Children and adolescents can experience stress in any aspect of life, within the family, at school, or in the community. Many events in a family's life, such as marriage, divorce, marital conflict, illness, death, substance abuse, or domestic violence can profoundly affect children.

Children and teens may express their stress through behaviors such as poor grades, misbehavior, withdrawal, angry outbursts, or suicide attempts. Sometimes children and teens benefit from extra help in mastering individual challenges, such as depression, anxiety, or an attention disorder.

In therapy, children, teens, and families can learn to recognize and use strengths and learn new skills for communicating or coping with feelings.