How Poverty Affects Youth Development: From Social Inequalities to Social Inclusion

Oana Negru-Subtirica, Casandra Timar-Anton, Bianca Marinica, & Bogdan Glavan

Self and Identity Development Lab, Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University,
Romania

Please cite this chapter as:

Negru-Subtirica, O., Timar-Anton, C., Marinica, B., & Glavan, B. (2021). How Poverty
Affects Youth Development: From Social Inequalities to Social Inclusion. In O. Negru-
Subtirica & E. Crocetti (Eds.), Building inclusive societies: Promoting social inclusion and
reducing discrimination" (BUILD). ASCR Publishing House.
 The present chapter was prepared with the
support of the Erasmus+ Programme of
the European Union in the framework of
The Strategic Partnership Project
"Promoting social inclusion skills in a
post-truth world: A gamified online
platform and curriculum" (PROMIS).

Starting from the need to guide youth in the “post-truth” world they live in, one in which they
increasingly rely on information from unverified and often undocumented sources, the project developed
the “Building inclusive societies: Promoting social inclusion and reducing discrimination” (BUILD), which
fosters social, civic, and intercultural competences.
In the PROMIS Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project, 7 organizations from 6 countries developed
research-based instruments to help students better understand what social inclusion is and how they can
enhance their competences when interacting with marginalized groups.
The project partners are: Babes-Bolyai University (Romania, coordinator), University of Bologna
(Italy), University of Bordeaux (France), Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (Poland),
Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), Utrecht University (Netherlands), and eLearning & Software
(Romania).

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
 After this module, students will be able to understand:
● What poverty means, in the context of social inequalities
● Which are the personal resources of youth living in poverty
● The process of cognitive development of youth living in poverty
● How youth living in poverty prioritize their goals and actions
● Scientific interventions that can help youth living in poverty achieve their
goals and live up to their potential

Problem Statement
Poverty is a problem in all contemporary societies and regions. Though we tend to
believe that we live in a democratic and civilized world, in 2019 many children (age 0 to 16)
in Europe were at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Eurostat 2019 statistics indicate that
34.6% of children from Romania, 26.8% of children from Lithuania, 21.8% of children from
France, 15.3% of children in Netherlands, are at risk of poverty. These are just a few
examples of European countries. So, poverty is a clear and present danger and it is important
to understand how it affects youth development and what we can do to help. In this module,
we will use the terms poverty/poor, low socio-economic status, and people from
disadvantaged communities interchangeably, to refer to people who have very limited
financial and social resources. Poverty means living with very few resources both from a
material standpoint (e.g., income, food, shelter, clothing), and from an opportunity standpoint
(e.g., education, employment, medical care, security).

Children at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Check out this interactive map, to see how the situation looks in your country:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/ae74b17b-ff5b-4d8f-b98a-
28ec0ddd79a7?lang=en

According to a 2018 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), social inequality has increased in the past few decades and social
mobility represents one of the angles through which we can look at these inequalities.
Escalators are a great metaphor used in this report that can help us better understand social
mobility. Everybody rides an escalator that is slowly going up (on the social scale), in
sociology terms this would be absolute social mobility. As this would mean that everyone is
increasing their socio-economic situation, we can say it is a good thing for everybody.
However, inside this main escalator, everyone moves at different speeds, as such, their
relative position in the main escalator might go upward or downward as the main one goes up
over time; again, in terms of sociology, this would be relative social mobility. The issue is
that the distribution of the speed with which one moves on the social scale is not evenly
distributed, not amounting to an inclusive raise of all the people.
The belief that anyone can improve their socio-economic status is rather common in
the context of increasing inequalities and lower social mobility in various domains, such as
education, occupation, income, or health (OECD, 2018). The idea that “You can do it if you
really want” can motivate us, but at the same time it can lead to placing the whole
responsibility for moving upward on the social scale entirely on the individual. The same
applies for failing to improve one’s condition. However, this myth of meritocracy (i.e., the
belief that anyone has enough opportunities to move upwards on the social scale if they work
hard enough; Littler, 2018) pays no attention to the barriers one doesn’t have any control
over, such as the limited access to resources and its consequences (including in terms of
decision-making priorities). Therefore, before we can even talk about the individual being
responsible for his own success or failure at improving his socio-economic status, we need to
analyze personal and social factors that influence this “power”. Poor people are sometimes
described in the media as stupid, uneducated, bad with money, incapable to plan for the
future. This module comes to shed light on such fake news and explain how poverty affects
how people’s minds develop and work and how their families are a crucial component of
positive change.

