Damage Brain Connectivity And Function Summary

A key factor to understanding how poverty exists is to understand what it does to the victim’s brain. The conditions that come with living in poverty such as overcrowding and exposure to violence can affect a developing brain negatively in the same way drugs or alcohol does. The stress that comes with living in poverty during childhood has over time led people into depression and certain forms of addiction in their adulthood. According to Ostrander, “poverty perpetuates poverty, generation after generation, by acting on the brain.” The maternal stress response system is a very crucial thing to the development of a child’s brain and may crumble under pressure, releasing certain hormones that affect its development. While some children are able to

Childhood poverty comes along with stress and safety. Children who grow up in low-income families have less interaction with their families which leads to less cognitive stimulation. They also don’t have access to healthy foods, which affect healthy brain development. According to Hanson JL, Hair N, Shen DG, Shi F, Gilmore JH, et al., infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income families develop lower gray matter compared with those from middle and high-income households (Hanson et al.,2013).

To start, little is actually known about the importance and effect of timing of poverty on children’s psychological development. Economic deprivation during different phases and time frames of childhood can also alter the outcome of the child. Studies that have been done about children's early cognitive and physical development suggest that family income in the first five years of life has the most

The second study I used focused more on the significance of the timing a duration of poverty for a child from birth until third grade and the effect held on the child’s development and was titled “Duration and Developmental Timing of Poverty and Children's Cognitive and Social Development from Birth Through Third Grade”. Allhusen et al. examined the effects of different amounts of poverty by comparing children from families that were never poor, poor during the child’s infancy, poor after infancy, and always poor. In this study, poverty is defined as living 200% below the federal poverty threshold (Allhusen et al, 2005). Children in poverty scored lower on cognitive and pre- academic tests, lower competence, and exhibited a higher level of behavior problems (Allhusen et al, 2005).

The purpose of this article is to bring awareness that low income leads to complicated issues. Specific data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Longitudinal study of Youth examined households living in poverty, for a relationship between the minimum wage and psychological behaviors. Using a cross sectional analysis, the author explored the gap between the US and other country’s income levels. The findings show that although the US is high ranking in income levels, it is also ranked high in the poverty level. Additional, findings indicate that there is a relationship between families living in poverty and psychological behaviors, including a higher level of depression and other behavioral issues. The author found that children living in poverty are at higher risk of developing physical and psychological disorders, than children not living in poverty. This article pointed out the correlation between the minimum wage and psychological disorders. While the study did not include a longitudinal study of children in other countries, it did address an important area of research in psychological behaviors due to income inequality. The author made a compelling case that families living in poverty are more inclined to develop behavioral issues, than those families

Growing up in poverty has a significant effect on the brain. While poverty affects many aspects of the brain processes, spending patterns are greatly impacted by the mindset of poverty which in turns affects quality of life. Occasionally, those in poverty make it out. Despite gaining a higher socioeconomic class, quality of life can still be influenced by the impact of poverty. This is because those who grew up in poverty continue their impulsive spending habits when they move into the middle-class because poverty leaves an enduring impression on the human brain.

Early childhood. During the 1990s, the nation was inundated with reports on the importance of the early years on children's brain development and later cognitive achievement. While some of the reports may have overstated the issue and understated the importance of a child's later years on development, evidence suggests that the early years may be a critical period of development in which family poverty has particularly strong effects on young children. As seen in Table 1, poverty occurring early in a child's life (age two to four) is associated with large effects on indices of child school readiness and cognitive outcomes.

The brain develops in such a way that it leaves itself vulnerable to these negative influences. The prenatal brain develops an overabundance of neurons, some of which are then carefully eliminated before age 4 (5). In a process similar to this, the amount of synapses between neurons is built up during early childhood and then pruned back for the next 30 years of life (5). These two processes are both disturbed by elevated levels of stress hormones (5). The two centers of the brain with the most postnatal changes, including the growth of new neurons after birth, are the hippocampus, which is part of the limbic system, and the cerebellar vermis (6). The hippocampus is in charge of creating and retrieving memories, working together with the other parts of the limbic system, such as the amygdala, which records the emotions for each memory. The vermis controls the production and release of two of the catecholamine neurotransmitters, dopamine and norepinephrine (6). Both the vermis and the limbic system have higher concentrations of receptors for the stress hormone cortisol than anywhere else in the brain (6). Due to this fact, these still-developing areas are the most vulnerable to the damage done by elevated levels of stress hormones.

They did not find differences between children from middle class and affluent families but those only 50 percent above the poverty line showed gray matter volumes 3 to 4 percent below the norm. In other words, more money does not necessary mean better outcomes but at a certain point a “drop-off” effect of income occurs where a lack of financial resources is detrimental to development. “The reason I think we’re not seeing a continuum is that humans are very hardy,” Pollak says, “I think the human child can learn to accommodate quite a wide variety of circumstances — what’s happening in extreme poverty is that we’re moving out of the range where the human brain can

The psychological health of children around the world is detrimental to their abilities to cope, succeed and be able to function normally within social settings. According to Evans and Shamberg ( 2009), “Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement” (p. 6545- 6549). Children residing in poverty stricken neighborhoods and families tend to experience environmental stressors as well as physical stressors such as educational setbacks, lack of resources and physical demands that are not being met. These stressors can cause a problem in the psychological health of children because of the need to continually adjust to changes and setbacks that stem from poverty.

Growing up in poverty has a significant effect on the brain. While poverty affects many aspects of the brain processing, spending patterns are impacted which affects quality of life. Occasionally, those in poverty make it out. Despite gaining a higher socioeconomic class, quality of life can still be influenced by the impact of poverty. This is because those who grew up in poverty continue their impulsive spending habits when they move into the middle-class because poverty leaves an enduring impression on the human brain.

For example, the article it states, “childhood poverty may also lead to brain changes that influence mood and risk of depression” WORKCITE’. Therefore, at times child whose parents are living in poverty sometimes might be working two jobs to make it, so at times the child isn’t getting enough attention to help the child’s brain development.

Children are faced with many consequences due to growing up in poverty. Most children who live in poverty go to poor unsuitable schools, live in unexceptable housing, and grow up around more violence and crime than any other parent would wish for their child. As soon as the child is born into poverty, they begin to feel the effects of it. They tend to have low birth weight and contain a higher risk of dying during infancy. We watched a video in class that showed that poverty could take a toll on the child’s learning capabilities, and health status. There were stories of children with hyperactivity problems, chronic ear infections which caused hearing loss, and even children who were not receiving the proper amount of nutrients to be able to grow and function correctly. The first years of a child’s life are the most crucial because most of the development of the brain occurs then.

Question 2: Discuss the effects of poverty on children’s cognitive and social development and the extent to which effects might extend into adulthood

The lack of effort and performance children from low income families demonstrate is an incontrovertible issue. The effects that environment can have on adolescents can be devastating if the environment is inadequate to promote positive child development and success. Children experiencing poverty and neglect are more susceptible to lower performance in school and delayed development, resulting from “...many aspects of a child’s environment that can adversely affect maximum brain functioning. Two significant and negative environmental factors are poverty and neglect. Research substantiates the negative effects poverty can have on a child’s brain including development, learning and academic performance ”(Loughan,Perna). Loughan and Perna