Building a New Biodevelopmental Framework to Guide the Future of Early Childhood Policy
Abstract
Four decades of early childhood policy and program development indicate that evidence-based interventions can improve life outcomes, and dramatic advances in the biological and behavioral sciences now provide an opportunity to augment those impacts. The challenge of reducing the gap between what we know and what we do to promote the healthy development of young children is to view current best practices as a starting point and to leverage scientific concepts to inspire fresh thinking. This article offers an integrated, biodevelopmental framework to promote greater understanding of the antecedents and causal pathways that lead to disparities in health, learning, and behavior in order to inform the development of enhanced theories of change to drive innovation in policies and programs.
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A bio-developmental framework is a plausible theory to explain emotion dysregulation, due to biological changes within the body, however, none of the included studies provided empirical evidence for these changes across generations and their causal impact or association with violence perpetration.
“For example, a bio-developmental framework (Shonkoff, 2010) is a plausible theory to explain emotion dysregulation, due to biological changes within the body, however, none of the included studies provided empirical evidence for these changes across generations and their causal impact or association with violence perpetration.”
From What Are the Mechanisms Underpinning Intergenerational Transmission of Violence Perpetration? A Realist Review (2026) · cites this paper as Shonkoff, 2010
The most vulnerable families are often least impacted by existing intervention strategies.
“In particular, novel approaches are needed to reach the most vulnerable families often least impacted by existing strategies [102].”
From Biological embedding of childhood adversity: from physiological mechanisms to clinical implications (2017) · cites this paper as [102]
High-quality early family experiences can partially mitigate the impact of adversity on neurocognitive development.
“Adversity within low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) poses severe threats to neurocognitive development, which can be partially mitigated by high-quality early family experiences.”
From Early Family Experiences and Neural Activity in Rural Pakistani Children: The Differential Role of Gender (2024) · cites this paper as Shonkoff 2010
High-quality early family experiences may partially buffer the impact of wider adversity on brain development, thus protecting the cognitive skills that will be essential for later academic achievement.
“High-quality early family experiences may partially buffer the impact of wider adversity on brain development, thus protecting the cognitive skills that will be essential for later academic achievement (Britto et al. 2017;Shonkoff 2010).”
From Early Family Experiences and Neural Activity in Rural Pakistani Children: The Differential Role of Gender (2024) · cites this paper as Shonkoff 2010
Stressful life events produce the most 'toxic' effect on children's stress system, raising the risk of subsequent development of stress-related mental difficulties, when experienced in the absence of a stable and supporting environment.
“stressful life events produce the most ‘toxic’ effect on children’s stress system, raising the risk of subsequent development of stress-related mental difficulties, when experienced in the absence of a stable and supporting environment [34]”
From Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health: is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for care? (2020) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- Shonkoff, J. P.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Shonkoff, Jack P
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-01-01
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 357-367
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W2089418395
- Cited by
- 695
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 58 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 45 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 155.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Child and Adolescent Health
- Keywords
- early childhood education policy, early childhood programs, evidence-based interventions, health disparities, learning disparities, behavioral effects, theory of change, causal pathways, policy innovation
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child Development, Health Policy, Health Promotion, Humans, Psychological Theory, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Health Status Disparities
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