summary: A new review links low socio-economic status (SES) with significant changes in brain development, behavior and cognitive outcomes. This review synthesizes existing research to develop a unifying framework for how common factors in low-SES environments (such as nutritional deficiencies, chronic stress, and substandard living conditions) negatively impact neurodevelopment. is presenting.
This disruption can lead to decreased language skills, lower educational attainment, and increased risk of mental illness. By outlining how these conditions perpetuate intergenerational poverty, this review highlights the urgency of developing targeted interventions to break this cycle.
Important facts:
- Low SES results in chronic stress and poor environmental conditions, which can inhibit neurogenesis and negatively impact cognitive development from an early age.
- This review provides a framework that links economic and social circumstances and their lifelong effects on mental health, educational success, and behavior.
- This suggests the need for further research into specific interventions that can help reduce the effects of low SES on brain development and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
sauce: De Gruyter
What determines mental health, school performance, and even cognitive development?
New review of De Gruyter Reviews in Neuroscience suggests that poverty and low socio-economic status (SES) are key factors.
Other studies have investigated the individual effects of poverty on the brain and behavior. However, this new review uses evidence from the literature to provide the first unified framework that directly links brain changes resulting from low SES to behavioral, pathological, and developmental outcomes.
SES refers to the social status of an individual or family and includes factors such as wealth, occupation, education, and living conditions. In addition to affecting daily life, SES can, perhaps surprisingly, have far-reaching effects on the brain that begin in childhood and persist into adulthood.
So how can poverty and low SES change the brain? This review examines the negative effects of malnutrition, chronic stress, and environmental hazards (such as pollution and inadequate housing conditions) that are more likely to affect low-SES families.
These factors can impair a child’s brain development, which in turn can affect a child’s language skills, educational attainment, and risk of mental illness.
For example, families with lower SES are more likely to experience increased stress levels, which can affect children from an early age. Continued stress can reduce the level of neurogenesis (growth of new neurons) in the hippocampus, which can impair learning ability and negatively impact subsequent educational and career opportunities.
The unifying framework proposed by the researchers also helps explain intergenerational poverty. Intergenerational poverty may mean that children in SES families are unable to escape the situation when they grow up and become parents. Breaking this vicious cycle can be difficult.
Interestingly, researchers have provided an extensive list of proposed studies that could test the validity of their framework and find new ways to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. These include focusing on the effects of low SES on specific brain regions and identifying techniques to improve school performance in affected children.
This review is timely as social inequality increases. Identifying the specific mechanisms behind intergenerational poverty may help researchers and policy makers develop new early interventions.
The new framework takes into account the multi-causal nature of intergenerational poverty and could pave the way for more comprehensive and sophisticated social interventions that recognize this complexity.
Dr Eid Abo Hamza, from Al Ain University, said: “This research shows the profound impact that poverty and SES have on not only individuals’ current living conditions, but also on their cognitive development, mental health and future opportunities. It has been made clear,” he said. United Arab Emirates, lead author of the review.
“Understanding these relationships can help societies better address inequalities and support those in disadvantaged situations, potentially leading to interventions that help break the cycle of poverty.”
About this poverty and neurodevelopment research news
author: Mauricio Quiñones
sauce: De Gruyter
contact: Mauricio Quiñones – de Gruyter
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“The effects of poverty and socio-economic status on the brain, behavior, and development: A unified framework.Written by Eid Abo Hamza et al. Reviews in Neuroscience
abstract
The effects of poverty and socio-economic status on the brain, behavior, and development: A unified framework.
This article provides the first comprehensive overview and unified framework of the effects of poverty and low socio-economic status (SES) on the brain and behavior.
Although there is a wealth of research on the effects of low SES on the brain (including the cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and even neurotransmitters) and behavior (including educational attainment, language development, and the onset of psychopathological disorders), previous research has , education, and behavior were not integrated. , and brings together neurological findings into his one framework.
Here we argue that the effects of poverty and low SES on brain and behavior are interconnected. Specifically, based on previous research, poverty due to lack of resources and low SES are associated with malnutrition, high levels of stress in caregivers and their children, and exposure to socio-environmental hazards.
These psychological and physical injuries affect the normal development of several brain regions and neurotransmitters.
Dysfunction of the amygdala can lead to the development of psychopathological disorders, and dysfunction of the hippocampus and cortex is associated with delays in learning and language development and poor academic performance.
As a result, child poverty is perpetuated, leading to a vicious cycle of poverty and mental and physical disability. In addition to providing financial assistance to economically disadvantaged families, interventions should aim to address the neurological abnormalities caused by childhood poverty and low SES.
Importantly, acknowledging the brain abnormalities caused by childhood poverty can help advance economic equity. This study provides a comprehensive list of future studies that will help us understand how poverty affects the brain.
