Study of nineteenth-century bones and teeth found in England shows children suffered physical punishment, developmental delay and malnutrition. Of the 154 remains recovered from Fewston Cemetery, 54 were of young people under the age of 20.

Most had an age (determined by teeth) that did not correspond to that estimated according to the length and stage of development of their bones. This type of stress at an early age also affects brain development, as studies with children in orphanages in Ceausescu's Romania have shown.