Early Childhood Education and Social Inequalities
Early Childhood Development and Social Inequalities
All families should have the same opportunities to live a descent life. But due to the backgrounds of some families, and children, they may not have a chance for this. There are certain risk factors that have a bearing on social inequalities in health, and particularly those that are prone to preventative intervention. There are many that I could talk about, but I have picked out four of these factors to talk about. They are biological factors, family and social factors, parenting factors, and attachment. Even these I feel that I will not be able to cover completely, because there is only a certain part we see, and then there is the that is kept hidden from all.
There are many factors that influence the development and social inequalities in a child’s life. These include biological, family and social factors, parenting factors, attachment, and the way non-maternal care is influenced. All of these are risk factors that are likely to have a bearing on the child’s social inequalities on their health.
The biological factors include premature birth, low birth weight, and a serious medical illness. The significantly influence and infants growth. “Low birth weight, less than 2500 grams, has a prevalence of 6 percent in white middle-class U.S. women, and 15 percent in ethnic minority teenagers. These teenagers tend to be single mothers.” At the Infant Health and Development Project, they found that in a large amount of premature infants, that their IQ was less than 85 at three years of age. Race was the greatest factor in predicting outcome, that was followed by maternal education, and then medical complications. The infants of poorly educated African American mothers (90%) who had medical complications were severely compromised, while only nine percent of white infants with well-educated parents fell into this category, regardless of birth complications. There are other biological variables that seem to be independent of psycho-social factors. In one study, it was shown that if the mother smoked
during her pregnancy, there appeared to be a high risk for conduct disorder and male children.This study suggested that are maybe a direct effect on the still developing fe...
... middle of paper ...
...both parents after the divorce. This program could be integrated into the school system, with school based counseling services for these children.
Bibliography:
Easterbrooks, M. A., & Emde, R. N. “Marriage and Infant: Different Systems' Linkages for
Mothers and Infants.” (1986) Paper presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Beverly Hills, CA.
Elder, G. H., & Rockwell, R. C.. Research in Community and Mental Health 1(1979)
Korner, A. F., Stevenson, D. K., Kraemer, H. C., Spiker, D., & et al. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 14 (1993)
Lewis, D. O., Mallouh, C., & Webb, V Child Maltreatment: Theory and Research on the Causes and Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect. (1989) Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Parker, S., Greer, S., & Zuckerman, B. Double Jeopardy: The Impact of Poverty on Early Child Development. Pediatric Clinics of North America (1988)
Robinson, J. L., Kagan, J., Reznick, J. S., & Corley, R..Developmental Psychology (1992)
Schneider-Rosen, K., & Cicchetti, D. Developmental Psychology 27 (1991)
Smith, J. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 151 (1997)
According to the World Health Organisation (2017) the social determinants of health are defined as the conditions where people are born, grown, work and live, which also includes the health system. The social determinants of health determined populations health’s outcomes and therefore linked with health inequalities (WHO, 2017)
This film chose to focus on very young people struggling to survive in poverty. All three of the boys are younger than 18 years old and thus are in an important developmental stage. The film gives us a view into the effects of a disadvantaged upbringing on a child’s development. These three boys grew up in situations defined by poverty and familial dysfunction and for two of them, the after effects are clear. Harley has severe anger issues and is unable to function at school. Appachey lashes out uncontrollably and has multiple diagnosed behavioral disorders. Both boys have had run-ins with the law and dealings with the juvenile court system. This solidifies the argument espoused in Marmot’s The Health Gap that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significant developmental challenges. The evidence suggests that children who grow up in poverty have cognitive and developmental delays and suffer from greater risk of mental and behavioral disorders. As shown in the film, Harley and Appachey both suffer from extreme behavioral and cognitive deficits and exhibit the corresponding poor scholastic and societal performance which will serve to further negatively affect their
In Stephen Dunn’s 2003 poem, “Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point”, the famous author of Jane Eyre is placed into a modern setting of New Jersey. Although Charlotte Bronte lived in the early middle 1800’s, we find her alive and well in the present day in this poem. The poem connects itself to Bronte’s most popular novel, Jane Eyre in characters analysis and setting while speaking of common themes in the novel. Dunn also uses his poem to give Bronte’s writing purpose in modern day.
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, in London. This year is exactly ten years into Queen Victoria’s sixty-four year reign of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was renowned for its patriarchal Society and definition by class. These two things provide vital background to the novel, as Jane suffers from both. Jane Eyre relates in some ways to Brontë’s own life, as its original title suggest, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”. Charlotte Brontë would have suffered from too, as a relatively poor woman. She would have been treated lowly within the community. In fact, the book itself was published under a pseudonym of Currer Bell, the initials taken from Brontë’s own name, due to the fact that a book published by a woman was seen as inferior, as they were deemed intellectually substandard to men. Emily Brontë, Charlotte’s sister, was also forced to publish her most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, under the nom de plume of Ellis Bell, again taking the initials of her name to form her own alias. The novel is a political touchstone to illustrate the period in which it was written, and also acts as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society.
