Chronic stressful conditions such as adverse parental care during early stages of development affect an individual's health and the way they cope with stressful situations later. Consequently, the alteration of the capacity to cope with subsequent stressors heightens vulnerability to the development of psychopathologies. Early intervention strategies would be important to mitigating the progression towards psychopathological outcomes in adulthood. In this study, we take advantages of the scarcity-adversity model (SAM) from postnatal days (PND) 8 to 12 in rats to investigate the impact of adverse care conditions on the adrenal glands, stress response and behavior phenotype at juvenile age (PND 21-35). We found that SAM generates alteration in adrenal glands changing cortex-medulla ratio, thickness to cortex zones and cytoplasmic diameter. These changes are accompanied by greater corticosterone levels to acute stress. At the behavioral level, higher sucrose consumption, more unsupported exploratory behaviors and a passive response in the forced swim were observed in SAM juvenile offspring. These findings are groundbreaking, as they shed light on the previously understudied effects of infant maltreatment at a critical early age, providing valuable insights for the development of early interventions that can help alleviate long-term consequences.