The food chain can enrich the human body with perchlorate， a novel persistent inorganic contaminant， from the environment. The quantity of perchlorate entering the food chain cannot be ignored， despite the lack of particular facts to support it at the moment. The oxidative stress (ROS， SOD， CAT， MDA， and GSH) in Caenorhabditis elegans was detected in this study using perchlorate as the research object and Caenorhabditis elegans as the model organism. Growth and development-related indicators (body length， life span， and number of eggs laid) of Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to different concentrations of perchlorate were measured， and the associated levels of oxidative stress and growth gene expression were assessed to determine a potential mechanism of perchlorate's influence on Caenorhabditis elegans growth and development. The findings demonstrated that perchlorate dramatically decreased the Caenorhabditis elegans life cycle， spawning frequency， and body length. Additionally， Caenorhabditis elegans had elevated levels of ROS， GSH， and MDA as well as enhanced SOD and CAT activity. Daf-2， Daf-16， Daf-18， Sir-2.1， Skn-1， and other associated genes in the insulin/insulin growth factor signaling pathway may be affected. Through oxidative stress， perchlorate can activate the insulin/insulin growth factor signal pathway and associated genes， affecting growth and development.