Free associations exercise

As the concept of ‘poor’ or ‘poverty’ may have different connotations for different people,
we want to ask you to write down as many words for describing people living in
poverty as you can think of. Think of them from the perspective of the society you live
in.
So, what comes to your mind when you think of ‘poor’ and ‘poverty’?
________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________
 Theoretical Background

Case-study
Meet Ioan. Ioan is an 8th grader in a middle school from a Romanian village. He is the
eldest child in a family of six. His parents left school after the 8th grade and now they work
low-skilled, temporary jobs, in a nearby town. Every day, Ioan witnesses the struggles of his
parents as they have to wake up at dawn, get cold water from the well, prepare his younger
siblings for school and walk more than 5 km to get the bus to work. Ioan himself walks to
school each morning through snow in winter or mud in summer, wearing the same footwear.
For him, the highlight of each day is the warm lunch provided by the school. When he is very
hungry, he eats it all at school, otherwise he brings it home to share it with his siblings.
Ioan often feels overwhelmed by the amount of daily responsibilities and challenges he
faces both at home and school. Despite being an adolescent, Ioan has many additional roles.
While his parents are away, he looks after his younger siblings and prepares food for them,
cleans the house, and mends the vegetable garden. During the evening, it is quite common for
Ioan to witness heated arguments between his parents due to the lack of money and other
resources.
Ioan often feels lonely, as some of his school mates do not go through the same
struggles. His mind often drifts away at his home problems and the uncertainty of tomorrow.
The added stress limits his ability to focus at school which often leads to poor grades and low
motivation to study. On top of this, his parents are unable to guide him and offer homework
support. As a result, day by day, Ioan thinks of giving up school. All the things he wants
(warm shoes, a new coat), he feels he cannot get by going to school. He starts to think that it
would be better if he stayed home and helped his parents with the housework, taking care of
the animals and vegetable garden. In this manner, he feels that he could help his family and, by
selling the vegetables from their garden in the nearby town, he could actually get the things he
wants. Sometimes, Ioan still dreams of more. He dreams about leaving the village and doing
something great, inspiring his younger siblings and impressing his family and friends.

Poverty has always been counterpoised to affluence and economic stability. When
people talk about “poor” people, they often think about what poor people lack, in terms of
money, skills, things, and so on. One of the things that “poor” people seem to lack is the
capacity to plan for the future. This common belief references the idea that poor people seem
to have difficulties in setting long-term goals, like planning for an education or saving money
for something they could buy in a distant future.
Quiz:
In the case of Ioan, which of the following is a long-term goal?
a. To buy warm shoes
b. To buy a new coat
c. To achieve a high-school education
d. To mend the vegetable garden
e. To sell vegetables at the market

Long-term goals are things that one plans for and will achieve in a very distant future.
In the case of Ioan, planning to achieve a high-school education means that he will stay in
school for the next 4 to 5 years, he will learn for all subjects and do his homework so that he
takes all exams. In his case, it also means that his parents should be able to support him to go
to high-school in the nearby town (20 kms away), as their village does not have a high-school.
So, when we look at Ioan’s current situation, he does not see the meaning of going to
school, as going to school does not solve his everyday needs. Ioan is focused on the present
and the near future (weeks or months away), as his basic needs (warmer clothing for the
winter) really need to be attended to. Also, Ioan is very close to his parents and he sees how
difficult it is for them to get by financially. Hence, he wants to be able to help them, by
mending the garden, growing vegetables, and selling them in the nearby town.
The fact that poor people tend to be more focused on the present, is many times presented
as a major weakness that leads to negative paths that they will take in their future.

What could happen to Ioan if he decides to drop out of school after the 8th
grade?
Please complete the following phrases by choosing the missing words.

financial debt the family land

a well-paid job many children
healthcare and health insurance
 a. He will have difficulties finding_________ because of his low-level education.
b. He will stay in his home village and keep working_____ .
c. He will be at risk for _______, as he cannot properly save money.
d. He will marry very young and have________.
e. He will have very limited access to_________, as he will probably work temporary
jobs, with no health insurance.

All these predictions amount to something that researchers call the poverty trap. This
refers to things that poor people do (they are called behaviors), that, in time, increase their
level of poverty. For instance, dropping out of school too early seems to be linked in time
with having low-paying and unstable jobs, which in turn leads to limited access to healthcare
and subsequently to the probability of getting chronic diseases (Frankenhuis et al., 2016).
Now think about Ioan’s story. He is reared in a tough environment, with limited resources and
many stressful conditions, which shape his cognitive and social skills.
Humans are born ready to learn and to develop a variety of skills. It is well known that
the brain starts to grow long before birth and continues to undergo major developments during
the early years of childhood. Thus, the first years of life have tremendous impact for later
cognitive and physical development. Brain development and cognitive development are
strongly connected. But what do we mean by cognitive development? Cognitive
development refers to how someone gains an understanding of the world by exploring and
figuring out how things work. It includes reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making,
language, memory, which all help and prepare humans to make sense of the world around
them.
There are many factors which can influence brain development for the better or worse,
such as: nutrition, health care, and the child’s proximal environment (e.g., poverty, stress,
neglect, or other risks). Neuroscience evidence shows us that our brain continues to develop
through our entire life, but the experiences encountered during the first years of life constitute
the building blocks for future development, thus are the most impactful. During childhood,
early life adversities have been shown to have deleterious effects on the nervous system, in
such a way that visible changes in volumetric parameters can be observed. For instance,
children living in poor conditions have been found to have lower white and grey matter
volumes. Also, their hippocampus and amygdala volumes are smaller than their peers’
(Luby et al., 2013; Hair et al., 2015). Both the hippocampus and amygdala are part of the
limbic system, a system responsible for memory, learning and emotion. The hippocampus’s
main functions are related to generating, organizing and storing memories while connecting
them to different emotions. This is why very often our most vivid memories are linked to
strong emotions. The amygdala represents a brain structure similar to a ‘sensor’ or ‘alarm’
responsible for detecting whether something in the environment, either an event or person, is
potentially harmful or threatening. In the long run, the smaller volumes observed in these
brain structures in children living in poverty can have detrimental effects on learning and
emotional regulation.

