Early life stress disrupts social behavior and prefrontal cortex parvalbumin interneurons at an earlier time-point in females than in males.

•We examined divergent sex profiles in early-life stress (ELS) exposed rats.•ELS females showed social interaction deficits earlier in development than males.•Parvalbumin levels were decreased after ELS earlier in females than males.•COX-2 expression remained unchanged in ELS females throughout development but was increased in ELS male adolescents.