The current notion of childhood is based on the understanding of developmental tasks and cultural expectations about children, and in the West, for a long time its relevance and specificity were disregarded or denied. From the mid-20th century onwards, the concept of childhood was expanded and children began to be seen as beings in development, with their rights protected by law. It is understood that this notion affects the understanding of children's mental health, which reinforces stereotypes suggesting that children do not have mental health problems, hindering prevention and health promotion actions. One of the neglected indicators is childhood stress, which manifests itself differently in children and adults, but can negatively impact the development and learning process. Therefore, this conference aims to first address the notion of childhood cultivated by Western culture and then present data from a longitudinal study that considered children with and without chronic/specific manifestations of stress and sought to explore the relationship between these trajectories and the repertoire of social skills, behavior and performance at school, which are typical indicators of development at school age. Overall, the focus on childhood stress trajectories highlighted the vulnerability of chronically stressed children, which is a risk factor for development and learning in the early years of schooling.