Poverty stunts children's ability, says Institute of Education
Janaki Mahadevan
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Children who live in poverty for a number of years perform significantly worse in a range of ability tests than those who have never experienced poverty, research by the Institute of Education has found.
Researchers found that seven-year-olds who have lived in poverty since infancy achieve poorer results in a range of cognitive tests than those who have never been poor, even when family circumstances and parenting skills are taken into consideration.
Persistent poverty and children’s cognitive development found that on a scale of 0 to 100, a child who has been living in persistent poverty will rank 10 levels below an otherwise similar child who has no early experience of poverty.
Analysing almost 8,000 members of the Millennium Cohort Study, the researchers looked at whether the children were in poverty at ages nine months, three, five and seven and estimated the effect of poverty on the children’s assessments, which included vocabulary, pattern construction, picture recognition and reading.
University of Sheffield academics Professor Andy Dickerson and Dr Gurleen Popli, who conducted the study, said: “Much is made of the importance of parenting for children’s cognitive development, and our study supports these claims.
“But importantly, our analysis shows that low income has a two-fold effect on children’s ability: it has an effect on children regardless of anything their parents do, but it also has an impact on parenting itself.”
The researchers found that poverty had a greater impact on cognitive development than factors such as whether or not parents read to their children, take them to the library or help them with reading, writing and maths.
The study also showed that poverty could adversely affect parents’ ability to actively engage with their children’s learning, which further affected their scores.
The Millennium Cohort Study has been tracking more than 19,000 children in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through their early childhood and plans to follow them into adulthood.
It covers topics including parenting, childcare, school choice, child behaviour, cognitive development, child and parental health, parents’ employment and education, income and housing.
Professor Lucinda Platt, director of the study, said: “This rigorous study of the impact of poverty on children’s cognitive development is a significant contribution to our understanding in this area.
“In demonstrating the importance of early and enduring low income for children’s subsequent cognitive development, it provides fresh impetus to efforts to tackle child poverty.”