Stress early in life may have far-reaching consequences. They can vary from increased resistance to stress to heightened vulnerability to physical and mental disorders. The fine-tuning of the stresssystem that occurs at the prenatal stage and in early childhood probably contributes to the effects later in life. The results of stress in childhood differ from the results of stress in adulthood. This is probably because in children cognitive development is still in progress, but is mainly because children's reaction to stress is embedded in the parent-child relationship.