Poverty-Related Stress Affects Readiness for School

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026091218.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2011) — Stress in the lives of poor children is one cause of the early achievement gap in which children from low-income homes start school behind their more advantaged classmates.

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They also examined one indicator of stress -- by measuring levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the children -- and administered a battery of three tests related to executive functions when the children were 3.

The researchers found that children in lower-income homes received less positive parenting and had higher levels of cortisol in their first two years than children in slightly better- off homes. Cortisol was higher in African American children than in White children. Higher levels of cortisol were associated with lower levels of executive function abilities.

"In sum, early stresses in the lives of children living in poverty affect how these children develop executive functions that are important for school readiness," explains Clancy Blair, professor of applied psychology at New York University, who led the study.


http://www.preventionaction.org/research/stress-missing-link/5731