How do you think this different neural development affects their life in the
short and long-term?

Unfortunately, many children in poor families start school with an observable lag
behind their colleagues, in terms of linguistic abilities, emotional regulation, attention, and
planning skills. This often brings about discrimination and segregation at school both from
their peers and teachers. As they go through school, these problems only get worse to the
point where they are unable to keep up with the school requirements and eventually this puts
them at risk of dropping out. Later in life, as school dropouts, it is very hard for them to get
well-paying jobs which further keep them in the poverty trap.
These experiences may encourage people living in poverty to think about themselves
according to the fixed mindset. The fixed mindset views intelligence as static, stable and not
easily changed (Claro et al., 2016). This kind of thinking shapes your actions and behaviors.
For instance, in a difficult and challenging situation, you may give up easily, because you
think that you cannot make it and eventually you will end up avoiding challenges. Also, the
fixed mindset may prevent you from seizing opportunities, because you do not think they are
worth pursuing, as nothing can really change your situation. Besides the fixed mindset, there
is another type of thinking, namely the growth mindset (Claro et al., 2016). The growth
mindset is represented by a malleable view of intellectual abilities. People with a growth
mindset will approach difficult tasks and situations with the belief that with sustained work
they will self-improve and be able to find solutions to overcome any hardships. For a more
detailed presentation of these two mindsets, you can have a look at Figure 1.
Figure 1
Differences between a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset

Note. From “Growth Mindset Toolkit,” by Transforming Education, (2014)

(https://www.transformingeducation.org/growth-mindset-toolkit/).
Copyright 2014 by Transforming Education

The focus on what poor people lack in terms of social and cognitive skills is
represented in the scientific literature by the so-called deficit models. Deficit models reflect
all the things that people living in poverty do not have and cannot do or get; they are the
dominant models when researchers approach poverty. One of the main limitations of deficit
models is that no levers for positive change can be identified when we only look at what poor
people cannot do or do not understand. Therefore, researchers now try to also look at how
poor people actually make it in their harsh environments.
 Reflection moment
“Performance reflects adaptation to the context.” (Frankenhuis & Nettle, 2020, p. 16)
What does this mean? Can you think of an example when this statement was true for you?
Then, can you think of an example when this is true for people living in poverty in your
area/country?

In the case of Ioan, his focus on the present can be analyzed in the context of the
world around him. His family, his neighbors, his classroom and school are all fighting for
survival, trying to gather enough resources: money, funding for the school and for getting
qualified teachers, wood for the winter, food and water for the times when the road to the
village is flooded. This type of harsh environment requires quick responses in the present, as
threats are unexpected and often different from other crisis situations. A focus on the future
would require a higher level of predictability and control over the environment.
Through this lens of analysis, the fact that Ioan wants to make changes to his life that lead
to immediate benefits (leave school to help parents, mend the garden to have vegetables, etc.)
can be seen as an adaptive reaction to a harsh and unpredictable environment. In fact, survival
in poverty leads to the formation of so-called hidden-talents, which are abilities and qualities
that people with low socio-economic status develop in order to navigate an unpredictable and
difficult environment. Research studies indicate that such hidden-talents are (Frankenhuis &
Nettle, 2020):
- The capacity to quickly identify great dangers and opportunities in one’s immediate
environment;
- The capacity to quickly and efficiently move from one task/activity to another one;
- The capacity to detect and follow up on things that change very quickly;
- The capacity to keep going in an activity when they work for an immediate reward
(something you get exactly when you finished the activity);
- The capacity to react more quickly and also get over more quickly to negative
emotional reactions of other people.
 Empirical Research
Quiz:
As Ioan’s parents did not complete secondary school, what do you think his chances are at
making it to university?
1. 25%
2. He has no chance! The system is broken!
3. 60%
4. He can do it if he really wants to.
5. 15%

