The onset and intensification of agriculture corresponded with notable shifts in the way people lived in the past. These changing cultural and physical environments created new sets of physiological stress experiences in which the human body is particularly vulnerable to during the formative years. In this study, we examine the impact of the agricultural transition on childhood and adolescent experiences in Asia. We assessed multiple bone dimensions that reach maturity at different stages of growth as proxies for early life stress during different life stages. Our sample comprises adult skeletons from five archaeological sites in mainland Asia: Con Co Ngua, Khok Phanom Di, Man Bac (MB), Xin’anzhuang (AXA), and Non Ban Jak (NBJ), collectively dating from the pre-Neolithic to the Iron Age (~6700 - 1200BP). We found varying levels of stress exposure in children and adolescents over time with the onset and intensification of agriculture. The clearest differences are that MB children appear to be less affected than adolescents, while it is the opposite at NBJ. We also found some differences in stress exposure between males and females at AXA. The findings from this study allow for a detailed understanding of how stress can change during the formative years. Stress exposure showed no general increase or decrease over time. Rather, these experiences were more nuanced, with variations between age groups or between the sexes. Ecological factors (e.g., infectious disease, famine), or culturally imposed preferences, likely contributed to greater stress conditions in some groups over others within these communities.