Poverty / SES & Development Flashcards

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1
Q
  1. Reduced access to play / stimulating env. + effects on parenting
A

2 major routes by which SES affects children:
- low SES = less stimulating env
- low SES = quality of parenting is low (in terms of sensitivity / responsiveness to child)

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2
Q
  1. Conger et al (1994)
A

→ how economic stress in family influences adolescents’ dev. problems
→ 198 f, 190 m, in rural Midwest of USA → lots of poverty + uncertainty about future prospects
→ series of interviews over 3 years, (7th-9th grades), parents + children
→ high levels of unhappiness + discontent for parents, irritability b/w kids & parents, adolescents experiment emotional + behavioural problems
→ poverty contributes to adolescents experiencing negative socialisation + learning dysfunctional behaviour

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3
Q

Evaluation of Conger et al (1994)

A
  • Huge amount of rich, qualitative data
  • Due to subjective nature of interviews, some aspects of participants’ responses may have been misunderstood or taken out of context
  • Social desirability bias
  • Only experiences from Midwestern USA therefore low transferability
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4
Q
  1. Impacts on social + cognitive development
A
  • low SES = bullying, victimisation, rejection by peers
  • bad peer relationships –> anxiety, social withdrawal, insecurity
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5
Q
  1. Hjalmarsson (2017)
A

→ effects of poverty on peer relationships at school
→ Swedish 8th graders from dif schools - stratified sampling
→ questionnaire + tests on language + cognitive skills
→ adolescents from low SES rejected by peers, unable to participate in activities, higher risk of victimisation

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6
Q

Evaluation of Hjalmarsson (2017)

A
  • Could be used to inform future initiatives & intervention programmes for families in need
  • May be other factors accounting for low cog functions, e.g. undiagnosed dyslexia
  • Cultural bias → collectivist cultures may respond differently (more supportive)
  • Difficult to isolate many factors that influence development which may be associated w/ SES
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7
Q
  1. Research has shown that the effects of poverty are uneven across different abilities
A
  • Biological studies on structure of brain
  • Kimberly Noble scanned brain structure of 1000 kids in US
  • Looked in detail at SA + thickness of cortex → effects of SES on grey, white matter
  • Showed variations b/w cortical SA esp. temporal + frontal regions
  • Temporal regions = language processing, frontal regions = executive functioning
  • Possible that these parts of the brain have the longest developmental trajectory & maybe this long period of development fives the env. enough time to influence development
  • Effects were quite small, only about 1 or 2% of variability in brain structure explained by SES
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8
Q
  1. Also looked at FUNCTION of the brain
A
  • Measuring electrical activity of the scalp by using electrodes & small voltages
  • Changes in voltages as children carry out tasks
  • One study tested children as they listened to dif sounds
  • Were supposed to only listen to specific sounds & ignore other sounds
  • From high SES, able to screen out info they were not supposed to, low SES could not
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9
Q

Explaining the electrodes study

A
  • There was a problem in selective attention → correlations suggest causal pathways
  • But there are LOTS of env. factors → which one?
  • Fewer resources, parents less educated, household less structured, poorer neighbourhood, lower waged, nutrition
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10
Q
  1. Adaptation
A
  • But, responses to low SES can also be thought of as an adaptation
  • Children behave the way they do given the environment they are in
  • A child in a more threatening env. may have to be more vigilant - can’t focus their attention need to be monitoring more widely
  • Maybe the way that children make decisions & regulate their behaviour is because they are in a scarce env. → no point in having long term planning - need to take what is in front of them
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11
Q
  1. Resilience as a type of adaptation
A
  • Humans have evolved dif strategies for resilience
  • Resilience = when an individual maintains adaptive behaviour in spite of serious risk factors
    POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH E.G.
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12
Q

Last study on resilience = Werner (2005)

A

→ longitudinal study explored impacts of risk factors that can limit child’s future happiness / success
→ Hawaiian island of Kauai (40 years)
→ 30% had been exposed to risk factors (poverty, troubled homes, etc) - some of these participants experienced 4 or more risk factors by age 2
→ grew up into confident adults → protective factors WITHIN the individual may be the reason

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