The economy has a powerful influence on the development of children. Growing up in a low income household has economic, social, and health consequences immediately and later on in life.
Poor children don’t do as well in school and go on to have lower levels of educational attainment compared to middle class children. The Urban Institute reports in a 2015 study that by the age of 25, 37% of Americans who had never experienced poverty had a college degree, compared to 3% who had been poor for a long time. Unsurprisingly, adults are more likely to be poor if they grew up in a poor family.
Growing up in a poor family also impacts the behavior and mental health of children. Poor kids are more likely to have a conduct disorder or ADHD. A University of Alberta study found that children from low income families had higher levels of antisocial behavior, including bullying, lying, and breaking things. The undesirable behavior got considerably worse the longer the child was in poverty, according to the study. Learned helplessness is also more common among children from low income families. Learned helplessness occurs when people feel like their best efforts have not resulted in success so they stop trying to improve their life situation. It is usually a long-term personality trait.
Related to the behavior-poverty link, studies have shown that children in low income households have less-developed brains than those in higher income households. Neuroimaging research at Cornell University has discovered that poor children had a different brain structure than middle-class children. The underdeveloped prefrontal cortex of poor children was less adept at emotional regulation activity. The stressful environment in which many poor children often live has also been shown to cause an elevated level of cortisol. A sustained high level of cortisol is harmful to the organs including the brain.
Poverty contributes to poor physical health in children in a number of ways. In the US, poor children have higher rates of certain chronic conditions such as obesity and asthma. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, poor children are more likely to be injured in accidents and five times more likely to die when they have an accident. Elevated levels of cortisol found in poor children lead to endocrine and immune system difficulties in adulthood.
In March 2022, UNICEF released ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on the Welfare of Households with children’. According to the report, which came out of surveys in 35 developing countries, 68% percent of households with few children experienced income loss from lockdowns; 76% for households with many children. 150 million more children fell into multidimensional poverty due to lockdowns in 2020. From a baseline of under one billion children in multidimensional poverty pre-pandemic, that is an increase in over 15%, an astounding attack on the world’s children by our governments.
“Poor families are more likely to reside in homes without functional smoke detectors and with open fires, unprotected windows and unsafe roofs or stairs,” an AAP report from 2016 noted.
Children in poor neighborhoods are at increased risk of cycling accidents, pedestrian injuries, falls, burns, poisonings and chemical burns.
Some of the perils of childhood poverty are related to poor parenting. The quality of parenting tends to decrease as parents’ income decreases. Neglect or overly harsh parenting is more common at lower incomes. This could be due to a number of reasons, such as the strain that unemployment puts on individuals and relationships, and the cultural influences in low income neighborhoods. Youth who have had poor quality parenting are more likely to have a substance abuse problem, engage in criminal activity, and have psychological issues like low self-esteem.
Lockdowns push children into poverty and, in doing so, cause them considerable psychological and behavioral harm that can last into adulthood. Physical health and safety is also compromised. We must fight lockdowns and keep people working to ensure the positive development of children.
