[Psychiatric aspects of stress in children and adolescents].

The notion of "stress", the concepts of normal or pathological adaptability are applicable to child and adolescent. The stress is not a fixed value and depends on the personality of the child, on his degree of development and on his environment. Each educator ought to know the difference between a stimulus necessary to the development and a harmful and dangerous stress, especially when the latter is very intense and repeated to an extent which does not permit a normal adaptability. These basic notions can be applied to different stages of development as well as to extraordinary situations (divorce, death of a parent, illness of the child, etc.) which may arise.