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Nontoxic Family Stress: Potential Benefits and Underlying Biology
Author(s) -
Repetti Rena L.,
Robles Theodore F.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/fare.12180
Subject(s) - stressor , habituation , psychology , coping (psychology) , developmental psychology , arousal , normative , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychotherapist , philosophy , epistemology
Exposure to family stressors that are an ordinary part of daily life is essential for healthy development. Most children show a “positive” response when stressful events provoke mild or moderately intense levels of emotional arousal and provide opportunities for recovery. Through processes of habituation and practice, responding to these types of stressors can foster the development of emotion regulation and coping under normative levels of exposure. Parents influence children's opportunities to experience self‐regulation and their psychological responses to stress and thereby shape their preparation to respond to stressors in the future. Different levels of stress exposure are also associated with different patterns of resting activity and responses to stress in the neuroendocrine and immune systems. When incorporated with information on exposures, protective factors, and outcomes, those biological responses can help us understand how resistance to future stressors is increased through exposure to nontoxic levels of family stress.