and provide culturally competent recommendations. This revised policy statement on childhood toxic stress builds on the 2012 policy statement12 and technical report2 by: Acknowledging that a spectrum of adversity exists, from discrete, threatening events (such as abuse, bullying, or disasters) to ongoing, chronic hardships (such as poverty, racism, social isolation, or neglect). This wide spectrum of adversity underscores the fact that ACE scores and other epidemiologically derived risk factors at the population level are not valid or reliable predictors of outcomes at the individual level.56 Toxic stress, by contrast, refers to an individuals physiologic response to these adversities, and biomarkers of this physiologic response have the potential to be more sensitive and specific measures of experienced adversity at the individual level.37 Validated biomarkers also offer transformational potential as measures of responsiveness to specific interventions.37,57 With these applications in mind, the pediatric research community is hoping to develop clinic-friendly, noninvasive biomarkers for different forms and degrees of adversity.