Coming back to our case, as Ioan comes from a disadvantaged family he will not be
able to raise as fast as his peers from non-disadvantaged families and it will be harder for him
to have a better education, career, healthcare and income than his parents. You may think “oh,
well, if he will work hard enough, he will eventually succeed”, but in real life, things are not
that clear cut. For instance, results from a longitudinal study (i.e., a design that follows the
same person for a predetermined period of time) on poverty and cognitive development
highlighted that low income was associated with poorer academic performance (Hair et al.,
2015). The results were based on a sample of 389 children (aged between 4 and 22 years old)
who undertook an array of brain scans (i.e., magnetic resonance imaging scanning) and test
batteries regarding general intelligence, language development, and math achievement,
resulting in 823 observations. The brain scans revealed that children coming from low income
families lag in terms of anatomical brain development compared with their peers. This had an
observable impact on their school performance, as their grades in standardized tests were 4-7
points lower.
Regarding the educational dimension of social mobility, a recent OECD study (2020)
showed that children with parents who did not complete secondary school have only 15%
chance of attaining tertiary education, compared to 60% chance of children from families in
which at least one of the parents has tertiary education. Nonetheless, we can say Ioan is
luckier than his younger sisters, as statistics highlight that in case of girls, poverty has a
greater negative impact on their raising on the social scale. One of the factors that might
influence intergenerational educational mobility might be related to parents’ priorities, which
impact the decisions they make when it comes to their children.
Now let’s take a look at some of the decisions Ioan’s parents have to make. Which do
you think is a priority for them? Try to order them from the highest to the lowest priority.
 1. Their children doing well in school.
2. Buying Ioan a new pair of shoes.
3. Reading them a bedtime story or watching a documentary together.
4. Saving up money to buy wood to heat the house in the winter.
5. Making sure they have enough food by working in their small vegetable garden.

As we have seen in the previous part of the module, Ioan had to be more focused on
the present because his basic needs require immediate care and just can’t be ignored. The
same applies for his parents and impacts their decision-making when it comes to establishing
priorities. In addition to this, in low-income families from some countries the mothers
consider that their main responsibilities consist in teaching children about their role in the
family, not moving far from home throughout their entire lives, and being grateful for the
previous generations’ sacrifices (Valdés, 1996). Although family obligations (e.g., house
chores, financial help) are a core aspect of certain cultures, regardless of the socio-economic
status, a stronger sense of family responsibility is displayed by people from low-income
families. For example, as part of a larger study with multiple measurements, conducted by
Witkow et al. (2015), 12th graders from 3 different high schools filled in questionnaires which
measured the socio-economic status, academic achievement, and the importance of family
obligations. Two years later, they provided information regarding their financial situation
(e.g., having a job) and family assistance, whereas 4 years later they mentioned their college
situation (e.g., currently attending, already graduated, not enrolling).
Besides revealing that family obligations and financial difficulties are associated with
lower academic persistence over time, the results also indicated that 12th grade socio-
economic status was negatively correlated with how important they felt it was to provide
future help to their families (e.g., give money, live nearby) on one hand, and family
obligations 2 years later on the other hand. In other words, the lower the socio-economic
status, the higher the perceived family obligations. Raising children with extremely limited
resources requires a great deal of sacrifice and their help is usually necessary when the

Reflection moment
Can you remember which were your family responsibilities when you were 14?

parents get too old and/or too sick to work. Hence, promoting gratitude and family
responsibility as core values is very important.
 In Ioan’s case, family obligations currently take the form of looking after his younger
siblings, cooking for them, and mending the vegetable garden, which take up much of his day
and might significantly limit the time he has left for educational activities (not to even
mention having free time to play, like most children his age). Furthermore, if we look from
Ioan’s possible future perspective in which he would invest effort in upward social mobility,
his parents’ values and practices might represent obstacles in his efforts. As Mallman (2017)
highlighted in his in-depth interviews on early life experiences of people that are upwardly
mobile on the social ladder, high performance in school and intellectual curiosity might make
them feel different and distinctive from their families. In the long run, their aspirations can
make them stand out and become a relational barrier between them and their family members.
This can increase their vulnerability regarding relational and identity issues, as they have to
integrate or choose between different types of values, behaviors, commitments, and views on
life (Mallman, 2017). In this regard, we can observe that social mobility does not refer only to
income, but it is a complex process that starts early in life and can have consequences long
after a person manages to have a certain education, occupation or income.

Reflection moment
Pause for a moment. Before you read further, try and think what your career dreams are. Wait,
wait! We really mean it, please pause for 2-3 minutes and think about your career dreams.

Now that you are back, which do you think are the career options Ioan might think about?
1. “Career is not that important; I will manage somehow. My dad does it all the time, day
by day.”
2. “I want to become a pediatrician and take care of all the kids, as I take care of my
younger siblings.”
3. “I will amount to a position of judge and stop all corruption; even minor infringements
of the law will be severely punished without any impunity.”
4. “If I won’t be able to finish high school, at least my mom told me she will help me get
a job at the factory she is working in and I will have a stable job. By doing this, I could
also be around and help them.”
 5. I cannot even imagine what goes through his mind, my parents always wanted the best
for me and encouraged me to follow my dreams. Not going to college was not even an
option for me.

