My Personal Research Journey

            For our research assimilation project, I had decided I was especially interested in the topic of stress in children, families, and EC professionals.  I narrowed stress into three subtopics: acute stress, episodic stress, and chronic/toxic stress.  Each of these subtopics interested me for different reasons.  I find acute stress interesting because we are beginning to see a trend of children not being allowed to experience stress, not even if it is mild acute levels.  Episodic stress is interesting because of the windows of development it can impact or not impact, depending on the context and the development of the individual.  And finally, chronic/toxic stress was interesting because of the research that is beginning to emerge about the lasting effects of such detrimental levels of stress that is influencing the children and adults we are serving.  

            Personally, I am most interested in chronic/toxic stress in children and adults.  This interest has evolved since I entered the early childhood education and my ideas are continuing to change as I gain experience and knowledge.  As a child, I experienced these levels of stress during specific periods of my development.  Growing up and developing into a “normal” individual and professional has taken a lot of work on my end. I can recognize that somehow, I did overcome my adversities and have become a successful professional, community member, spouse, and mother.  I witness the same kind of scenarios with the children and families I work with every day.  Some are overcoming their struggles, and some are deep into it and need more than they can offer.  I am extremely interested in why and how stress can do the things it does to people.  And the types of things that can cause this level of chronic and toxic stress in individuals.  

            I was fist exposed to this subtopic at a regional early childhood conference with numerous presentations focusing on stress in the early childhood classroom.  This conference essentially jump-started my thinking on the resources available that touch on this subject, some obvious and some not.  The keynote speaker of the conference was a retired prison warden, who conducted attachment research on inmates in Wisconsin.  He concluded that childhood stress was the number one reason the inmates didn’t properly attach during childhood but proved they could be rehabbed through attachment therapies.  I was exposed to a study conducted on an assessment that is growing attention, the ACES screening for adversities and stressors in individual’s lives.  I posted about this in our last course (Consequences of Stress on Child Development) when I discovered a media segment on a medical professional that advocated for standardized evaluations for stress in children and families to determine other medical issues then and into the future.  These experiences fueled my interest in this subtopic.

            When beginning my research, I went to my go to resource that I mentioned in my discussion post: National Association for the Education for Young Children (NAEYC).  They meet quality criteria guidelines and produce information that is relevant and current in the early childhood education field.  I have debated on where my other resources should come from.  Through investigating the Walden Library and other institutional resources, I have come across a few personal questions on the perspectives I would like to focus on in my research assimilation.   Do I take a national perspective or global perspective on this topic?  I am wondering what others think about this?  It is better to continue to narrow the focus to a national or state level, or would a worldwide perspective be the most effective? Or shedding light on both perspectives to highlight the scope of the topic?  Can’t wait to hear what you think!