Long-Term Poverty but Not Family Instability Affects Children's Cognitive Development, Study Finds

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110420184437.htm

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2011) — Children from homes that experience persistent poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development affected than children in better off homes, reveals research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Family instability, however, makes no additional difference to how a child's cognitive abilities have progressed by the age of five, after taking into account family poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and mother's age) and early child characteristics, UK researchers found.
There is much evidence of the negative effects of both poverty and family structure on child development, particularly persistent poverty and adverse living conditions. Poverty and family instability are linked as poverty affects families economically and socially and can increase the risk of relationship break-ups.

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Children growing up in stable two-parent families showed higher levels of cognitive ability than those in one-parent families or those who experienced a change in living arrangements.
By contrast, children exposed to ongoing poverty scored seven points less in the naming vocabulary test (part of the cognitive assessments) than those who had never experienced poverty.
Analysis showed that there was no significant association between family structure/family instability and cognitive ability after allowing for child characteristics, family poverty and family demographics.
Overall, the researchers found there was a strong and significant negative effect of persistent income poverty on a child's cognitive functioning at the age of five.
They conclude: "Persistent poverty is a crucial risk factor undermining children's cognitive development -- more so than family instability."

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