The Effects of Poverty in Childhood (DP IB Psychology): Revision Note

The effects of poverty in childhood

Prevalence of Poverty

• According to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Statistics (2022), approximately 9.2% of the world's population (700 million people) live in extreme poverty

  • This is defined as living on less than $1.90 per day

• Around 26% of the world's population (1.3 billion people) live in moderate poverty

  • This is defined as living on $1.90-$3.20 per day

• At least 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 a day

Impact on children

• Poverty has a more devastating effect on children than adults because their development depends on consistent access to:

  • basic needs: clean water, nutritious food, adequate shelter

  • stimulation: educational resources, play, parental engagement

• Growing up in poverty strongly predicts adult poverty, reinforcing cycles of disadvantage

Developmental consequences

• Health: Poor nutrition leads to undernourishment (lack of food) or malnourishment (poor quality/low variety diet, e.g., junk food, heavily processed white bread)

• Education: Children in poverty may miss out on enriching experiences such as:

  • trips, hobbies, or extracurricular activities

  • parents reading to them or encouraging learning

• Wellbeing: Lack of stimulation, instability, and stress undermine both emotional security and cognitive development

Research which supports the effects of poverty in childhood

Kar et al. (2008)

Aim:

• To investigate the effect of poverty and malnutrition on children's cognitive performance

Participants:

• 40 children aged 5-7 years and 8-10 years from Bangalore, India

  • 20 of the children were identified as being ‘adequately nourished'

  • 20 were identified as ‘malnourished’

Procedure:

• The children underwent a series of tests designed to assess their neuropsychological functioning

• The tests assessed:

  • their motor speed (finger-tapping test)

  • their attention span (a test in which they had to trail two colours)

  • their executive functioning (naming items beginning with the same letter)

  • their visual-spatial ability (completing an object with a missing part)

  • their comprehension (understanding verbal commands)

  • their memory (recalling abstract designs)

Results:

• Children identified as malnourished performed worse on most tests, with the exception of motor speed (the least cognitively demanding measure)

• They showed significant impairments on tests of higher cognitive functions, including:

  • attention

  • working memory

  • verbal comprehension

• Malnourished children also demonstrated delays in key developmental markers of mature cognition, particularly in executive functions such as:

  • planning ahead

  • decision-making

  • impulse control

Conclusion:

• Malnourished children experience cognitive impairments and developmental delays compared to adequately nourished children

• Their cognitive development may follow an altered or delayed trajectory, particularly in areas such as attention, memory, language, and executive functioning

Evaluation of the effects of poverty in childhood

Strengths

• Research into the effects of poverty has genuine usefulness: its findings could be used to help combat the negative impact of the effects of poverty, e.g., malnutrition, as interventions to help those in need

• Kar's findings could be used to persuade governments to implement programmes such as breakfast clubs in schools and food banks to ensure that no child is malnourished

Limitations

• Attempting to tackle poverty is a huge global issue which requires governments and agencies to work productively together

• It is possible that the malnourished children in Kar's study might have experienced fatigue or some distress carrying out so many tests

  • This is an ethical consideration which the researchers should be mindful of when conducting research with vulnerable participants

Link to concepts

Responsibility

• Conducting research into the effects of poverty is a highly delicate and sensitive issue

  • Those living in poverty should not be portrayed as 'poor', 'needy' or in any way inferior to the rest of the population

• Researchers must use reflexivity when conducting research such as Kar's

  • Are they bringing their own bias or preconceived ideas to the research?

  • Have they made assumptions about the issue and those affected by it before the research process has even begun?

  • There may be a temptation for researchers to assume a 'saviour' mode in highlighting global inequalities, which is something that they should constantly check for to avoid the researcher effect

Measurement

• The different types of tests used in Kar's research measured a range of variables

  • This is known as method triangulation, which helps to preserve the internal validity of the study and to avoid possible bias (which could be the case if only one method for obtaining data was used)