How does poverty change the brain?
Humans are somewhat peculiar among the many creatures on Earth, and we are also rather different in the respect that we are born in an immature state.
Dogs and cats can walk shortly after birth and quickly become independent, but humans are born with brains that are not yet mature and develop our brains through nurturing over a long time.
Because of this, humans are easily affected by environmental factors as well as genetic ones, but how does poverty affect the brain?
Moreover, if there is some sort of effect, what factors relating to poverty affect the development of the brain?
The relationship between education, attitude to raising children, and stress
The paper I discuss today investigates how poverty affects the development of the brain.
The subjects were 145 children from St. Louis, Washington (56% African-American, 32% Caucasian, and 12% other), and poverty was investigated using the income/needs ratio (an indicator of how much larger the income is compared to the needs necessary for living) and, as indicators relating to poverty:
- the parents’ education level;
- the supportive-to-nonsupportive caregiving ratio(*)
- stressful events during infancy.
* Children are instructed not to open a brightly wrapped gift placed within their reach in the laboratory until their parents have finished a task. The parents’ attitude in stopping the children from opening the gift (whether they explain to or threaten the children, for example) is evaluated.
The brain is also investigated by using an MRI to look at the volumes of white and gray cortical matter, connecting fiber and the left and right hippocampus.
The results show that:
- more severe poverty was associated with lower volumes of white and gray cortical matter, connecting fiber and the left and right hippocampus in children;
- more severe poverty was associated with poorer education, worse caregiving, and more stressful events during infancy;
- parents’ education has no effect on children’s brain volume; and
- the factors that affect changes in brain volume are the parents’ caregiving attitude and stressful events during infancy.
In other words, the study suggests that poverty makes parents’ caregiving worse and increases stressful events (divorce, abuse, etc.), affecting the development of the children’s brains and leading to a decrease in volume, and therefore caregiving support for parents in poor households is important.
I wondered whether support given to families may lead to children being better supported.
Reference URL: The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development: The Mediating Effect of Caregiving and Stressful Life Events
