The Stress Puzzle

Today's episode builds on the discussion of puberty as a sensitive period from the previous episode with Dr. Megan Gunnar. Featuring developmental scientist Dr. Ronald Dahl, this conversation explores early adolescence as a pivotal transition, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities and opportunities for positive growth during this formative window. Dr. Dahl emphasizes the importance of supporting prosocial learning, cultivating positive emotions, and addressing inequities through integrative, interdisciplinary approaches to improve the lives of children and adolescents. Tune in next month for an episode on Superwoman Schema with Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé!

Dr. Ronald Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist whose research focuses on early adolescence as a developmental period with unique opportunities for early intervention to support behavioral and emotional health. He is the Director of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as a Professor in the School of Public Health and the Joint Medical Program. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent. His research is interdisciplinary and bridges between basic developmental research (emphasizing social and affective neuroscience) and the translation of this work into clinical and social policy relevance. He has published extensively on child and adolescent development, sleep disorders, behavioral/emotional health in children, adolescent brain development and on the policy implications of this work. He has been elected as a Fellow of organizations including: Association for Psychological Science, American Academy of Pediatrics, New York Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is a Founding Editor of the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and is a Past President of the Society for Research in Child Development. We especially appreciate his focus on integrative developmental science and translating this area of research into clinical and social policy that can improve the lives of children and adolescents.

Topics Discussed:

• Adolescent Development
• Integrative Developmental Science
• Social Transitions
• Fitting In vs. Standing Out
• Self-Other Concept
• Prosociality
• Population Health
• Sleep and Digital Technology
• Youth Involvement/Co-Creation

Papers Mentioned:

• Dahl, R. E., Armstrong-Carter, E., & Van Den Bos, W. (2024). Wanting to matter and learning to care: A neurodevelopmental window of opportunity for (Pro) social learning? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 69, 101430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101430
• Shoib S, Siddiqui MF, Saleem SM, Chandradasa M. Sir Michael Rutter (2022). Pioneer, legend, and father of modern child psychiatry. Ind Psychiatry J. 2022 Jul-Dec;31(2):384-386. doi: 10.4103/ipj.ipj_244_21. 
• Schleider, J. L., Zapata, J. P., Rapoport, A., Wescott, A., Ghosh, A., Kaveladze, B., Szkody, E., & Ahuvia, I. L. (2025). Single-Session Interventions for Mental Health Problems and Service Engagement: Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Annual review of clinical psychology, 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033 
• Sotomayor, I., *Chang, Y., *Szkody, E., Fox, K., & Schleider, J. L. (under review). A digital, minority stress-focused single-session intervention benefits multiply-marginalized sexual minority adolescen

For today's episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Megan Gunnar, a developmental psychologist who discusses her research on early life adversity and stress biology showing the importance of puberty as a window of biological flexibility. Dr. Gunnar discussed work from earlier in her career that led her to pursue these questions through an interdisciplinary lens. Tune in next month to hear more on the importance of adolescence from Dr. Ronald Dahl. 

Dr. Megan Gunnar is a Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral training was in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship in Psychoneuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. Since then, she has built a remarkable career studying how stress biology affects neurobehavioral development and the processes that help children regulate stress hormones. Dr. Gunnar is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and has numerous lifetime achievement awards across many societies and disciplines including the Association for Psychological Science and the International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology. Learn more about Dr. Gunnar's research: https://innovation.umn.edu/gunnar-lab/

Topics Discussed:

• Developmental Psychoneuroendocrinology
• Stress System Calibration and Recalibration
• Stress Reactivity
• Puberty
• Chronic Stress
• HPA Axis
• Early Life Adversity

Papers Mentioned:

• Gunnar, M. R., DePasquale, C. E., Reid, B. M., Donzella, B., & Miller, B. S. (2019). Pubertal stress recalibration reverses the effects of early life stress in postinstitutionalized children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(48), 23984–23988. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909699116
• Gunnar, M. R., & Vazquez, D. M. (2001). Low cortisol and a flattening of expected daytime rhythm: Potential indices of risk in human development. Development and Psychopathology, 13(3), 515–538. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579401003066
• Engel, M. L., & Gunnar, M. R. (2020). The development of stress reactivity and regulation during human development. International review of neurobiology, 150, 41–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irn.2019.11.003
• Gunnar, M. R. (2017). Social Buffering of Stress in Development: A Career Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616680612

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!