Beside the preference for certain values, a family’s socio-economic status is also
related to parental aspirations, which further influence children’s own aspirations. Parents
from low educational backgrounds tend to have lower aspirations for their children, especially
in terms of personal development needs, such as achieving an education and fulfilling their
potential. Their low aspirations seem to influence their children’s aspirations (Reese et al.,
2016). As a recent report from OECD (2020) revealed, when comparing children with
similarly high PISA results, high-achieving children coming from poor backgrounds are much
less likely to have high ambitions than children from more privileged backgrounds. Moreover,
as they have lower aspirations, it is more frequent for them to look towards jobs that might get
automated in the near future. Not only that, but as they lack guidance from their parents, the
misalignment between their educational plans and their occupational plans are much more
frequent in children from poor families. As such, even if they might have higher aspirations
regarding their future career, in many instances they do not understand the educational
requirements for the respective job.
Going back to Ioan’s situation, these results suggest that parents’ lack of concern for
school-related and other educational activities could also be motivated by their low
aspirations. Simply put, they just do not expect Ioan to achieve a lot. Therefore, there’s no
point in investing in his human capital, which refers to a person’s competences and is related
to the investments made in their development (e.g., formal education, books, private classes,
computers, summer camps). Obviously, this low investment is also maintained by the limited
access to financial resources. For example, as Ioan’s parents are constantly worried about
covering basic, immediate needs, things such as books and museum visits might be regarded
as unnecessary luxuries, which explains why the option “Reading them a bedtime story or
watching a documentary together” ranked so low on the list you ordered earlier. However, if
we look at families that are not from disadvantaged backgrounds, as they have a higher level
of predictability and control over their environment, they are more likely to prioritize such
activities. In this manner, they prepare their children for future challenges (e.g., getting into
college, finding a good job), by helping them gain knowledge and develop skills.
Consequently, the opportunity gap between different socio-economic statuses keeps on
increasing over the course of the lifetime, contributing to the poverty trap discussed in the
previous part of the module.
In order to understand the relationships between childhood parental involvement and
future outcomes, some studies used data from the National Development Study conducted in
the United Kingdom (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004; Hango, 2007). This national study collected
data regarding the development of children born in the same week in 1958. It initially
interviewed the mothers of the newborns, but follow-up interviews conducted when their
children were 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42 years-old and also included occasional information from
other people (e.g., the children, teachers). Results indicated that parental interest in the child’s
education (especially the father’s), measured through teachers’ evaluations, can help reduce
the negative effects of financial struggles on education. The frequency of involvement in
activities such as walking together, having a picnic, outings, and visits has a positive impact
on educational achievement in later life. Even when measuring parental involvement by
looking not only at educational interest, but also at the frequencies of reading to the child,
outings (i.e., walks, visits, picnics), and father managing the child, the frequency of
involvement was associated with the child’s later educational attainment. Therefore, parents
can be encouraged to show interest by involvement in small, but helpful educational activities
with their children, such as reading a bedtime story, watching educational shows together,
discussing interesting things the children learn at school, and simply spending time together.
The impact usual activities can have on the child’s development is also shown by a study
which highlights that dinnertime conversations can play a positive role in the way children
understand the world of work and which aspirations are appropriate for them (Paugh, 2005).
Taking this into consideration, when we look at Ioan’s possible career options we can
understand why it is more likely for him to think of option 1 or option 4, both options having
great chances of coming with poverty and high unpredictability. In the long run, both options
have great chances of having rippling effects in all his life domains, making him more likely
to be exposed to environmental hazards, violence, and even shortening his life. If we try to be
more optimistic and imagine he chooses option 2, there is a great chance that without any
external intervention he might not understand the educational requirements for a pediatrician
and this lowers his chances of ever getting to that career path.

Socioeconomic background, nonverbal IQ and school absence affects the development of

vocabulary and reading comprehension in children living in severe poverty
 Lervåg et al. (2019)

Theoretical Background
Vocabulary and reading comprehension are two essential skills which influence the school years
and then the adult life. During primary school, children learn, on average, 860 root words per year,
both from school textbooks, and from their families. In fact, research has shown that the complexity
of the sentences and language they hear at home strongly correlates with the child’s vocabulary.
There have been several previous studies which found that children living in poverty had
significantly lower levels of vocabulary and reading comprehension compared to their peers.
Empirical evidence has shown that comprehension is strongly tied to vocabulary, as the more words
a child knows, the easier it is for him to derive the meaning of new words from the text he is
reading.
Starting from the evidence provided in the academic literature on the link between poverty and
language deficits, Lervåg and colleagues (2019) examined a sample of children from Romania, both
coming from the majority population (i.e., Romanian) and from an ethnic minority (i.e., Rroma).

Method
Employing a longitudinal design spanning the first three years of school, three groups of children
were compared (Romanian, monolingual Rroma, and bilingual Romanian-Rroma), yielding a total
sample of 500. Across the three years, there were five measurement points which included data
measurements from the reading comprehension skills and vocabulary. The family SES status was
also included by taking into account family income, parents’ education, employment, and living
conditions.

