Child Poverty Essay

740 Words2 Pages

Children cannot control the financial situation they are born into, but can they control the effect their economics has on their development? It has been learned that during the infant stage, financial situations, namely those living close to or in poverty, seriously affect the infant’s different levels of development. From social skills to cognitive development, poverty has taken a toll on many areas of the brain. A child’s development cannot be controlled, and as hard as it is to accept, poverty affects a child- in a more negative way that you may think.
Regarding a child, it appears people compare social and cognitive development to the child’s family economic situation. To find relationships between the development of a child and economic …show more content…

This relationship between poverty and cognitive growth trajectories remained constant throughout the 77 young children from diverse economic backgrounds and cultures. Additionally, they found that the children with slower growth trajectories were also appearing to develop disruptive behavioral problems. Thus, it has been proven that impoverished environments and poverty negatively affect a child’s development, slowing their cognitive and social skills. However, since this study was only conducted on a small number of participants, we cannot compare it to every child in the …show more content…

The researchers also went into depth, studying the behavioral problems for both minority and non-minority children living in the United States. They collected data from a variety of races: 844 white, 538 black, and 404 Latino families who had children aged 6 to 9. The Behavior Problems Index and other models were used to determine the behavior level of the children. Through this research, it was discovered that chronic poverty affected a child’s behavior negatively, but there were also other variables including: parental practices and maternal depression. It is concluded that chronic poverty and impoverished living affects a child’s behavior- whether they be a minority or

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