Growing up with Extraordinary Challenges: Hoping for the Best in Uncertainty

This essay presents a need and justification for an emerging field of study of the biological foundation of child's reaction to human adversity. It first discusses the connection between early adversity and child developmental outcomes. Then it mentions the presence of the remarkable amount of individual differences present in the outcome of previously institutionalized children as a result of adoption. Finally, it questions why such a powerful effect as early adversity is associated with such a tremendous amount of individual differences and suggests that this diversification can be related to the action of the epigenome.