Study Finds Association Between Poverty And Brain Development During Childhood
After scanning the brains of more than 1,000 individuals, scientists have found a relationship between brain size and socioeconomic status in children and adolescents. According to the study, certain brain regions, in particular those involved in language and decision-making, tended to be smaller in those from poorer and less educated families than those from affluent backgrounds.
But… what impact does it have on their bootstraps? Pulling up on them is often all that some people believe is necessary.
I think a lot of the successful people that are self-made came from poverty-stricken backgrounds. They had to actually put some effort into making their lives better. Successful people who had things handed to them remind me of the kids on Chrisley Knows Best.
Very interesting. I think the brain is a kind of muscle. If you don't make it work (in this case it would be reading books, travelling, talking to people, etc..), it can not be developped… So kids living in poverty can do as well as other kids but they hav to work very hard by themselves
+Lee Forest Sure there are some self-made successful people who came from poverty but there are a ton who never make it out of poverty. To say that it's just because they didn't work hard enough is a joke. For instance (via http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx):
* Poverty has a particularly adverse effect on the academic outcomes of children, especially during early childhood.
* Chronic stress associated with living in poverty has been shown to adversely affect children’s concentration and memory which may impact their ability to learn.
* The National Center for Education Statistics reports that in 2008, the dropout rate of students living in low-income families was about four and one-half times greater than the rate of children from higher-income families (8.7 percent versus 2.0 percent).
* The academic achievement gap for poorer youth is particularly pronounced for low-income African American and Hispanic children compared with their more affluent White peers.
* Underresourced schools in poorer communities struggle to meet the learning needs of their students and aid them in fulfilling their potential.
* Inadequate education contributes to the cycle of poverty by making it more difficult for low-income children to lift themselves and future generations out of poverty.
So to say that if they would just work harder they'd be successful isn't really fair when you consider things like "the dropout rate of students living in low-income families was about four and one-half times greater than the rate of children from higher-income families". Now sure, there are billionaires who are school dropouts, but that's not the norm and doesn't address the majority of the population.
+Marie-Florence Chabbal Ton Yes… it is like a muscle, but if poor socioeconomic conditions impact brain development at an early age then you could argue that no matter how much they train most will never be able to match that of someone who didn't come from poverty.