![]() Delineating how mechanisms of fear reduction and stress coping vary across development can inform efforts to optimize interventions based on the developing brain. However, the factors contributing to insufficient response rates, and thus optimal approaches to enhance treatment efficacy, may differ by age group 9. Up to 50% of individuals at all ages do not respond sufficiently to exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder, with evidence for similar efficacy across children, adolescents, and adults 8. While evidence-based interventions for adolescents with stress-related disorders can be highly effective, there is immense need to enhance prevention and to optimize interventions for the many youth who do not benefit sufficiently from current treatments 7. Together, developmental timing and individual variability will contribute to how a given individual responds to a stressor, to their mental health, and, ultimately, to how interventions could be tailored to be most effective for a given individual with stress-related psychopathology.įostering resilience by targeting the adolescent brain Variability in a given factor that differs across individuals is depicted via a spectrum of shading. Many factors that vary across individuals, such as predisposing genetic and biological factors, and variability in life experiences and the current environment, will contribute to differences in stress responding and mental health. Given dynamic changes in neurobiological systems governing stress responding across development, adolescents, on average, exhibit stress responses and mental health outcomes that differ from children and adults. Differences across development and across individuals can explain variation in responses to stress and mental health. Here we conceptualize the stress response as multifaceted, encompassing changes in neurobiological and endocrine function, subjective experiences, and thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Understanding how an individual responds to a stressor can inform how best to promote resilience or intervene to reduce stress-related psychopathology. Here we define resilience as favorable mental health outcomes despite exposure to stress and conceptualize the processes contributing to these outcomes as dynamic and occurring across multiple systems and levels within the broader social context 6.įramework for an approach to research that considers developmental and individual differences in stress responding to inform optimization of mental health interventions.Ĭross-species evidence has demonstrated heterogeneity in mental health following stress exposure. As scientists and mental health professionals alike grapple with the mental health crisis among youth–including a high burden of psychopathology, limited access to care, and large-scale societal stressors 5, we offer a framework for how research can leverage the science of stress and adolescent brain development to promote resilience (Fig. In particular, delineating how stress responding differs across development and across individuals can inform whom may benefit from specific interventions and how to optimize interventions for specific developmental stages or profiles of stress exposure 4. Understanding how people respond to stress is critical for identifying targets for intervention. At the same time, adolescence is a period of immense opportunity, as heightened plasticity and the state of the developing brain confer unique strengths for coping with stress 3. Indeed, adolescence is characterized by heightened vulnerability: the majority of mental health disorders emerge during this stage of development, with adolescents exposed to stress earlier in life at elevated risk 2. Stressful life events increase considerably in adolescence, and cross-species evidence suggests that the brain may be particularly sensitive to the negative effects of stress during this period 1. Stress is a potent risk factor for psychopathology that is salient during adolescence.
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