Results and Discussion

The results revealed that the children coming from the higher SES Romanian families started out
with better vocabulary and reading comprehension skills than their lower SES Romanian peers.
With time, from one measurement to another, there has been an increase in both vocabulary and
reading comprehension skills in all the 3 groups, but the higher SES children showed the fastest
growth. These results are worrisome because they show a clear difference in the key skills needed
for communication and learning. Even worse, the results show that the divide only increases with
time, as it gets harder and harder for lower SES children to keep up.
 Interventions
As Michael Jackson’s lyrics (Man in the Mirror) urge us:
I'm gonna make a change
For once I'm my life
It is gonna feel real good,
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right [..]
it is now time to look at previous interventions with scientifically proven efficiency. In 2019,
an article was published in Nature reporting the results of an intervention on 12,490 9th
graders (Yeager et al., 2019). To accomplish this intervention, the researchers employed a
randomized controlled trial. What does this mean? It means that students were randomly
assigned to either the intervention treatment (i.e., growth mindset condition) or to the control
condition (i.e., ‘brain essentials’ condition). Also, all the people involved in the study (i.e.,
students, school staff, or members of the research team) were blind to treatment conditions
throughout the entire study, meaning that they did not know which students were assigned to
the intervention or control condition.
The first session included baseline questionnaires and the delivery of the first
intervention phase. This took place between weeks 2-5 of the fall semester. Students were
invited to sign into the research website and complete some demographic measures. After
that, they proceeded in accordance to their randomly assigned treatment. Students in the
intervention condition: (1) were presented with scientific evidence regarding neural plasticity,
which highlighted how brain functions can be enhanced when embracing new challenges and
more difficult ways of thinking; (2) they internalized the intervention message by completing
exercises, applying its principles into their own lives, and presenting them to a future student.
Students in the control group: (1) read an article on general brain functions; (2) answered a
series of questions based on the article in a reflexive manner. The control group materials did
not include information about the malleability of the brain, but rather tapped on essential
concepts about different brain regions and functions.
The second phase of the intervention took place between weeks 5-10 of the fall
semester and was continued by a follow-up study. Students in the intervention condition: (1)
gained knowledge about other students/celebrities who adopted the growth mindset
principles; (2) completed exercises. Students in the control condition: (1) went through an
article about ways of studying the brain; (2) completed exercises to sum up the article’s
information. The follow-up study’s results showed that low-achievement students coming
from disadvantaged families benefited the most from this intervention by improving their
GPAs in their general, mathematics, and science grades. This intervention is highly scalable,
as it is cost-effective, and has the outcome of adolescents becoming trainers themselves for
the next generations.
Now what can you do to help children living in poverty change/improve their
lifestyle? As we are already familiar with some of the negative effects of poverty, it is
important to start searching for solutions. Our primary aim was to provide a comprehensive
summary of the difficulties poor people go through in order to better understand their
situation. Making a change implies that we have to take all of the previously mentioned
difficulties poor families usually encounter and start to address them by thinking about how
their proximal environment is organized to suit their needs.

What can you do?

✔ You can use metaphors like “the brain is a muscle” or “growing your intelligence” to
address the growth mindset and to explain why adolescents should work hard in order
to keep developing themselves.
✔ You can explain and demonstrate the benefits of adopting a growth mindset by
offering examples of same age peers that improved their school performance over
time.
✔ You can challenge the fixed beliefs associated with different abilities by making use
of famous case studies (e.g., scientists, professors, business-people) who started out in
the same situation as they are.
✔ You can teach adolescents to view a problem from different angles and try different
strategies to check what works best.
✔ You can persuade them to write messages/letters to their colleagues about past
difficult situations they have overcome by exercising and hard work.
✔ You can teach adolescents different learning strategies which they can further employ
in schoolwork.
✔ You can create study-groups for adolescents in which they can learn together and
share their learning habits.
 ✔ You can teach adolescents how to approach and take on challenging tasks.
✔ You can improve adolescents’ decision-making skills by employing different board
games.
✔ You can develop extracurricular activities for adolescents to broaden their aspirations.

