The schools they attend are less well funded, and the neighborhoods they live in are more disadvantaged. These children are more likely to experience multiple family transitions, move frequently, and change schools. Good-quality free or heavily subsidized childcare coupled with employment or job training may work better.Children growing up in low-income families face many challenges that children from more advantaged families do not. However, if there is little or no childcare, the program winds up not being nearly as effective as it ought to be. A classic example is taking people off of welfare and giving them a low-income job, which is usually right around the minimum wage. ![]() You really have to look across the board. You can’t just provide housing or job training. “Because poverty includes a convergence of multiple risk factors and stressors, it really means multiple interventions are necessary.”īecause poverty includes a convergence of multiple risk factors and stressors, it really means multiple interventions are necessary. I believe any policy approach has to increase income in a way that is predictable and reliable, coupled with more available and affordable services for these families. ![]() GE: Various experiments have shown that when you increase the income of families in poverty, you may get better health outcomes, better parenting, and reductions in various negative outcomes. MK: Given your findings on poverty, what kinds of policy changes could help enhance these children’s lives? Universal basic income? “If you grow up with a lot of stressors, your environment sets you up for feeling like you don’t have a sense of mastery or self-efficacy.” This is a dynamic, particularly for children, that we need to look more at. To me, that unfortunately fits our model - if you grow up with a lot of stressors, your environment sets you up for feeling like you don’t have a sense of mastery or self-efficacy. When challenged, they’re much more likely to give up. We have given both children and adults age-appropriate tasks to persist on, and we see consistently less persistence from the disadvantaged. Childhood poverty is linked to deficits in adult memory, greater psychological/physiological distress, and higher levels of aggression.Īnother research interest is how motivation and helplessness differ for those who grew up in an impoverished environment. GE: I looked at the psychological well-being of 24-year-olds in relation to their family income when they were 9 years old, finding relationships with a number of mental health and cognitive outcomes. MK: Recently, you published a study on the link between childhood poverty and adult psychological well-being. So you have this bad mix of heightened emotional responses coupled with less regulation and control. Structurally as well as functionally, these regions may change in children who grow up in poverty, leading to less efficient control and regulation of some cognitive and emotional processes than their wealthier peers.Īt the same time, other parts of the brain tied to automated, quick responses to stress and emergencies like the amygdala become over-developed and over-activated. There is good evidence that parts of the brain linked to executive control - involved in coordinating things and keeping everything organized - are sensitive to chronic stress. GE: The physiological response systems that are designed to handle relatively infrequent environmental stressors become overwhelmed for disadvantaged children. MK: How does constant exposure to such stressors impact the developing brain? ![]() “Parts of the brain may change in children who grow up in poverty, leading to less efficient control and regulation of some cognitive and emotional processes than their wealthier peers.” But the kids also experience psychosocial stressors like crime, family turmoil, and residential instability. Physical stressors include housing issues, noise, crowding, and pollution. One of the things that is unique and unfortunately quite powerful about childhood poverty is this accumulation of stressors, both physical and psychosocial. Gary Evans: Throughout my work, I’ve tried to make the point that one of the reasons why poverty is harmful for kids is the chronic stress they experience as a result. ![]() What are the components of poverty that tend to hit kids the hardest? Meeri Kim: Much of your work focuses on how children’s environment affects their health and well-being - in particular, the ways in which childhood poverty can lead to negative developmental outcomes.
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