Early Childhood Adversity & Toxic Stress

Here's a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that adoptive parents might find relevant to their children's early years: Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health.

A good summary of the theoretical basis for the report:

The accompanying technical report represents an ecobiodevelopmental(EBD) framework for understanding the promotionof health and prevention of disease across the life span that builds on advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, genomics, and the social sciences. Together, these diverse fields provide a remarkably convergent perspective on the inextricable interactions among the personal experiences (eg,family and social relationships), environmental influences (eg, exposures to toxic chemicals and inappropriate electronic media), and genetic predispositions that affect learning, behavior and health across the life span. Applying this EBD framework to the challenges posed by significant childhood adversity reveals the powerful role that toxic stress can play in disrupting the architecture of the developing brain, thereby influencing behavioral, educational, economic and health outcomes decades and generations later.

The report is not adoption-specific, but seems highly relevant, especially to post-institutionalized children.