Family-level interventions
Increasing parents’ aspirations can lead to higher investments in the child’s human
capital and to an increasement in their own aspirations. One way to do this is by exposing
poor families to educated professionals and increasing their awareness regarding job
opportunities (proved to be particularly effective for the mothers of girls). This has been
achieved during a governmental program from Mexico named PROGRESA, which aimed to
break the vicious circle of passing on poverty from one generation to another (Chiapa et al.,
2012). In order to reach this objective, two main aspects were addressed: education and
health. The first step was identifying eligible communities using census information regarding
their socio-economic status. Then, 506 eligible communities from rural Mexico were
randomly chosen to be in the program’s evaluation sample. For comparison reasons, 320 of
these communities were assigned to the treatment group and 186 to the control group.
Disadvantaged families were required to attend regular medical check-ups and engage
in eight survey rounds, the first four of which also included information on parental
aspirations for their children. Whereas the treatment group started receiving the benefits
sooner, the control group did so much later and was not informed about the future benefits
they would receive. The frequency of these check-ups based on which the benefits were
offered varied depending on the age of the children in the family, with children under 5
having at least 4 check-ups yearly, while those older than 5 only 2. As most rural clinics had
only two staff members (a doctor and a nurse), the parents were constantly exposed to the
same professionals at every visit.
Results showed that six months after the start of the program the average educational
aspirations of the parents from the high exposure group got bigger than the average from the
low exposure group. However, one year after the start of the program the difference between
the groups got smaller, indicating that the parental aspirations of the low exposure group was
catching up with the high-exposure group’s aspirations. This brings evidence for the fact that
it is more about how many times the parents interact with educated professionals, and less
about how frequently. The changes in parental aspirations could be explained by the fact that,
as the parents get closer to the professionals and communicate with them, their thinking is
influenced by interacting with someone “from a different world”, one in which different
information is available.

What can you do?

✓ You can facilitate contact between a family from a disadvantaged background and
educated professionals.
✓ You can help the families meet with people working in the children’s dream field, or
even try to develop a mentorship between the person and the children. This is
important as more often than not, parents do not have the opportunity to gain
knowledge or to truly understand more complex jobs, usually from fields or jobs that
require higher education.
✓ You can encourage families to get involved in educational and recreational activities
with the children. For example, dinnertime conversations, walks, and reading stories
together can be a great start.
✓ You can help parents realise the importance of showing interest in their children’s
education. For example, if they do not feel that they can help with homework, they can
display interest by learning from the children. As the children try to explain the
content, it can even help them start to understand it better.
✓ You can do this by getting involved in projects aimed at people from poor
backgrounds, or you can start such a project. Get involved, be that future professional
that parents and children are exposed to.

Remember the first association exercise you did at the beginning of this module? We
asked you to list as many words as you could on ‘poor’ and ‘poverty’. If we were to ask you
again on this matter, how do you relate to poverty now? What comes to your mind about
poverty and its drawbacks now? Please take some time and reflect on what you learned from
the present module.
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poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 113, 8664-8668. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608207113
Eurostat. (2019). People at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age and sex.
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Flouri, E., & Buchanan, A. (2004). Early father's and mother's involvement and child's later
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https://doi.org/10.1348/000709904773839806
Frankenhuis, W. E., & Nettle, D. (2020). The strengths of people in poverty. Current
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Frankenhuis, W. E., Panchanathan, K., & Nettle, D. (2016). Cognition in harsh and
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 Summary

● One of the common fake-news related to poverty is that anyone can improve their
socio-economic status and everyone has the same opportunities to attend to if they
work hard enough. Nevertheless, the myth of meritocracy pays no attention to the
barriers one does not have any control over, such as limited access to resources and its
consequences.
● The results of several important emerging empirical research highlight that poverty
can impact youths’ cognitive development by influencing their understanding of
themselves and the world, their learning ability, emotional regulation, what they will
prioritize and how they will make long-term plans.
● Family related factors can also have a significant impact on the development of youth
from disadvantaged backgrounds. Due to the limited resources and short-term needs,
parents with low socioeconomic status have lower aspirations for their children, which
further influences children’s aspirations.
● The dominant models used when researchers approach poverty are the deficit ones,
focusing on what marginalised people lack in terms of social and cognitive skills.
However, a new perspective leaves more room for positive changes and highlights that
youth living in poverty develop hidden-talents that help them navigate unpredictable
and challenging environments.
● Recent empirical studies have shown that interventions can have a significant impact
on the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the mentioned
studies emphasises that encouraging a growth mindset in low-achievement students
coming from disadvantaged families can significantly increase their academic
performance. Furthermore, a different study highlights that interactions between
professionals and disadvantaged families can increase parents’ aspirations.
● The principles behind the mentioned interventions are simple. As such, practical
recommendations for the general population can be derived from this scientific
evidence.

BOX 1.3 Take Home Message

It is never too late to inspire and act on social change. Whether you have already been involved in
fighting against social inequality stereotypes or have just now decided to do so, your contribution is
essential. As we have previously shown, each of us can ‘make a change’. We can accomplish this
by embracing one or more of the feasible outlined recommendations (e.g., helping disadvantaged
children to develop a growth mindset, teaching them different learning strategies, encouraging
families to initiate dinnertime conversations and reading times). In doing so, we can really ‘make a
difference’ by trying to work on each and every shortcoming, so by the end of the day we can feel
satisfied with our contribution.

Key questions
● How would you explain to your peers the impact of poverty on both cognitive
development and the family?
● How can you help young people from disadvantaged families increase their academic
performance?
● How can you improve educational aspirations of parents coming from low socio-
economic backgrounds?
● How do you plan to reduce the consequences of poverty among young people in your
area?
 Resources
Films and series
Movie: The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454921/?ref_=vp_back
Based on the true story of Chris Gardner, this movie depicts the struggles of a salesman to
make ends meet, while trying to maintain a loving father-son relationship and protect his son
from the harsh reality they’re living. We recommend this movie as it highlights how
sometimes even doing your best isn’t enough, fighting the stereotype that homeless people go
through poverty because they are lazy.

