The National Centre for Children in Poverty says that “…poverty poses serious threats to children’s brain development.”
How exactly?
When a baby is born, their exposure to positive or negative stimulation will influence the cell connections in the brain, called synapses (Children and Brain Development: What We Know About How Children Learn, 2010). Loving interactions and stimulating environments strongly excite a child’s brain, causing synapses to grow and strengthen. These connections that are stimulated become permanent. Though, if a child receives little or poor stimulation, the synapses will not develop and the brain will make fewer connections (Children and Brain Development: What We Know About How Children Learn, 2010).
Unfortunately, child poverty can do just that.
While all children have the potential to be exposed to adverse experiences, a disproportionate amount of children living in poverty are actually exposed to these events (National Centre for Children in Poverty). Children living in poverty (without adult support) are more likely to experience destructive amounts of stress, for example. Not to be confused with positive stress, (i.e. bouts of sadness, fear or everyday challenges), which is harmless because the body can return to a calm state in a relatively short period of time. On the other hand, chronic stress, such as living in poverty, can become toxic due to prolonged, high levels of cortisol hormone released, causing brain cells to die (Children and Brain Development: What We Know About How Children Learn, 2010).
It is during the formative years, from the prenatal period to 8 years old, when brain development is most sensitive to immediate environmental influences, but with lifelong effects, such as, high risk of obesity, diabetes, severe injuries, mental health problems, heart disease and crime (Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008). Though, while children are resilient, the serious threats to brain development due to poverty are extremely difficult to alter (National Centre for Children in Poverty).
In Canada, there are over 600,000 children living in poverty (Statistic Canada, 2008), it is therefore “…critically important to attack child poverty directly. Poverty is a primary risk factor which increases the likelihood that young children will be exposed to multiple risk factors” (National Centre for Child Poverty). Tackling the root causes of poverty systematically through public policy, for instance, investing in universal childcare, improving gender equity and ensuring affordable housing (to name a few) has been shown to give long-term social returns in health care, addictions, crime, unemployment, welfare (Report on Public Health in Canada 2008), as well as provide “one of the greatest potentials to reduce health inequities within a generation” (ECDKN, 2007a cited in Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008).
No more research is needed. We know poverty has detrimental effects on the well-being of our society. It is time for political will to take action.
