ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine associations between poverty and young children’s development, up to age 5-years when most children leave early education programs and enter formal schooling.1 First, we explore the complexities in measuring poverty and studying its effects on young children. In so doing, we review key large-scale, national studies that have been used to examine poverty’s effects on child development. Second, findings gleaned from these studies on direct associations between poverty and children’s cognitive, verbal, and behavioral outcomes during the first 5 years of life are reviewed. The extent to which depth and persistence of poverty moderate these associations is also addressed in this section. Third, we consider the potential pathways through which poverty may influence child development. Here, two theories frame the discussion, one emphasizing the role of familial relationships and parenting (Conger & Elder, 1994; Elder & Caspi, 1988; McLoyd, 1990) and another stressing the impact of parental investments in resources for children (Becker, 1991; Mayer, 1997). We address links between family poverty and maternal mental health and parent-child interactions as part of the former model. The latter theory encompasses associations between poverty status and factors such as the quality of home environment, neighborhoods, nonmaternal child care, and health and nutrition. Finally, we consider the role of public policy in the lives of children growing up in poverty. Early intervention programs and welfare policy are highlighted as two policy areas that have changed over the past decade and play a significant role in the lives of young children living in poverty. Early intervention programs, particularly those including center-based services beginning in infancy, have shown immediate and strong positive effects on low-income children’s IQ scores (Campbell & Ramey, 1994) and sociobehavioral outcomes (Yoshikawa, 1995). The welfare reform bill passed in 1996, which mandated work requirements and time restrictions for recipients, dramatically altered the daily lives of female-headed households with young children. Results from preliminary welfare reform experiments suggest that although the effects of earning supplements for welfare recipients had a positive impact on preschool and young school-age children, work requirements and time limits had mixed impacts (Morris, Huston, Duncan, Crosby, & Bos, 2001). In our discussion of both initiatives, we present early childhood as a time of great vulnerability and great opportunity for children.
