JACK P. SHONKOFF: Chair DeGette, Ranking Member Guthrie,
members of the subcommittee, I want
to thank you, also for myself, for the opportunity
to be here with you today.
My name is Jack Shonkoff.
I'm a professor of Child Health and Development
at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health
and the Graduate School of Education,
and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
And I direct the Center on the Developing
Child at Harvard University.
I'm a pediatrician by training, and my work
is focused on early life influences
on learning, behavior, and health.
I took the liberty--
I promise I will not exceed my time,
but I cut two paragraphs out of my prepared remarks,
because they've been said by everybody who
has spoken here this morning.
So what I want to do is take a chance
on using this opportunity to give you
a deeper understanding of what the term "toxic stress" means.
It's been mentioned a great deal.
I'm going to give you a deeper understanding of that.
And my testimony is based on strong scientific consensus
from decades of scientific research.
This is not about a single study,
but it's the consensus of the scientific community.
Sudden forcible separation of children from their parents
is deeply traumatic for both the child and the parent.
But above and beyond the distress we see on the outside,
is triggers of massive biological stress response
inside the child, which remains activated
until the parent returns and provides some sense of comfort.
Without exaggeration, there are literally
thousands of studies that have converged on the following two
simple basic core scientific concepts.
Number one, a strong foundation for healthy development
in young children requires a stable, responsive,
and supportive relationship with at least one parent
or primary caregiver.
And the second concept is that high and persistent levels
of stress activation, which is known as toxic stress,
can disrupt the architecture of the developing brain
and other biological systems--
which I will say a little bit about in a moment--
with serious negative impacts on learning, behavior,
and lifelong physical and mental health, not just mental health.
So early experiences are literally
built into our brains and our bodies from the beginning.
Stable and responsive relationships
promote healthy brain development.
They establish well-functioning immune and metabolic systems,
and cardiovascular systems.
And they strengthen the building blocks of resilience.
If these relationships are disrupted,
young children are hit by the double whammy of a brain that
is deprived of the positive stimulation it needs,
as assaulted by a stress response that disrupts
its developing circuits.
When any of us feels threatened, our body stress responses
are activated.
Heart rate and blood pressure go up,
stress hormone levels are elevated,
blood sugar rises, and inflammatory responses
are mobilized.
This is the fight-or-flight response.
And every one of us knows what it feels like physically
to be optimally stressed out.
And I want to repeat that.
The toxic stress response is what everybody here
understands.
When you are most stressed, you know what you feel physically.
We all know what that feels like.
This response is automatic and it's essential for survival.
It is built into our biology.
But it is designed to go back to normal when the threat is over.
If the sense of danger continues,
the ongoing activation of the stress response system
shifts from being protective and allowing
us to deal with threat, to becoming disrupted
and outright damaging over time.
For example, persistently elevated stress hormones
can disrupt brain circuits that affect memory and the ability
to focus attention and regulate behavior.
Excessive inflammation in metabolic responses
to stress in childhood increased the risk of heart disease,
diabetes, hypertension, stroke, various forms of cancer,
as well as depression and a vulnerability
to addictions in the adult years.
A number of people alluded to this.
It's not magic.
We are opening up this black box.
We are beginning to understand what
is it about all of this constant stress that makes you
more at risk for heart disease decades later.
It's because the underlying biology
is what is happening to these insurance systems.
Unlike positive or tolerable stress,
which can build resilience, excessive prolonged toxic
stress has lifelong consequences.
So what I want to do is conclude by sharing with you how
these scientific principles that I've just described
provide a powerful framework for understanding the damage caused
by the current family separation policy.
All children who were abruptly separated
from familiar caregivers at the border
experienced overwhelming stress.
Will some survive without significant problems?
The answer is yes.
Will many be seriously impaired for the rest of their lives?
The answer again is yes.
The biology of adversity suggests three factors
that influence who is at greatest risk.
The first is age.
Younger children are the most vulnerable
because their brain circuitry and other biological systems
are relatively underdeveloped, and they are the most dependent
on adult caregivers.
The second is previous harm from adversity.
Many people have alluded to this.
The pileup of stress on children who are already compromised
shifts the odds against them even further.
Intentionally withholding the most powerful healing
intervention we could possibly offer,
the care of their parents when children are in danger,
goes against everything that science tells us-- everything.
The third reason for variation in outcomes
is the duration of separation, and that's the part
that I want to leave you with.
Toxic stress is a ticking clock.
And prolonged separation inflicts increasingly greater
harm as each week goes by.
From a scientific perspective, the initial separation
and the lack of rapid unification
are both highly indefensible.
Forcibly separating children from their parents
is like setting a house on fire, and prolonging that separation
is like blocking the first responders from doing
their job.
Thank you very much for the opportunity.
SPEAKER: Thank you very much, Doctor.