There are many factors that are integrated into the successful development of a child from Prenatal growth into toddlerhood. Teratogens (outside factors) have a great impact on the babies’ inutero development. Some outside factors like second-hand smoke, smog, or fumes from cleaning chemicals can cause negative effects on the child inside the womb. A few major affects from teratogens could result in low birth weight, head circumference, slow physical growth as well as an effect on mental, behavioral and motor skills (Berk, 2003). The environment around the mother provides many of these outside factors affecting the baby’s growth. But the main link to teratogens during the gestation period is most likely the mother. Daniel S. Messinger and the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 2.8% of pregnant women admitted to using illicit drugs during their pregnancy (1996). Through illicit drug use, tobacco use and alcohol use, the mother disrupts her baby’s growth with possibly permanent damage.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre chronicles the growth of her titular character from girlhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on negative authority figures to both monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to a clear understanding of self, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was formerly subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens towards self-understanding, resulting in contentment and eventual happiness. She also achieves equality with the important masculine figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, gaining self-fulfillment as an independent, fully developed equal.
Wilkinson, R.G. & Marmot, M.G. 2003, Social determinants of health: the solid facts, World Health Organization.
For instance, the first scene where this becomes apparent is in the first scene of Tartuffe’s appearance, where he is to speak to the lady of the house, Elmire. However, while he is lying across the floor, the servant is laying across a wall in the background set. Whenever Tartuffe would move, the servant would move as well at the precise same moment. There is also a part of the same scene where Tartuffe would follow Elmire around a table and...
The ability to have access to better resources for sure allows one to explore better options, but for children in a low socioeconomic life style options are limited. For example, children from this type of living lack the finances to shop for healthier more expensive foods. Socioeconomic status is defined by ones education, income, occupation, and is also known to include the social standing of a group or individual (Education and Socioeconomic Status 1). This could lead many people in this status to take up unhealthy eating habits. Children that live in a low socioeconomic lifestyle become the victims of this unhealthy eating and the obesity epidemic that has hit the United States is a result of that. In addition, children that eat too many calories pick up excess weight because of the lack of energy being burned through physical activity (Bales, Coleman, Wallinga 1). The problems with our health care has brought to the table many debates on what we do with it and how do we move forward for the future, and socioeconomic status and childhood obesity has been a part of that debate.
With a wide variety of studies and research, it has been shown that socioeconomic status can affect a child’s health even before they are born. This theory comes from a study by Hackman, Farah and Meaney (2010) in which researchers identified three classes of mechanism that SES effects on cognitive development. The first class that they recognized is the prenatal influences. If a low- SES mother does...
What distinguishes neglect from additional forms of maltreatment is its inherent omission of behaviour rather than a commission of behaviour, as in the case of physical or sexual abuses (Sagatun & Edwards, 1995; Zuravin, 1991). Over recent years, it has been increasingly recognized that child neglect has a more severe and adverse impact on children’s development than abuse (Hildyard and Wolfe 2002; Trickett and McBride-Chang 1995).
Social determinants include factors, which involve an individual’s health condition pertaining to their way of living (Healthy People 2020, 2016). The conditions in where individuals are born, live, go to school, worship, participate in activities, should all be considered when discussing
Citrus is a generic term for the group of flowering plants belonging to the genus Citrus in the common rue family Rustaceae. Members of the citrus family include grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins, tangerines, kumquats, and others. Phylogenetic relationships within the Citrus genus are complex. Analysis of 36 accessions of Citrus indicate that many named species, including lemons, sweet limes, and oranges, are of hybrid origin (Nicolosi et. al, 2000).
...ght feel stressed. They might have to live in unsanitary or overcrowded living conditions. So they are more likely to get illnesess and diseases. They are likely to live in polluted areas. They have an increased risk of dying young. They may feel excluded from the society because of their social class. An individual’s lower social class, gender can affect their job opporunites. Some sports or activities are seen as appropriate for either male or female. A child’s gender can affect the types of toy that given to play with or sports they play at school. The individuals with low income or lower social class are likely to have poor diet and unhealthy life style as they are not able to buy good quality food like others. They are also likely to get so many diseases and illness from that such as diarrhea, obesity, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure and cholesterol.
As time goes by, a person must care for themselves. As a child begins to grow up their health can be affected by their families race economic status, and even a person 's gender. Since a person cannot control what economic class they are born into, it can cause hardships in regards to an economic standard.