Stress Across the Lifespan: From Childhood to Retirement

The Stress Response: What Happens in the Body

Stress is an unavoidable fact of life, yet what precisely is stress? It is essentially one of those things that we all experience but have difficulty defining and explaining. The one unarguable fact is that we all have it in our lives and, without it, our lives would be much different. In fact, the only way one's life can be entirely stress-free is upon death. Unfortunately, too much stress can be not only debilitating but fatal, and it is incumbent on everyone to learn how to effectively handle stress in order to avoid adverse effects.

What creates stress in one individual may not cause stress in another. Everyone differs in how he or she reacts to life's events, and this is one of the factors that makes the management of stress such a difficult problem. With this difference in mind, there are certain events in life that typically produce stress. Some of the most notable include marriage, moving, divorce, and the death of loved ones. Add to this list the anxiety caused by daily concerns such as one's children, job, finances, and health, and one begins to understand how complex and diverse stress can be.

Before examining the stresses that occur throughout life, a rudimentary understanding of what stress does to the body may be helpful. When the body encounters stress, it undergoes changes collectively called the stress response. The stress response is a three-stage process that, unless properly addressed, can result in serious harm.

At the first sign of stress, the body releases adrenaline, which causes the heart to beat faster and the lungs to breathe harder and more quickly. Even the most insignificant of events can trigger this reaction, though more often it is something like starting a new job or taking a test. In the second stage, assuming the stress has not dissipated, the human body begins to release stored sugars and fats from the body's reserves. During this stage, one begins to feel anxious yet tired and pressured at the same time. Many individuals react by increasing their intake of coffee, alcohol, or cigarettes. If stress in this stage continues, there is often a corresponding increase in illnesses such as colds or flu.

With prolonged and untreated stress, the effects of stage three begin. In stage three, the body's ability to handle stress starts to break down. Stress becomes chronic, and insomnia, personality changes, and serious illnesses such as heart disease, ulcers, and mental illness may develop.

Stress in Childhood

Many adults look back on childhood longingly as a stress-free period. In reality, however, childhood involves a wide range of potential stressors. Some causes of stress are unique to the individual child, but more often the events that cause stress in children include the birth of a sibling, the death of a pet, breaking a favorite toy, getting caught stealing or lying, receiving a bad report card, or parents divorcing. This is by no means an exhaustive list but is offered as a representative sample (Elkins).

Children, like adults, react differently to stress. Each child's reaction varies according to temperament and personality, and how each child manages stress is highly dependent on that child's developmental abilities and coping skills. Unlike adults, however, children are less well equipped to verbalize their feelings (Onchwari). They lack the capacity to formulate words to describe their fears and worries, and they also lack the wherewithal to take necessary action to manage stress when it arises. The result is that children too often suffer from stress in silence or act out in other ways in an effort to find relief. Examples of such acting-out behavior include distractibility, bedwetting and other sleep disturbances, temper tantrums, running away, and refusal to play with peers.

Stress During the Teenage Years

Stress about young children is relatively minimal, but among the next age group—teenagers—stress is far more prevalent and can have far more damaging consequences (Fuligni). The stress factors in a teenager's life are more numerous than those present in young children, and teenagers must additionally contend with the sudden effects of hormonal changes taking place in their bodies. These hormonal changes have a profound effect on emotions and can exacerbate any stress factors occurring concurrently in a teenager's life.

The teenage years bring new expectations and responsibilities (Lazaratou). The carefree lifestyle that many teenagers knew during childhood is replaced with sports, after-school activities, college preparation, first jobs, dating, and driving. These new pressures can be overwhelming for many teenagers and contribute significantly to their experiencing stress for the first time in their young lives. For many people, the teenage years are the most stressful period of their entire life.

Learning to deal with the stress of being a teenager is an important indicator of how individuals will adjust to handling stress throughout the rest of their lives. Those who handle stress poorly as teenagers will often face the same difficulties later in life. Some stress indicators that manifest in teenagers include increased physical complaints, sudden withdrawal from friends and family, irritability, problems with sleeping or eating, decreased performance in school, and difficulty concentrating.

Teenagers are better at conveying their feelings than children but are not necessarily more likely to express themselves when suffering from stress. Children do not share their feelings because they lack the capacity to understand how to do so. Teenagers, however, fail to express themselves out of embarrassment or feelings of awkwardness. Those attempting to help teenagers deal with stress must be mindful that denial will often be present. Patience and understanding are absolutely essential when dealing with teenagers suffering from stress.

Works Cited

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