Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Ethnicity on a Child

Low income families steam from uneducated parents. Some of these families have parents that did not finish school, or they struggled in school. These parents tend to be less active in their child’s education because they do not understand the work themselves. Some of them skip out on parent teacher conferences because they do not want to feel threaten. They feel that they may not understand what the teacher is talking about, and do not want to feel uneducated. According to Zachrisson and Dearing (2015), “Low family income heightens the risk of stress in the home environment, resulting in heightened levels of conflict, parenting strain, and chaos” (pg. 425). These types of homes make the children feel uncomfortable, and they feel as if they do not have any support from home. These students come home from school to homes that are divided, and feel as if they

Regardless of social class most parents wish for their children to be happy, healthy, and successful; however, parents disagree on the best way to raise their children to be all of those things, which is when social class determines the parents’ child rearing method. Whether a child comes from a working class or middle class family affects the child’s development and socialization; and consequently the child’s future.

Early childhood education is crucial for success in the formalized education system. Many children born into lower income communities do not obtain this advantage. According to Kozol, simply based off accident of birth a child will lead completely different educational lives (2005). For example, a white toddler in an upper middle class neighborhood might attend a prestigious educational preliminary kindergarten. These respected early education schools are often referred to as “baby ivies” (Kozol, 2005). The child participates in pre-numeracy skills along with pre-writing skills. Conversely, a child of minority descent living in an underprivileged neighborhood may not initiate school until they are five years old. In the three previous years a

Children in families with lower incomes at or below the poverty line have been connected with poor cognitive and social development in early childhood. The studies that I chose to use evaluate the cognitive and social development during early childhood using various surveys, evaluations, and observations completed by or with the children, parents, and teachers. Development of any kind is dependent on the interplay of nature and nurture, or genetics and environment. These studies draw from a child’s environment during the earliest years of development, specifically birth, pre-school, and early elementary school. The studies propose living in an impoverished environment as opposed to an environment above the poverty line imposes certain

Poverty affects the health of a child, which undesirably impacts the development process. Scientist have ran many tests to support the argument that poverty does effect a child’s brain development. Seth Pollak, a child development researcher, and his team analyzed nearly 1000 MRI scans of rather diverse children from all over the U.S between 2001 and 2007. Making sure to exclude individuals who were born from risky pregnancies, complicated births and subjects who had a family history of mental illness. The MRI scans revealed that the areas of the brain that were affected by environmental influences and academic

Poverty is nothing more than the origin of a low SES, “Families with low socioeconomic status often lack the financial, social, and educational supports that characterize families with high socioeconomic status. Poor families also may have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote and support children 's development and school readiness. Parents may have inadequate skills for such activities as reading to and with their children, and they may lack information about childhood immunizations and nutrition”

In the article “Who Gets to Graduate” by Paul Tough examines a problem about low income students are less likely to graduate from college than students from middle class or wealthier families. In the United States, school systems are not created equally. Middle and upper class students have access to safe and modern schools equipped with everything they possibly need to stay in that high rank because they came from a family who has the money to support their studies. Students from low-income families don’t have a lot of the support, stability, and money from home that higher-income students can take for granted.

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 development of children can depend on many factors, one of the important ones being socioeconomic status (SES). SES can be defined as a multidimensional construct, including measures of social factors such as power, prestige and hierarchical social status, and economic resources (Hackman and Farah, 2009). Child development can be studied from multiple dimensions such as physical, mental, social, and emotional development among others. For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on how socioeconomic status affects child cognitive development.

Imagine two scenarios, where one child is devouring a plate of greasy fries, a large chocolate shake, and a juicy burger on a daily basis. Now imagine a child eating a colorful plate full of vegetables, mashed potatoes and a small piece of grilled chicken on the side. The first child lives in an underprivileged community, where there are corner stores on every block along with a variety of fast food options. Now imagine the second child living in a suburban community, near a local produce market, that sells a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The reason behind this is based on one's socioeconomic status that can either benefit or negatively impact one's health. Socioeconomic status "refers to standing in the stratification system and

As mentioned earlier there are stereotypes that come with socioeconomic status, including that children from low socioeconomic status families tend to not perform as well in school as children from higher socioeconomic status families. This is not because the children from low socioeconomic status have a deficiency that causes them to underperform, but rather it is because there is an expectation that the children will not do as well and so the children walk into the classroom facing a losing battle (Schmitt-Wilson, 2013, p 228). The education that a child receives in the earliest years of their life sets up a framework for the education through the rest of their lifetime (Stull, 2013, p 54). That being said, if a child does not receive the best education in the earliest years of their schooling, it is not surprising when they do not do as well in school and do not seek higher education after high school. Another common stereotype is that children from low socioeconomic status will not go on to get high paying jobs, but even if this is true it is not

I believe the impact of socioeconomic status highly influences a child’s learning. It is sad that a child is effected by their home life, but this is reality. Before this year, I would have stated that most student in a stably home with two parent do not have a lot of behavior and emotional issues but as of today, I know that this does not matter. They are still effected because of the type of environment they are in. I have learned this from experience a child socioeconomic status helps but it does not prevent them from being a great student. Children from all walks of life could have a hard time socially, so when comparing the family lives of children with one parent verses children with two, the only disadvantage is the missing parent in

Over 71% of Euro-American children performed at a higher grade level compared to African American children; these children who tend to live in lower-income families frequently perform worse than middle-class families. This lack of performance follows an affected child throughout their education and later leads to a deficit in the number of students graduating high school and college (4). Even if a poverty-stricken child graduated, many lead the same lifestyle and remain in the same social-class that their parents lived in. However, whether the parents have limited education or a lack of wealth, they can still provide their children with the

Economic circumstances has an influence on multiple areas that affect infant development. Income related difference in parenting appear early in the infants life; for instance, on average low income mothers are less affeffectionate, less responsive to infants’ distress signals, and they are more likely to have harsh parenting styles. Children from a low income have fewer stimulating experiences and learning materials than children from higher income households. This leads to apparent differences that during the first years and often last into adulthood. One of those differences are that the children from low income are more likely to have increased behavioral problems and lower cognitive scores. Furthermore, children from a high income family usually experience psychological stress because the parents pressure the child to overachieve. The financial situation can also affect if the infant is able to get the nutrition intake that is needed, and if the infant is unable to get the right nutrition that will lead to other areas of development being affected.Financial situations

Child development is complex because it is influenced by a wide range of factors such as culture. A child’s culture begins to influence them long before they are born. Parents from around the world hold different beliefs and raise their children in unique ways. Cultural norms can greatly affect which values parents consider important and how they share those values with children (Christensen, 2013). The timing of the development of certain skills and characteristics in children, depends on the importance the culture places on them (Buechner, 2015). For example, a good deal of value is placed on academics in many Eastern cultures, and so children spend many hours each day on math and science activities from the time they are very young. But, in the United States children are given a great deal more freedom to express themselves and experiment with things, because we as a society place value on creativity and innovation (O’Sullivan, 2016). In the U.S., the nuclear family is considered the ideal structure for raising children, but in countries like Japan and India, extended family and community members take a much larger role in child care and parenting (Christensen, 2013). Because each child is unique, caregivers need to form partnerships with families in order to meet the developmental and educational needs of their students. According to Copple and Bredekamp (2009) by understanding a child’s culture, early childhood professionals can “make classroom decisions that are