{"id":108182,"date":"2015-06-18T13:04:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T17:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=108182"},"modified":"2015-08-05T10:39:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T14:39:30","slug":"stress-in-low-income-families-can-affect-childrens-learning-108182","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/stress-in-low-income-families-can-affect-childrens-learning-108182\/","title":{"rendered":"Stress in low-income families can affect children’s learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from the URochester.<\/p>\n

The study of 201 low-income mother-child pairs, conducted at Mount Hope Family Center<\/a>, tracked the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the children at ages 2, 3, and 4. It found that specific forms of family adversity are linked to both elevated and low levels of cortisol in children. Children with either the elevated or low cortisol levels also had lower than average cognitive ability at age 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we were interested in seeing is whether specific risk factors of children living in poverty might be related to children\u2019s cortisol levels,\u201d said lead author Jennifer Suor, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology. \u201cThen we looked to see if the hormone levels are predictive of significant differences in the children\u2019s ability to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal Child Development<\/a><\/em>, shows that children in low-income, stressful home environments\u2014specifically homes with family instability and harsh and disengaged mothers\u2014can have adverse levels of cortisol in their bodies, which previously studies have associated with having damaging effects on the structure and function of children\u2019s brains.<\/p>\n

Understanding how cortisol affects the brain\u2019s cognitive abilities, though, is still unclear. “The exact mechanisms through which too much or too little cortisol affects cognitive functioning aren’t fully understood,” said coauthor Melissa L. Sturge-Apple, assistant professor of psychology.<\/p>\n

\"illustration“Researchers hypothesize that too much cortisol can have toxic effects on parts of the brain that are important for cognitive functioning, and too little might hinder the body’s ability to recruit the biological resources necessary for optimal cognitive functioning,” Sturge-Apple said.<\/p>\n

\u201cModerate amounts of cortisol is a good thing, though, it helps facilitate cognitive functioning,\u201d added Suor. \u201cIn the right amount it makes you rise to the occasion and it helps recruit important cognitive resources like memory and the ability to reason. But it\u2019s a problem when we have too much or too little cortisol.\u201d<\/p>\n

The children with family instability or harsh and emotionally distant caregivers at age 2, had elevated cortisol levels, while children with only family instability at age 2, had lower than average cortisol levels. \u201cWe were surprised to find that the children\u2019s cortisol levels, which we test from a cheek swab, didn\u2019t change\u2014they remained relatively stable over the three years,\u201d Suor said.<\/p>\n

Family instability includes frequent changes in care providers, household members, or residence. Such instability, the researchers said, reflects a general breakdown of the family\u2019s ability to provide a predictable and stable environment for the child.<\/p>\n

Suor added that \u201cthere are other environmental and biological factors that might contribute to children’s lower cognitive functioning. However, our research, as well as previous studies, has indicated that cortisol plays a role in cognitive functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a public awareness relevance to this study. We saw really significant disparities in the children\u2019s cognitive abilities at age four\u2014right before they enter kindergarten,\u201d Suor said. \u201cSome of these kids are already behind before they start kindergarten, and there is research that shows that they\u2019re unlikely to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers said that prevention and intervention could help these at-risk children. \u201cOur findings support the need for an investment in community-based interventions that can strengthen parent-child relationships and reduce family stress very early in a child\u2019s life,\u201d Suor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of research that we\u2019ve done at Mt. Hope shows that using preventative interventions can help moms parent their children in ways that may lead to improvements in their children\u2019s cortisol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Davies and Liviah Manning, from the URochester, and Dante Cicchetti, from the University of Minnesota and Mt. Hope Family Center, coauthored the study. The National Institute of Mental Health supported the research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from Rochester’s Mt. Hope Family Center. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":108222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[9846,18592,4626,25882,2036,18572,16072],"class_list":["post-108182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-children","tag-department-of-psychology","tag-featured-post","tag-melissa-sturge-apple","tag-mt-hope-family-center","tag-research-finding","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStress in low-income families can affect children's learning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/stress-in-low-income-families-can-affect-childrens-learning-108182\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stress in low-income families can affect children's learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from Rochester's Mt. 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