The Implications of Family Stress from Household Poverty for Children's Development

A just published article in the journal Development and Psychopathology by Kalee De France, Dale Stock and Lisa Serbin points to the implications for children’s development of family stress resulting from poverty. The article reports original research using evidence from a longitudinal study of families in Quebec.

“The insidious effects of childhood poverty disrupt nearly every aspect of child development. The Adaptation to Poverty-related Stress Model posits that one of the key mechanisms through which poverty disrupts healthy development is a combination of heightened exposure to poverty-related stress and reliance on specific coping strategies to manage stressors that may contribute directly to symptomologies….”

“Strong and consistent evidence shows that exposure to poverty during childhood is negatively associated with numerous indices of wellbeing during adolescence and even adulthood. Children who grow up in poverty tend to report higher levels of internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and withdrawal during adolescence. …more externalizing behaviors…deficits in cognitive abilities, such as attention difficulties…and lower levels of working memory…., and body mass index….”

The reported research in Quebec shows that early childhood poverty predicts heightened family stress which in turn leads to greater likelihood of negative emotionality (e.g. anger, fear, irritability) in later childhood (6-9 years of age) which in turn leads to higher rates in early adolescence of attention disorders, anxiety/depression, and increased BMI.

“It is imperative to note that the associations between childhood poverty and these outcome indices are often maintained regardless of whether individuals remain in poverty after they enter into adolescence or adulthood, signifying that childhood poverty may have disruptive impacts on the entire trajectory of an individual’s development…”

See “Associations between early poverty exposure and adolescent well-being: The role of childhood negative emotionality.” doi:10.1017/S0954579422000487