Poverty is defined as an individual's inability to meet their basic needs. These needs include water, food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and education. Poverty exerts a major influence on child development failure that occurs not only in the United States but is experienced globally. Jeffery Jensen Arnett (2016), author of Human Development a Cultural Approach, reports, “that with respect to income, approximately 40% of the world's population lives on less than two dollars a day, and 80% of the world's population lives with family income less than $6,000 a year.” In addition to this, socioeconomic status is defined in the book as a person's education level, income level, and professional level. It has been said that socioeconomic status is very important in shaping human development. This article will help describe poverty rates around the world and demonstrate that the conditions these children live in, especially at a young age, have a major impact on their brain development. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Consider the following scenario: You live in an unremarkable, dilapidated trailer with your family of nine. You have to share a room with most of your siblings. Your trailer has no heat for the winter and every month you worry about whether your parents will have enough money to pay the rent. You could go days without seeing food because you never know where your next meal will come from, it could come from the dumpsters. You wear the same clothes for weeks and never manage to practice proper hygiene. You don't get sent to school because your parents need to use that money to meet your basic human needs. Family members are at risk of falling ill and dying due to lack of nutrition and failure to meet their basic needs for survival. Unfortunately, many families around the world experience this or a similar scenario. It's not difficult to understand how these types of scenarios could impact brain development. Poverty is a big problem in today's society. Poverty USA stated: “In 2018, 38.1 million lived in poverty in America” (2018). For some people this number may not be much considering how many people live in America, but it has been reported that when children grow up in poverty, they are more likely to raise their own children the same way. Research has shown that exposure to poverty during childhood can affect brain development. Along with poverty come many factors, such as malnutrition, poor health and so on. Growing up in such conditions can have negative effects on the brain that affect language, learning and attention. The director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania said: “When a child grows up in poverty… with limited cognitive stimulation, high levels of stress and so on, that person is more likely to grow up with compromised conditions." lower physical and mental health and academic achievement” (Lempin, 2012, p.428). Many people today suffer from the consequences of something that was out of their control. Exposure to poverty puts developing children at risk for many health problems. Being properly nourished is an important factor in living a healthy life without unnecessary risks and health problems. However, people living in poverty usually do not have the ability to eat whenever and whatever they want. In most cases they never know when they will get their next meal.In a scientific study, Sarah Jensen, Anne Berne and Charles Nelson (2017) state that “poverty-related risks can induce changes along key biological axes which, in turn, can mediate the negative effects of poverty on children's neurocognitive development ”. They found that malnutrition is one such poverty-related risk. When the body is deprived of nutrients or calories needed for daily functioning the body's metabolic process becomes disordered, which in turn causes neutral functioning and growth. They further reported: “Nutrient availability also regulates the synthesis and activity of key neurotransmitters underlying cognitive processing and mood.” The human body needs adequate nutrition and when this is not provided it causes brain development problems and associated health risks. Research has shown that poverty environments are not stimulating and in return impact child development to a large extent. These environments create a lot of stress, low support systems and are not stimulating for individuals. This type of environment has shown negative results for cognitive development in children. Researchers examined the association between poverty and the hippocampus, an area of ​​the brain involved in memory and learning, and showed that it is strongly influenced by stress. In the scientific study, scientists reported, “children from lower SES backgrounds had less gray matter, and participants from more affluent backgrounds had large concentrations of gray matter.” Therefore, exposure to poverty has important effects on the development of these brain regions. In another study, he explains, “the amygdala and hippocampus are brain structures involved in stress regulation and emotional processing and known to be sensitive to environmental stimuli.” Therefore, if you are in a non-stimulating environment, these two structures in the brain will be sensitive to the environment. Children in poverty are known to struggle and go through stressful times throughout their lives. Therefore, these events in their life will have negative effects on a developing child due to poverty. Socioeconomic status (SES) is very important in shaping human development. Kolb and Gibb (2016) state that “low SES in childhood is related to poor cognitive development.” Research conducted by Jamie Hanson, Nicole Hair, Dingang Shan, Feng Shi, John Gilmore, Barbara Wolf, Seth Pollak helps support Kolb and Gibbs' claim. Hanson and his colleagues conducted an experiment showing how living in a low-SES family affects brain development from the beginning. They stated that “living in poverty places children at very high risk for problems in a variety of domains, including education, behavioral regulation, and health” (Hanson et al., 2013, p.1). In the study, the initial sample consisted of 110 healthy children aged newborn to 4 years old. A total of 338 MRI tests were acquired, and two hundred to three hundred could be segment scans to measure and visualize the brain. There were 55 children who followed a longitudinal study and 22 children were scanned once at various ages. Participants came from families with low incomes, ranging from 4% to 400% of the federal poverty level. They are taking MRI scans and observations of children living in low-income places to gather findings on how living in a low-SES family affects a developing child. From this experiment, they found that, compared to children of high SES, children from poor backgrounds have lower total mean gray matter and frontal gray matter volumes andinferior parietal. Therefore, it was shown that as developing children aged, the difference in brain volume increased. Small volumes in this brain tissue have been linked to greater behavioral problems in the preschool years. Going through an educational program and succeeding is something that is highly valued in society. People take education very seriously because it will help you further in your future endeavors. Even though this is the case for most people, poor children do not care about their education, rather they care about their basic needs as human beings. Children growing up in poverty are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning, as the above research has shown the toll that health problems, negative environment, and low SES take on a child's brain development. Researchers conducted a study and found results that clearly showed that poverty negatively affected student achievement. Misty Lacour and Laura Tissington reported in a study conducted by Sum and Fogg "that poor students are ranked in the 19th percentile on assessments, while students from a middle-to-upper income family are ranked in the 66th percentile on assessments" (Lacour, 201, p. .522). These children score significantly below average on these assessment tests. These scores, in addition to the cost of education, hinder the child's ability to continue his or her education. I mentioned above many of the physical effects that poverty has on the brain, but there are physiological effects as well. Parental Psychopathology Research conducted a study, focusing on mothers with disadvantaged psychopathology, mothers in poverty. Much of the extensive research has addressed depression and substance abuse issues in mothers. As a consequence of mothers' depression, it showed that "they tended to be less attentive to their children, between disengagement and intrusiveness" (Luthar, 1999, p.42). On top of this, they express more negative attributions towards their children and are at risk of hostile and coercive parenting, as well as child abuse. Children growing up in such an environment is harmful to their physiological mind. When they move on to school, these effects are evident in children, because they often feel ashamed or embarrassed given the conditions in which they grew up. As a result, most children develop insecurities, have low self-esteem and become antisocial. Never really get involved in extracurricular activities or a strong group of friends. This most likely leads them to drop out of school or get involved in illegal activities that simply set them to the same lifestyle as their childhood. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Customize EssayIn conclusion, the thought of extreme levels of poverty in the world is daunting. Research has shown how harmful the effects of poverty are and how it affects children's development. They are at risk for serious health problems due to their financial means, lack of adequate nutrition, exposure to negative environments, and their overall lifestyle. These not only cause health problems, but also psychological problems. As a result, children experience behavioral problems and are not equipped to succeed in school. Often parents who live this lifestyle take it out on their children by talking down to them or sometimes mistreating them. As a result, children see themselves as not worthy enough, which leads them to develop insecurities that lead them to return to the same situation as their parents..