Movie: Capernaum (2018), translated as “Chaos”

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi234273305?playlistId=tt8267604&ref_=tt_ov_vi
This powerful drama depicts the challenges of life in the slums and the several responsibilities
a young boy has trying to simply survive. We recommend this movie as it draws attention to
poverty-related issues that we rarely think about, such as the lack of identification documents,
and, unlike the previously recommended movie, the family environment is far from being
loving.

TV Series: Black-ish, Season 3, Episode 6

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3487356/
Although this critically-acclaimed sitcom tends to address more racial issues, this episode
focuses on parental hopes for their children’s future jobs. As the main characters are the
generation who has achieved upward social mobility, the conversation gets more serious
when one of them is accused by their parents of looking down on blue-collared people (like
himself). Besides, throughout all the jokes, different perspectives regarding work can be
noticed between the wealthy generation and their parents.

Documentary: BBC Children in Needs series. The Young & homeless (street life)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFyI5jBSnw
This BBC documentary highlights the struggles of homeless teenagers across the United
Kingdom, presenting real teenagers who have trouble finding a place to call “home”. We
recommend this documentary as it sheds some light on youth poverty in Europe.
Videos

Crash Course Sociology Playlist - Video regarding Social Class (“Social Class & Poverty
in the US”, “The impacts of social class”, “Social Mobility”)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMJ-AfB_7J1538YKWkZAnGA
Crash Course is an educational Youtube channel which presents introductory content
designed by experts in various fields in an engaging manner, with the Sociology Playlist
being based on the John J. Macionis book “Sociology” (15th edition). These three videos on
social class present some of the concepts we’ve talked about in this module and a few new
ones, providing interesting and easy to understand examples.

Crash Course Sociology Playlist - “Schools and Social Inequality”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMk3Bk08NA&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMJ-
AfB_7J1538YKWkZAnGA&t=0s
This video is a great way to sum up and remember the part on the module regarding social
factors outside the person’s control which influence life and/or educational outcomes. Using
the social-conflict theory, it addresses the myth of meritocracy, family’s cultural capital,
social inequality reproduction, and some related racial issues in only 11 minutes.

TED Talk: Using Brain Science to Create New Pathways out of Poverty | Beth Babcock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHIq-8J2K0Q
During this Ted Talk, Beth Babcock highlights how job market changes bring new challenges
for the people working to get poor people decent jobs. After shortly presenting poverty’s
influence on brain development, she proposes a labor market integration approach, based on
brain development research.

TEDTalk: How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw
In this data driven Ted Talk, Richard Wilkinson presents comparisons both between and
within countries, introducing the concept of income inequality and showing how countries
with bigger differences between the rich and the poor are associated with higher rates of
health and social problems. Maybe a bit surprisingly, he points out that this inequality seems
to be not only affecting the people at the bottom of the social ladder, but also those at the top.
TEDx Talk: This is what inequality looks like | Johnny Miller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpfMMKT_4jw
Unlike the other videos mentioned in this section, this one has a weaker focus on presenting
data and concepts. Instead, it presents photographer Johnny Miller’s project “Unequal
Scenes”, which uses drone images to explore inequality in South Africa. We recommend this
easy to watch Ted Talk as it uses visual content to draw attention to how poverty and social
inequality might be even closer than we think, just a few meters away from wealthy
communities. Photos from different locations can be found here https://unequalscenes.com

TEDx Talk: Why you do not care about inequality | Jonathan Mijs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgH5QLJCzQ
After researching attitudes and beliefs about economic inequality at the London School of
Economics and Harvard University, Dr Jonathan Mijs highlights some of the reasons why,
despite the high inequality, people are not equally concerned about the matter.
Further Readings

Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Digital, Inc..
As we have seen in this chapter, one’s mindset can affect how difficult situations are approached
and the academic achievement of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We recommend
reading this book for a more comprehensive understanding of the two types of mindsets and
their impact on several domains of our lives.

Littler, J. (2018). Against meritocracy: Culture, power and myths of mobility.Routledge.

In this book, Jo Littler addresses the concept of meritocracy, arguing that despite the
optimistic assumptions at its core, it fosters social division. In the first part of the book, she
approaches meritocracy in political speeches, the world of work and social theories, whereas
in the second part several case studies about elites presenting themselves as ordinary are
presented.

Smarsh, S. (2018). Heartland: A memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country
on earth. Scribe Publications.
This book combines the author’s childhood memories with a social analysis of Kansas in the
1980s and 1990s, challenging the readers to think about class division and some misconceptions
about poor people. As the title suggests, the author observes how, despite working hard, her
family has a hard time making ends meet.