Kim L. Schmidt, Sarah M. Merrill, Randip Gill, Gregory E. Miller, Anne M.

Gadermann, Michael S. Kobor,

Society to cell: How child poverty gets “Under the Skin” to influence child
development and lifelong health,
Developmental Review,
Volume 61,
2021,
100983,
ISSN 0273-2297,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2021.100983.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229721000381)
Abstract: Almost one in three children globally live in households lacking basic
necessities, and 356 million of these children were living in extreme poverty as of
2017. Disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic further increase rates of child
poverty due to widespread job and income loss and economic insecurity among
families. Poverty leads to unequal distribution of power and resources, which
impacts the economic, material, environmental and psychosocial conditions in which
children live. There is evidence that poverty is associated with adverse child
health and developmental outcomes in the short term, as well as increased risk of
chronic diseases and mental illnesses over the life course. Over the past decade,
advances in genomic and epigenomic research have helped elucidate molecular
mechanisms that could in part be responsible for these long-term effects. Here, we
review evidence suggestive of biological embedding of early life poverty in three,
interacting physiological systems that are potential contributors to the increased
risk of disease: the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, the brain, and the immune
system. We also review interventions that have been developed to both eliminate
childhood poverty and alleviate its impact on pediatric development and health.
Pertinently, studies estimate that the costs of child poverty, calculated by
increased healthcare expenditures and loss of productivity, are immense. We argue
that investing in child development by reducing child poverty has the potential to
improve the health and well-being at the population level, which would go a long
way towards benefiting the economy and promoting a more just society by helping all
individuals reach their full potential.