How Does Poverty Impact Child Development and Mental Health?

Poverty has been an issue throughout society for a long time now and continues to be, but

as Appalachian State students we live amongst many stereotypes including living in a “poor

area” and in different scenarios this is true for some people and their families. As poverty is seen

in all areas it is an issue for individuals in Boone itself and we must be sure that we look at all

aspects of the issue including the children involved. Children are the future of the world we live

in and as they evolve it is very common for developmental delays and complications to become

apparent. With complications in development or in the art of living an individual usually

undergoes some sort of therapy, but with therapy comes expenses. Poverty in general makes

living in this world difficult let alone learning to live with a disability or disorder, therefore

children should be able to receive the help or therapy that is needed inclusively in their school

system or without the stress of added expenses on the guardian which may be holding them back.

We know that poverty makes it hard to seek help and solutions, but could poverty itself be a

leading cause to a child’s brain development or how they function?

Moving forward, in society it is apparent that mental health is taking over and mental

health comes from the brain and the ways it develops therefore it is also being recognized a lot

more in children and younger generations as the topic spreads. One can overlook how much

poverty can take a toll on children and the article, ​The Future of Children​, talks about the effects

poverty has on children and gives great investigation topics, “Is it through inadequate nutrition;

fewer learning experiences; instability of residence; lower quality of schools; exposure to

environmental toxins, family violence, and homelessness; dangerous streets; or less access to

friends, services, and, for adolescents, jobs” (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan 56). The article then
takes it to a study with research and longitudinal data to examine the relationship between

poverty and child outcomes which did find that there was a correlation. This carries back to the

idea that poverty could be the diagnosis; which another article does a case study on examining a

6 year old boy who was directed by the school counselor for anxiety, school difficulties, and

maybe ADHD. ​Children’s mental health: Is poverty the diagnosis?​ states, “The World Health

Organization has declared poverty the single largest determinant of health for both adults and

children [...] Poverty becomes biologically embedded, leading to both functional and structural

changes of the developing brain” (​Jakovljevic, Miller, and Fitzgerald​ 2016). This means that

poverty can be a large factor that leads to mental health disorders and disabilities/developmental

issues in the brain while also making it difficult and adding restrictions for those who need

therapeutic or medical help even if poverty is not the cause.

Additionally I believe that individuals of Appalachian State can work towards reducing

the ways poverty affects children by providing in-school therapy, being aware of coping

mechanisms, and simply by spreading the word and making the issue more aware. There are

proven to be numerous studies and cases on the same issues, “​A large body of research has

demonstrated that poverty, low income, and low socioeconomic status are linked to behavioral

problems in children and adolescents. However, the mechanisms that explain this association

remain a major topic in this line of research” (​Kaiser, Li, Schult, and Song 2017​). The stance that

should be taken for this large issue should be directed towards parents, guardians, school

systems, and individuals who target their work towards children (ex: therapists). Everyone in

these fields should be well aware of these issues and work together to prevent problems or solve

current ones by knowing the major effects and having resources available; this is beneficial
because the more apparent the issue becomes the easier it will be to come together as a

community with plausible resources. By simply knowing that brain growth occurs in the first 6

years of life then one will know that’s when development is most crucial and can help identify or

prevent things like: compromised psychosocial functioning and psychopathology, brain

dysfunction and cognitive deficits including impaired executive functioning, attention,

processing speed, language, memory and social skills (​Loughan and Perna 2012​). This

information is more general, but still important in terms of knowing what a family living in

poverty may be putting their child through and how critical it is to seek services right away.

Poverty isn’t something that will just disappear all together, but knowing the effects it has

on children is important. “​The stress of living in poverty affects children’s brains in ways that are

similar to the effects from abuse, an expert on child development said Wednesday at Duke”

(​Thomas 2016​). It is a large factor with large impact and there are many other effects that take

place from poverty, the brain development and cognitive components in a child is just one issue.

