ABSTRACT

In the following article, we review evidence indicating that the experience of poverty is physiologically stressful for children and families. We examine the cost of poverty-related alterations to stress response physiology for brain development and brain function and consider implications for psychological and behavioral development. We also highlight the potential malleability of the processes involved and describe some promising new directions for prevention and intervention. The Kavli HUMAN Project provides valuable metrics of family processes and contexts that are potentially stressful. These include, among other things, financial or health related circumstances, as well as interactions between parents and children. It is expected that by studying the ways in which stressors affect children and families, we will find new and perhaps unexpected processes that can serve as the basis for novel approaches to prevention and intervention.