The scientific evidence regarding "adversities" (stress, unfavorable family, social, and economic conditions, etc.) that individuals encounter throughout their lives, including from birth, has grown significantly in recent decades. We are now able to explain how these adversities take shape and have a proven impact on individuals’ health. From an ethical standpoint, researchers caution that this research on adversity should not “be used to blame parents, but rather to reveal the conditions—particularly the social conditions—in which parents and children live and how they cope.”