People should try to avoid stress in their daily lives, as these negative feelings can lead to problems throughout the body, including those related to the heart, lungs and digestive tract, according to The American Institute of Stress. While these complications can arise in individuals of all ages, new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that children’s brains may be especially vulnerable to the effects of stress.

In a recent study, the results of which are set to appear in the "Journal of Neuroscience," researchers interviewed children between the ages of 9 and 14, as well as their parents, to determine these youths’ stress levels. During this process, the researchers also collected information pertaining to the stressful events in these subjects’ lives and their level of severity.

The researchers found that children who went through more stressful experiences in their short lifetime also received lower scores on tests designed to assess their spatial working memory. These participants’ brain scans revealed that their anterior cingulate, a part of the brain associated with spatial working memory, took up less space.

Based on the results of this study, parents of children who have experienced above-average levels of stress in their young lives may want to have them complete an IQ test for kids.