Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, Self-Regulation, and Coping

Poverty is a powerful factor that can alter lifetime developmental trajectories in cognitive, socioemo- tional, and physical health outcomes. Most explanatory work on the underlying psychological processes of how poverty affects development has focused on parental investment and parenting practices, principally responsiveness. Our primary objective in this article was to describe a third, complemen- tary pathway—chronic stress and coping—that may also prove helpful in understanding the developmental impacts of early childhood poverty throughout life. Disadvantaged chil- dren are more likely than their wealthier peers to confront a wide array of physical stressors (e.g., substandard housing, chaotic environments) and psychosocial stressors (e.g., fam- ily turmoil, separation from adult caregivers). As exposure to stressors accumulates, physiological response systems that are designed to handle relatively infrequent, acute environ- mental demands are overwhelmed. Chronic cumulative stres- sors also disrupt the self-regulatory processes that help children cope with external demands.