ABSTRACT
The educators understand how factors outside of school converge to affect cognitive and socio-emotional development and the academic success of low income children. This chapter focuses on income as a predictor of risk factors that affect child development, but where available, studies on other socioeconomic factors, like parental education, race, ethnicity, and immigration status are discussed because these variables are strongly correlated with poverty. Parental involvement in school activities is strongly linked to income. In the US, roughly one-third of low income children live in areas of concentrated poverty, and as income inequality has risen in recent years, residential segregation has increased as well. The US public has widespread antipathy toward the poor, often attributing poverty to character flaws and laziness. Most research on how young people experience institutional racism has been conducted with African American adolescents, and repeatedly, studies indicate racial discrimination imposes powerful challenges on child development.