It is proven that there are many negative neurological and cognitive defects from living in

poverty, while poverty also acts as a block to receiving proper help and therapy. A good resource

that is offered in Boone is the Hospitality House where they claim to,​ “transition from crisis to

stability, from poverty to sustainability, and from homelessness to housing” this allows for

families in need of financial help to get on a path to rebuild their lives and support one another.

Children are the future, therefore as a community we ​must make sure we are coming together

with the right services and providing available resources or any extra help whether it’s

volunteering or bringing food/clothes to the hospitality house.

References:

Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. J. (1997). ​The Future of Children: Children and poverty
[Vol.7]. Los Altos, CA: Center for the Future of Children. Retrieved from
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1602387?casa_token=SYz0T6K3KcEAAAAA:6sdOxepwjT
DfOEu-BF5nBkVfGkU9xNPjKaVWxIXPcAmJjS93hGEasf6JOx1BwATpH_w5uPLJGai
0qppwh3_Adyix8VrHZcipdG4L6cqK216wrCJd0iw&seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents

Jakovljevic, I. P., Miller, A. P., & Fitzgerald, B. P. (2016). Children's Mental Health: Is
Poverty the Diagnosis? ​Bc Medical Journal ​, ​Vol.58​. Retrieved from
https://www.bcmj.org/sites/default/files/public/BCMJ_Vol58_No8_Children-mental-healt
h​ ​-poverty (ID 106172).pdf

Kaiser, T., Li, J., Pollmann-Schult, M., & Song, A. (2017). Poverty and Child Behavioral
Problems: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Parental Well-Being. ​International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,​ ​14(​ 9), 981. doi:
10.3390/ijerph14090981

Loughan, A., & Perna, R. (n.d.). Neurocognitive impacts for children of poverty and neglect.
Retrieved from
https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/neurocognitive-impacts

Thomas, B. (2016, October 27). How Living in Poverty Affects Children's Brain
Development. Retrieved from
https://today.duke.edu/2016/10/how-living-poverty-affects-children’s-brain-development

ABOUT: hospitality. (n.d.). Retrieved from​ ​https://www.hosphouse.org/about

Project #2 Public Writing Reflection and
Self-Assessment
Instructions: Please ​copy and paste​ this worksheet to the bottom of your Final Draft of your
Project 2. Then, complete the worksheet. Please do not type directly into this
document--remember to copy and paste it into the end of your own document and then fill it
out.

Part 1:
Please write 300ish words below reflecting on your process of composing this paper and what
you learned in that process​. Address issues including (in no particular order) how completing a
peer review for your peer helped you revise your own project, how your peers’ feedback
helped you revise your project, how this project has helped you better understand how to
contribute to the conversation and write for a specific audience and in a specific genre (OpEd,
or whatever you decided), what you might still revise in your project if you were able to do it
again, what about your process of writing (brainstorming, drafting, revising, polishing) was
helpful and what might you change in the future about your process, and other points about
your process that you think are relevant for reflection. Be sure that you are primarily reflecting
on your process of writing and not only on what you learned about the content about which
you wrote (although you can address that also). Additionally, be sure you spend some time on
this and be honest with yourself. It is not enough to say “I didn't learn anything from my peer
review” or “I didn’t learn anything about contributing to the conversation and appealing to a
specific audience”. You will want to spend some time reflecting because you will be asked to
use this reflection again at the end of the weeks.

