Episodic Acute Stress

In the spirit of fairness, families from low economic background may face additional stressors, not all stress is detrimental to an individual’s health. According to the American Psychological Association there are three different types of stress. Acute stress is the most experienced and is short term. Examples of acute stress can stem from last minute studying for an exam or rushing to work to avoid being late. Acute stress can manifest itself through depression and anxiety, but also through physical forms such as heartburn and headaches. Furthermore, once acute stress is ongoing and recurrent it forms into episodic acute stress, which can manifest itself as constant nervousness, chest pain and even heart disease. The most extreme type

of stress is chronic, which “destroys bodies, minds and lives. It wreaks havoc through long-term attrition. It's the stress of poverty of dysfunctional families, of being trapped in an unhappy marriage or in a despised job or career” (American Psychological Association). Those who suffer from chronic stress are prone to higher consequences than acute and episodic acute stress such as suicide, heart attack, and strokes. Moreover, chronic stress is also dangerous as it is described as becoming normalized within an individual’s life unlike other forms of stress. Families who live in poverty may be battling with chronic stress and treatment for these symptoms are more challenging. According to Gudrais, Charles A. Nelson III from Children’s Hospital Boston, reported that adults who cared for children with autism lost a decade of their life due to chronic stress. It is evident through this research that families from lower socioeconomic status could be in danger of suffering from harmful stress which could be life threatening especially if the family has children with disabilities. However, this would be a possible area of study as many children with disabilities may have trouble in areas of self-regulation.
This paper does also not go into much detail about race and ethnicity and how that may play a role in socioeconomic status.

It is not rare to find studies where race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status correlate. According to the American Psychological

Association,
“African American children are three times more likely to live in poverty than Caucasian children. American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian families are more likely than Caucasian and Asian families to live in poverty (Costello, Keeler, & Angold, 2001; National Center for Education Statistics, 2007).” This reveals there are stark differences between minorities and Caucasians that should be addressed as issues of poverty affect many realms of life. According to Heath (1989), one of the challenges poor African American families face is finding verbal opportunities for their children to explore outside of small apartments and church life. She explains the limited opportunities for verbal exploration just within traveling to the grocery store, the welfare office, or health center. Heath highlights the importance of black Ebonics even in the workforce as nontraditional styles are often looked for unlike classroom settings, which can ultimately be detrimental to these children’s development.
Throughout this paper, there was an exploration of how socioeconomic status impacts children’s education and the role of executive function.

The education system in the U.S. is in need of much improvement due to the educational gaps and racial disparities. There are numerous students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in need of additional resources, support, and help from early childhood that would make a profound difference in there later years in life. It is also important to note that not much research in regards to executive function for older children was found. There are many ongoing studies that investigate how executive function skills within younger children, and analyzing older children as well could expand upon that area of study. This is important to investigate because research has shown that self-regulation skills are important for being successful and impact areas that affect a child’s ability to learn. Through research Mischel discovered self-regulation skills start to develop from birth, and influence a child’s behavior and actions into adulthood. Therefore, I think it is important to continue research that relates to self-regulation functions and other executive function skills throughout childhood as well as into adulthood. I want to be able to use these thoughts to create autonomy in my classroom in regards to hard work and executive functioning.. This research has made me physically and socially conscious of my own decisions that I make with

my students and take that extra step to do better and be better for my scholars.