Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Being a citizen of Rwanda, i could easily choose to talk about war as a child stressor. Although Rwanda is considered by the international community as a stable country with a democratic system of government and the largest percentage of female law makers of any nation in the world, it went through a dark period with the genocide against the tutsi and the war in April 1994. 

Children lost their parents and siblings and were confronted to other stressors like poverty and lack of housing or food. 

Fortunately, my immediate family and i did not experience it because we were outside the country. I have some relatives and friends who survived the killings. A lot has been done to help them psychologically and financially. 

I have a friend who survived with her three sisters and one brother, having lost her parents. She said that what made her feel strong was her siblings because she did not have the choice to be sorry for herself and at the same time, her little brother who was aged four at that time received support from his sisters. He is a big boy now holding a unusual past but strong enough to live his life. His body must have increased stress hormone levels as an activation of response to stress but they have calm down with the support of his sisters. Without the care of adults, the stress response would have stayed activated which would cause his neuro connections to reduce when there should have been growing new ones (Center on the Developing Child–Harvard University). Another friend of mine had a nephew who survived the genocide but who had witnessed the killing of his parents. For many years after this period, depression led him to flee his home. He is in mental imbalance. With the psychological help he received, he does not disappear from his house but he cannot study. His biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development slowed down.