Measuring Stress in Young Children Using Hair Cortisol: The State of the Science.

Abstract in brief

• This article discusses how early childhood stress can negatively affect health later in life, mainly through disruptions in the body's stress regulation system called the HPA axis, which impacts cortisol levels.
• Measuring stress in young children is challenging because traditional methods are invasive or unreliable, but hair cortisol concentration (HCC) offers a noninvasive way to assess chronic stress over several months.
• Although HCC shows promise in detecting persistent stress in young children, more research is needed to fully understand its use, and nurse researchers should consider multiple factors along with HCC to identify children at risk for stress-related health issues.]