The Effect Of Poverty On Child Developm
The Effect of Poverty on Child Development and Educational Outcomes
PATRICE L. ENGLEa a AND
MAUREEN M. BLACK b
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA b University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Poverty affects a child’s development and educational outcomes beginning in the earliest years of life, both directly and indirectly through mediated, moderated, and transactional processes.
School readiness, or the child’s ability to use and profit from school, has been recognized as playing a unique role in escape from poverty in the United States and increasingly in developing countries. It is a critical element but needs to be supported by many other components of a povertyalleviation strategy, such as improved opportunity structures and empowerment of families. The paper reviews evidence from interventions to improve school readiness of children in poverty, both in the United States and in developing countries, and provides recommendations for future research and action.
Key words: poverty; child development; school readiness; educational outcomes; developing countries “To build a nation, build a school.”
-Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize–winning economist
Introduction
In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit adopted eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The first two goals, to eradicate ex treme poverty and hunger and to achieve universal primary education are intimately related. Poverty limits the chances of educational attainment, and at the same time, educational attainment is one of the prime mechanisms for escaping poverty. Poverty is a persis tent problem throughout the world and has deleterious impacts on almost all aspects of family life and outcomes for children. This paper examines the mecha nisms through which poverty affects child development and educational outcomes, and interventions that have been effective in improving child development and ed ucational outcomes for
PATRICE L. ENGLEa a AND
MAUREEN M. BLACK b
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA b University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Poverty affects a child’s development and educational outcomes beginning in the earliest years of life, both directly and indirectly through mediated, moderated, and transactional processes.
School readiness, or the child’s ability to use and profit from school, has been recognized as playing a unique role in escape from poverty in the United States and increasingly in developing countries. It is a critical element but needs to be supported by many other components of a povertyalleviation strategy, such as improved opportunity structures and empowerment of families. The paper reviews evidence from interventions to improve school readiness of children in poverty, both in the United States and in developing countries, and provides recommendations for future research and action.
Key words: poverty; child development; school readiness; educational outcomes; developing countries “To build a nation, build a school.”
-Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize–winning economist
Introduction
In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit adopted eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The first two goals, to eradicate ex treme poverty and hunger and to achieve universal primary education are intimately related. Poverty limits the chances of educational attainment, and at the same time, educational attainment is one of the prime mechanisms for escaping poverty. Poverty is a persis tent problem throughout the world and has deleterious impacts on almost all aspects of family life and outcomes for children. This paper examines the mecha nisms through which poverty affects child development and educational outcomes, and interventions that have been effective in improving child development and ed ucational outcomes for
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