People of all ages can experience stress. Some stress is helpful because it provides motivation. However, excessive stress can build up and interfere with life. Previous experience, education, and support enable most of us to respond appropriately and allow us to change as circumstances require. Response to stress is both learned and natural and may be appropriate and healthy, or inadequate and unhealthy.
Stress can affect the way people think, act, and feel.
Children learn to respond to stress by personal experience and observation. Most stresses experienced by children may seem insignificant to adults, but because children have few previous experiences from which to learn, even situations that require small changes can have enormous impacts on their feelings of safety and security. Pain, injury, and illness are major stresses for children. Medical treatments are even greater stresses. Recognition of parental stress is a severe stressor for children.