The impact of poverty on the young population is greater than would appear from an outside perspective. Approximately one in six children in Australia lives below the poverty line, a figure that has increased since 2003. Those in poverty are defined as making less than half of the median income. In all 575,000 children were in poverty according to 2009-2010 data.
There are some effects of poverty on childhood development that are not immediately tangible. According to Lipina and Colombo, the impact of various types of deprivation early in life can have lasting cognitive and neurological impacts on the individual.(2009) Children in poverty are not only suffering from lack of opportunity but may also experience poor development of the central nervous system. Some of the areas that can be impacted by the state of poverty are socio-emotional as well as overall cognitive ability. The literature on this subjects concedes that this is an area not addressed in most research and is attempting to bring it to light with studies like the one they performed.
In an additional study Lipina and Colombo looked at how neural networks organize as well as the impact of poverty on modulating these processes. Both cognitive and neuro-scientific perspective were approached in analyzing the development of infant, preschool, school age and adolescents with regard to this neuro modulation. Performance in Tasks demanding attention, inhibitory control, working memory, self-monitoring, and linguistic processing are modulated by poverty. Both studies show with a high level of certainty that the state of poverty has a negative impact on the neurological development of children.
Another study conducted in Australia by Najman et. al studied a cohort at infancy and again at the age of 14.(2009) The results showed that those adolescents who had experienced long term poverty, continuously for the first 14 years of life had significantly lesser cognitive outcomes than those who had experienced poverty for only one year or less of their life up to that point. Each year of exposure showed additional decline in performance.
Studies have shown that nutritionally risky diets become more prevalent in households who are consistently having issues affording enough high quality, nutritious foods.(Mozes, 2008) These households with insecurities relating to affording dietary needs have shown to be deficient in vitamins, minerals, vegetables and meat. The long-term implications of this trend can be seen in the health of a significant number of the individuals in this demographic. There is a significantly increase risk of obesity, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses. There is a direct relationship, therefore between being able to afford quality foods and being healthy long term.
Another area in which difficulty is found in the impoverished demographic is education. Poverty constitutes a significant barrier to education.(Education, n.d.) Without having enough money to support themselves, families in poverty, often living on under $2 a day, don’t have enough money to buy uniforms, food, books or any other school supplies in order to thrive or even attend school. Often children are kept home because of financial concerns. Globally, the girls are the most often held back group because they are kept home to watch younger siblings as a means of free day care for the family.
In Australia funding for education has been an election issue with significant amounts of debate on the subject.(Valvasori, 2004) Unfortunately, the political discourse between the different political parties n power focused so heavily on the debate between public and private education that the discussion about achieving equality in access to education was completely ignored. As a result of this, there was more than a 6% decline in public funding for education in 2000. This quest for funding equality is one that has been active in America for the past 30 years but, is one that has been met with only limited success.
The research in this area is quite convincing. Every single piece of research available, points to the same kind of impact on the development of children. When children are raised in a state of poverty they experience delays in cognitive abilities, nutrition, education, economics and every other metric that was evaluated. Before looking at this research it may seem that children who come from poverty simply do not have memories of having all of the best toys and vacations. It may also seem that they may struggle more to get ahead in life. To the contrary there is real and lasting impact on the mental function due to the various circumstances surrounding poverty such as lack of access to education, stress in the household, lack of enriching activity, and decreased access to healthy food. According to the cited studies Australia, is far from immune to these problems and has the same political struggles for and against assistance to the poor that many other nations have.
References
Developmental Health and Wellbeing of Australia's Children and Young People - revised 2010. (2010, April 14). Australian Medical Association. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from https://ama.com.au/position-statement/developmental-health-and-wellbeing-australia’s-children-and-young-people-revised
Education. (n.d.). Caritas. Retrieved May 30, 2014, from http://www.caritas.org.au/learn/global-poverty-issues/education
Lipina, S. J., & Colombo, J. A. (2009). Poverty and brain development during childhood [electronic resource] : an approach from cognitive psychology and neuroscience / Sebastian J. Lipina, Jorge A. Colombo. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association, c2009.
Lipina, S. J., & Colombo, J. A. (2009). Effects of poverty on development II: Cognitive neuroscience perspectives. In , Poverty and brain development during childhood: An approach from cognitive psychology and neuroscience (pp. 75-91). Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/11879-004
Mozes, A. (2008, February 21). Poverty Drains Nutrition From Family Diet. Washington Post. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022101091.html
Najman, J. M., Hayatbakhsh, M. R., Heron, M. A., Bor, W., O'Callaghan, M. J., & Williams, G. M. (2009). The impact of episodic and chronic poverty on child cognitive development. The Journal Of Pediatrics, 154(2), 284-289. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.08.052
Owen, J. (2012, October 15). One in six children living in poverty. The Australian. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/one-in-six-children-living-in-poverty/story-e6frgcjx-1226495722003#
Valvasori, A. (2004, October 29). The University of Sydney - The University of Sydney. News. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=277
