Poverty affects children’s brain development

Children from families with few economic resources have their mental health affected.

Growing up in a poor family negatively affects children's cognitive development.. A study published in JAMA Pediatricswhich compared the MRI scans of children born into families with lower and higher purchasing power, found smaller volumes of gray matter (about 10 percent) in the brains of children born into poorer households.

Negative consequences of poverty

The European crisis has hit Spain hard, which has seen 12.8 million people (27.3 percent of its population) at risk of poverty or exclusion. Since the crisis began in 2008, 1,320,216 people have fallen into this situation of vulnerability.

Many studies have focused on the relationship between poverty and the behaviors of alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, delinquency, etc., and the relationship between these behaviors and poverty.and so on. People in poverty experience many destructive behaviors due to intense emotional suffering and the awareness of having been forgotten or despised by the system.

But this study, published in JAMA Pediatricsconfirms previous research that has shown that children living in poverty are cognitively impaired: they perform less well in school.They perform less well in school, have lower scores on intelligence tests and do not achieve as well as their wealthier peers.

Poverty physically affects the brain

Although poverty has devastating social effects, this study seems to indicate that it would also have a physical effect on the brain. would also have a physical effect on the brainThe research was conducted by Elizabeth Sowell of Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Kimberly Noble of Columbia University.

The research was conducted by Elizabeth Sowell, from the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and Kimberly Noble, from Columbia University. The study found that the brain of a child from a family earning less than $25,000 per year contains 6% less gray matter than that of a child whose family earns $150,000 per year.

Children living in families where their income level is below the federal poverty level have up to 10 percent less gray matter. The 2015 federal poverty level in the United States is $24,250 for a family of four.

This study confirms the need to take action against poverty.

The researchers analyzed the MRI scans and demographic data of 389 U.S. children, aged 4 to 22 years, and assessed the amount of gray matter in the whole brain, in addition to the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and hippocampus. Data were collected between November 2001 and August 2007.

The findings of this study, added to the existing literature on the negative consequences of poverty, provide scientific evidence for the need to take action to reduce poverty. scientific evidence of the need to take action on the situation of poverty in which many individuals live, as it is in which many individuals live, as this situation negatively affects brain development, and confirms the need for early interventions to reduce the risk to which children born into poor families are exposed.

Bibliographic references

• Seth D. Pollak, PhD et al. Poverty's most insidious damage: The developing brain. JAMA Pediatrics, July 2015 DOI:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1475
• Joan L. Luby, MD. Poverty’s Most Insidious Damage: The Developing Brain. JAMA Pediatrics, July 2015 DOI:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1682