Priscilla J. Hambrick-Dixon, Ph.D.
Hunter College of the City University of New York

In recent years, reports in the media on the effects, both psychological and physiological, of exposure to particular contexts such as corporate practices, on children and their families, have aroused much concern among professionals and lay persons.  An underlying assumption is that an individual’s task of adapting to and coping with exposure to and involvement with specific environmental conditions may engender stress reactions, psychological and physiological.

Using an environmental stress theoretical framework, Hambrick-Dixon & LaPoint (1999) identified a common source of these potential “environmental stressors”, the confluence of practices in producing, manufacturing, advertising, selling and commercializing goods, products and services—by various business and corporations to consumers, particularly children and adolescents, referred to as “commercialism influences”.  They further proposed a model of multi-contextual influences on children’s and adolescents’ development based upon the earlier and recent environmental stress theories (Campbell, 1983 & Evans, 2000).   This model consists of three components: sources of corporate/environmental stress, mediating variables and the effects of exposure to environmental stressors.  The sources of potential environmental stress include the following: fashion industries, media industries (e.g., music, radio, internet, video games, movies, etc.), food industries, industry by-products and pollutants (physical environment), and illicit use of products (e.g., guns, alcohol, drugs, etc.).  The mediating variables proposed to determine the extent to which these sources of potential environmental stress impact children and adolescents are: characteristics of these sources of stress (e.g., intensity, controllability, predictability, etc.); stage of development; internal biological environment; number of stressors to which the individual is exposed; gender; sociocultural variables, sociodemographic variables, level of family functioning, spirituality, social support and corporate social responsibility

Although a growing body of research has examined the relationship between particular corporate environmental stressors and children’s and adolescents’ development, relatively few systematic empirical studies have examined this relationship in the family as a unit, consisting of both adults and children.   Therefore, the purposes of this presentation are to: 1. discuss the methodological issues related to studies on corporate environmental stress, children and family life, 2. propose the application of the Environmental Health Paradigm, as outlined by Landrigan & Carlson (1995) to establish a research agenda investigating the relationship between corporate environmental stress, children and family life, and 3.  propose a research agenda in the area of the impact of corporate environmental stressors on children, adolescents and their family life.