Children are affected by stress, just as are adults, but the mechanisms of the effects are not necessarily the same. Children, for example, may be subject to stress from the family directly, and clearly, children may experience work- related stress through its effects on the family, but they themselves cannot directly experience the stresses generated in the workplace. For them, however, there will undoubtedly be stress from the school they attend. Children's coping strategies are likely to be less sophisticated than adults, due to a lack of experience of the world. The effects of stress on children is a topic which as yet is relatively unexplored and is worthy of a carefully considered approach, as current explanations of perceived pupil misbehaviour tend to focus on events in the child itself and not externally defined criteria which may bring about such changes.

Let's take a look at the effects of stress on children developmentally, i.e. from birth through to adolescence and to make some form of assessment as to how children's stress may be reduced.