The Environment of Poverty: Multiple Stressor Exposure, Psychophysiological Stress, and Socioemotional Adjustment

The one in five children growing up in poverty in America have elevated risk for socioemotional difficulties. One contributing factor to their elevated risk may be exposure to multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. This study demonstrated that 8- to 10-year-old, low-income, rural children (N = 287) confront a wider array of multiple physical (substandard housing, noise, crowding) and psychosocial (family turmoil, early childhood separation, community violence) stressors than do their middle-income counterparts. Prior research on self-reported distress among inner-city minority children is replicated and extended among low-income, rural White children with evidence of higher levels of self- and…

• JD
  John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• NI
  National Institute of Child Health and Human Development