Effects Poverty has on School Achievement, Cognitive and other Domains of Development
Poverty has direct implications of academic and social success in schooling. Studies consistently show that low-SES students have lower academic achievement than those without struggling families.
Some reasons children in lower SES situations struggle are from:
- lower quality of parenting
- lower availability of resources
- stressors poverty creates
- lowering of self esteem as students grow older
Exposure to chronic or acute stress is hardwired into children's developing brains,creating a devastating, cumulative effect and these stressors severely impair the brain's capacity to learn and remember.
The difference between Persistent Poverty and Family Instability
Persistent Poverty: Findings from multiple studies have shown that children from homes that experience persistent poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development affected than children in better off homes.
Family Instability: Family instability makes no additional difference to how a child’s cognitive abilities have progressed by the age of five, after controlling for family poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and mother’s age) and early child characteristics.
Persistent Poverty: Findings from multiple studies have shown that children from homes that experience persistent poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development affected than children in better off homes.
Family Instability: Family instability makes no additional difference to how a child’s cognitive abilities have progressed by the age of five, after controlling for family poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and mother’s age) and early child characteristics.
Bergin, C., Bergin D. (2012). Classroom Implications of Poverty. Child and Adolescent Development in Your Classroom (pp. 31-32). Belmont, CA:
Worth.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/children’s-cognitive-development-affected-long-term-poverty-not-family-instability
Worth.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/children’s-cognitive-development-affected-long-term-poverty-not-family-instability