Early Adaptive Skills May Shield Children’s Brains After Exposure to Disaster-Related Prenatal Stress

Building everyday behavioral skills in early childhood can help protect young brains from the harmful effects of prenatal stress caused by natural disasters, according to recent research from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and Queens College.

The study, published in Developmental Neuroscience, examined children whose mothers were pregnant during Superstorm Sandy, a powerful Category 3 hurricane that struck New York City and surrounding areas as a post-tropical cyclone in October 2012. Researchers used the storm as a natural model of prenatal stress exposure to explore how the development of adaptive skills across early childhood years may help maintain neural responsiveness in exposed children.

Adaptive skills refer to everyday abilities that help children function independently and interact effectively with others, such as communication, social skills, and the ability to manage daily tasks like self-care. As part of the Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) Study, mothers and their children completed yearly behavioral visits between ages 2 and 6. These assessments measured children’s adaptive behaviors, including self-care, communication, and social interaction.

Later in childhood, at around age 8, a subgroup of 34 children participated in a pilot brain imaging study at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC). The findings showed that children with stronger adaptive skills exhibited comparable brain activation patterns to their unexposed peers, suggesting these skills may protect brain function.

Researchers concluded that encouraging and reinforcing adaptive skills early may contribute to more resilient brain development in at-risk children. Given that adaptive behaviors appear to buffer the risk of prenatal stress on subsequent brain development, early intervention focused on building everyday behavioral skills could serve as a protective factor for children exposed to prenatal stress from natural disasters.

These results highlight the importance of supporting early childhood development in families affected by disasters, emphasizing that fostering basic life skills may not only improve daily functioning but also promote long-term brain health and resilience.