The Effects of Poverty on Child Development

Understanding the effects of poverty on child development is the beginning of compassion and activism for those removed from the daily struggle millions face. The effects of poverty on children are many and varied. There are obvious physical effects, like malnutrition, but the ways a child will struggle because of poverty can last a lifetime.

Shari Marino, the former director of Pediatric Health Initiatives, writes, “Social determinants of health, or the places people live, work, and play, all have a strong influence on the trajectory of one’s life course. For children living in need, it isn’t only a matter of the obvious effects of poverty, such as food scarcity or poor living conditions, that have negative consequences. Other factors that are less visible on the outside, like toxic stress as a result of the conditions of poverty and lead in drinking water, have long-term effects on health as well.”[1]

Child development, like all health sciences, continues to grow in fullness of understanding. The ways that a child’s health is affected by their environment can be surprising. The child may not even realize they are being affected until much later in life.

“The most important developmental period is the early childhood period as the brain is developing rapidly, and is easily influenced by conditions of poverty,” Marino continues. “This formative, developmental phase includes physical, social/emotional, and language/cognitive development, all of which are influential on wellbeing throughout life. Children living in poverty early in life have poorer outcomes than adolescents who experience poverty later in life.”[2]

Sadly, poverty’s effects don’t just start at birth. “Many of the problems children born into poverty face begin before they are even born. Poor prenatal care is positively associated with poverty. Women living in poverty are less likely to have been vaccinated for infectious diseases that can be passed on to the fetus,” according to a review in the Journal of Mental Health and Social Behavior.[3]


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