The Influence Of Poverty On Cognitive Health

Some scholars believe that the negative impact poverty has on health of children is the reason for, continuing physical pressure and persistent childhood hunger can a result for a child to have a challenge in education and eventually lead a child to be less successful in the school. A 2016 research presented the idea that the childhood poverty reduces one’s life outlook within adulthood. Definitely, in most cases, it happened even without the family’s living situation or income. While related to their financially- stable equals, poor children in the United States of America are more suitable to present diminished well -being as well as numerous development issue (Arrighi and Maume 138). These facts were revealed by checking different areas, involving physical well-being, cognitive issues, school performance consequences, psychological and behavioral consequences. Therefore, the child poverty places

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

What is it like living in a home with low income? Poverty is the state of not having enough money to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. What affects does it have on children? Children living in low income homes face more challenges than others. The have to endure the pain of not having family members at home when they need them. Children living in poverty have to cope with the stress of taking care of themselves as well as their siblings at times, while trying to maintain satisfactory grades in school. In this paper I will discuss the effect of poverty on a child’s social development, academic performance, and health conditions.

Many children are born into poverty; with no help whatsoever as to why they had to suffer. The severe cause of poverty has shown that children will later struggle academically in life. People from the Washington University School of Medicine did some research on poverty and discovered that poverty also comes with areas of smaller brain volumes coming from memory and emotion processing. Since the time of preschool aged to 6-12 years old, researchers led by Joan Luby at the St. Louis-based university has tracked the bran scans of these aged children. Not only does the affect of poverty impact the environmental factors, but it also affects the physical aspect of the child’s brain. Children brought into poverty at an early age had volumes of smaller

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.

In the article “Child Poverty Can Damage Brain Connectivity and Function” by Christopher Bergland, poverty has been directly linked to the hippocampus and the amygdala, which have different connections in the brain in impoverished children, than children raised with a higher income. Research has shown that due to the different connections by the hippocampus and the amygdala, children, starting at the preschool level, are more likely to show signs of clinical depression, mental illness, test more poorly than other children, slower cognitive function, and show antisocial behaviors. (https://www.psychologytoday.com).

Researchers have found that the chronic stress associated with poverty can significantly impact the development of the prefrontal cortex (Wilber et al., 2011). This has major neurological implications because research has shown that deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex can explain deficits in executive functioning, cognition, language, sociability and emotion (Rinaldi et al., 2008 ; Price, 2006). This would be consistent with neurobehavioural disorders that are associated with the prefrontal cortex, included ADHD and autism. This negative impact on the prefrontal cortex is further explored with research that shows significant differences in executive functioning between children from higher and lower income households (Lipina et al., 2005).

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.

My view on this article is mostly that he is giving his opinion on how poverty affects brain growth. The author predicts that poverty is harmful to brain development. He also predicts that poverty is a toxin to brain development. In the chart above are words found in his article that involve poverty probability, and statistics. In a portion of the article he says he thinks poverty affects the development of children’s brain. He only states about two or three statistics and he tries to make his article sound like he got his information from stats but, he didn’t all he did was used large words that sound smart or are related to statistics. So he wanted people to read his article and believe what he was talking about but my question is where

The limitations of this study is that they do not have much physical evidence of the effects of the brain. The author of the article does mention this however the researcher does provide brain scans showing how the brain function changes. By looking beyond cognitive skills tests towards the physical effects of poverty on the brain, it will make the study more credible.

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.

Health is another issue that has been examined as a potential effect of living in poverty. A large amount of literature links low income to child health problems with studies showing that children in poverty are at a greater risk of infant, child and adolescent deaths (Children’s Defense Fund, 1994) along with malnutrition (Miller & Korenman, 1994) and numerous other health issues. These health issues can also be linked to the low quality living environment, as children in poverty are more likely to be exposed to toxins such as lead along with poorer air and water quality. These have been found to lead to cognitive deficits in children (Holgate, Samet, Koren, & Maynard, 1999).

The main conclusion exposed by the researchers from Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.wisc.edu/) was that that children who are living in poverty might experience, not only long-lasting cognitive impairment, but also a large number of differences

Socio-economic factors are widely acknowledged as important determinants of poverty. If an individual experiences adverse living conditions in childhood, majority of them will have inadequate income and result in low socio-economic status as adults (Carroll et al, 2011). Children born in poor households have difficulty in accessing the basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, and good living environment) and this can affect their learning ability at school, unable to focus. In other words, they have a higher chance of dropping out of school or lower education attainment, unable to provide appropriate qualifications when they move onto adulthood, seeking for job opportunities. These children are finding day-to-day life tough, they are living in cold, damp houses, do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry (Children's Commissioner, 2012). Often this has taken place over a long period of time, impacting on their development, behaviour and physical health furthermore limiting their potential as they grow into adults.