Poverty affects a child’s ability, new study finds

Researchers from Sheffield, in collaboration with experts from the University of London, revealed that seven-year-olds who have lived in poverty since infancy perform worse in a range of ability tests than those who have never been poor – even when family circumstances and parenting skills are taken into consideration.

On a scale from zero to 100, a child who has been in “persistent” poverty will rank 10 levels below an otherwise similar child who has no early experience of poverty.

The university said that this is believed to be the first study to examine the “impact of persistent poverty on young children’s cognitive development in contemporary Britain”.

Professor Lucinda Platt, the director of the Millennium Cohort Study, added: “This rigorous study of the impact of poverty on children’s cognitive development is a significant contribution to our understanding in this area.

“In demonstrating the importance of early and enduring low income for children’s subsequent cognitive development, it provides fresh impetus to efforts to tackle child poverty.”

The study’s authors, Professor Andy Dickerson and Dr Gurleen Popli, analysed data on almost 8,000 members of the Millennium Cohort Study, which has been following the lives of children born in 2000 and 2001.

They looked at whether the children were in poverty at ages nine months, three, five and seven. Children were said to be in “persistent poverty” if their families were poor at the current and all previous surveys.

The effect of poverty was then estimated on the children’s scores on several assessments, which included vocabulary, pattern construction, picture recognition and reading.

The researchers found that poverty – especially persistent poverty – has a greater impact on development than factors such as whether or not parents read to their children, take them to the library, or help them with reading, writing and maths.

The impact is equivalent to the gap in scores between the children of university-educated mothers and children of mothers with basic or no qualifications.

Being poor can also adversely affect parents’ ability to take an active role in their children’s learning, according to the study which further affects their scores.

A joint statement issued by the researchers said: “Much is made of the importance of parenting for children’s cognitive development, and our study supports these claims.

“But importantly, our analysis shows that low income has a two-fold effect on children’s ability - it has an effect on children regardless of anything their parents do, but it also has an impact on parenting itself.”

Meanwhile, another team of researchers at Sheffield University has been awarded a £97,551 grant by Arthritis Research UK to investigate how electronic resources can provide health information for ethnic minorities.

Professor Ade Adebajo and his team have been awarded the grant over two years by Arthritis Research UK.

Prof Adebajo said: “It is now well recognised that health education needs to be improved for ethnic minority patients.

“This is partly due to poor reading skills and difficulty in reading English but also due to cultural factors.

“The results of this research will not only provide valuable lessons to empower ethnic minority communities through patient education, but will more generally benefit all patients and members of the public with a preference for health information in an electronic format.”