Poverty, early care, and stress reactivity in adolescence: Findings from a prospective, longitudinal study in South Africa

A considerable body of evidence suggests that early caregiving may affect the short-term functioning and longer term development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Despite this, most research to date has been cross-sectional in nature or restricted to relatively short-term longitudinal follow-ups. More important, there is a paucity of research on the role of caregiving in low- and middle-income countries, where the protective...