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Nancy Cambria
Children and Families Reporter
I have been a reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for 10 years reporting on juvenile justice, foster care, child health and welfare, adoption and early childhood education.
Articles
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A year after Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, a reporter returned to the neighborhood and spent months talking with families about how they cope with toxic levels of stress and violence.
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The Post-Dispatch special report delved into an array of problems that affect the health and well-being of people struggling daily to keep a job, the electricity running and food on the table and resist the ripple effects of violence.
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It has long been known that growing up in impoverished and dangerous neighborhoods such as Ferguson, Missouri dims life prospects. But now a commanding body of medical research presents a disturbing, biological picture of why.
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The story of Darlene Evans, a 45-year-old single mother of 10 children living on disability without a car, reflects how toxic stress can attack maternal health before moving on to impair prenatal and early childhood well-being.
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Toxic stress can have a devastating effect on children's health, with consequences stretching out over a lifetime. Nancy Cambria offers a primer on the science behind our emerging understanding of the toll chronic stress is taking on young lives.
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We know "toxic stress" can have a devastating impact on the longterm health and well-being of children. But how do we counter its effects? It turns out that strengthening relationships and building resilience is key.
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![[Photo by Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch]](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list_thumbnail/public/title_images/St.LouisPostDispatch.jpg?itok=FEikj-Qz "[Photo by Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch]")
Every day as I drive to my office at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I pass homes with yard signs stating “Black Lives Matter and “I heart Ferguson,” but also, “We must stop killing each other,” a nod to the constant human stress, trauma and, ultimately, shortened life expectancy in these communities.