Abstract

DEL AGUILA-ESCOBEDO, Aníbal. Violence and stress during childhood: is our future in play?. Acta méd. peruana [online]. 2015, vol.32, n.2, pp.71-83. ISSN 1728-5917.

The increase of violence against children in all social and economic levels is alarming and concerned increasingly the entire society and the medical community for their potential consequences throughout the life of children who suffer from it. In recent decades, several researches have shown the association between violence and stress in early life with alterations on brain structure and function; psychiatric, cognitive and affective disorders; drug and alcohol abuse; as well as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes in adult life. The unacceptably high number of children exposed to violence and stress in our society urges to take actions to reduce the risk of a child from becoming a victim and to prevent in those who have suffered it the serious neurobiological, physical, mental and emotional consequences in the short and long term. This requires the development of prevention and rehabilitation programs for the high number of victims that consider that family, the child´s primary environment responsible for their protection and healthy development, plays a crucial role in the prevention and the restoration of the child who experiences violence early in life. Poverty in which a large segment of our child population is an important form of violence.

Keywords : violence; psychological stress; child development.

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