The peer reviews I received for this project were very beneficial to me because they
gave me great insight on what their perspective was from the reader’s point of view which
ended up being different than what I thought or planned on my readers to get from it. My
peers made me realize my point was very clear and the main idea sort of got drowned out by
everything else I was including. This project in general really helped me grasp a better
understanding of what the main goal was for project 2 because allowing us to meet in groups
and come up with one issue that we could all relate our disciplines to helped me make it
interdisciplinary because I kept considering one another’s disciplinaries while writing. Writing to
this type of audience was different for me and a little difficult at first while I was writing more
vaguely instead of realizing it was directly towards Appalachian State and then I understood
that I could directly speak and relate to the students in my writing. I find that I struggle with
including too much information rather than keeping it relatively short and to the point. It is
brought to my attention that with too much evidence I think the reader’s lose the point I am
trying to get across and with that being said; if I had more time to revise or change my
brainstorming I would break down my thoughts into smaller sentences and try to keep my
paragraphs short and efficient. I would also try not to stress about including so much evidence
 into such a short writing piece because I was worried that I wouldn’t include enough evidence
that I got too caught up in the facts rather than my own thoughts and opinions. I do enjoy
giving peer reviews because I never really look forward to them until I actually begin reading
and giving input because for this project I could relate to the topic so I was available to provide
some insight from my own discipline that could’ve been useful for my peer’s writings.

Part 2:
Please complete the self-assessment below, including the points and comments section.
Please spend some time on this and complete it honestly with points and comments. I will also
use this when I grade your final product.

Each section is worth 5 points:

5=excellent, 4=good but could be improved, 3=adequate but needs significant work, 2=doesn’t quite meet the
requirements and needs significant work, 1= does not meet any of the requirements.

Category and Goals Points Student Comments Professor Comments

Genre: 4.5/5
● Demonstrates
anticipation of genre - It took me a while to grasp
and audience onto the idea of targeting App
State students and community
expectations in your as my audience, but once I got
own writing. the idea I felt I did a decent job
● Demonstrates providing information directly
towards/for Boone.
careful research on
the genre chosen. - I believe I started off very
● Demonstrates informative and persuasive in
ways that everyone should be
understanding of educated on child development
genre of Op-Ed and poverty, but I feel that I
could’ve been more
and/or informative/ persuasive.
persuasive
interpretation. - I think I did fairly well
hyperlinking while showing
● Demonstrates creativity in providing
creativity and critical background in how the brain
thinking develops.
● Is sufficiently
developed.
● Shows effective use
of citations in
hyperlinks.
Rhetoric: 5/5
● Demonstrates
understanding of
rhetorical situation
and audience needs
specific to the
platform/venue.
● Demonstrates aim
that adds to the
conversation and
informs the audience
of something they
might not know or
have thought about
in that way
● Appeals to audience
effectively using
emotional, logical,
and ethical appeals
● Builds credibility
effectively through
citations
(hyperlinked where
appropriate), logical
structure, and ethos.
Research: 5/5
● Uses sufficient
textual examples and
provides sufficient
evidence for claims
including scholarly
research
● Demonstrates
analysis of genre,
author/s, purpose,
audience, context,
sources, content
level, format,
language and visuals.
● Uses sufficient
textual examples.
● Shows effective use
of citation
conventions.
- In my intro I made it clear that I
was talking about App state
students and the community of
Boone.
- I included information about
the hospitality house and I feel
that this was beneficial
because as this is mainly
targeted towards students we
are frequently riding the bus
and may have heard or seen
the hospitality house, but do
not know anything about it.
Personally I had no idea what it
was until I looked it up and
heard about organizations
volunteering there.
- I feel that appealed to ethos,
pathos, and logos by targeting
emotion on how children and
families may struggle, my
credibility through hyperlinks
and my major, and using logic
from my current courses in my
discipline.
- I believe that I provide a lot of
in text evidence and direct
quotes from articles.
- A lot of my evidence I included
were scholarly journals or
studies.
Style/organization​: 4/5
● Demonstrates - I believe that it is structured
careful crafting, and grammatically correct, but
including structure, I think that I could have made
it shorter because it is pushing
with respect for the the word count. I think my
primary audience. paragraphs could be cut down
● Effectively includes and that I could have left out
some information for this type
description and of article.
detail where
necessary
● Is sufficiently
developed but is
within the word
count necessary
● Demonstrates clear
writing and is
grammatically and
tone appropriate for
the chosen venue.
TOTAL: 18.5/2
0