Discuss how social and environmental variables may affect cognitive development 6.1

What would you say thinking back at the previous learning outcome?

Social Variables Socio-economic status (family income and educational level) Poverty (one of the main factors) Poor families:Krugman argues that children born to the poorest parents have an 50% risk of remaining in that position. Why is that?

Poverty Link to:  Nutrition (starts already in the belly!)  Health problems  Home environment  Parenting practices  Poor neighbourhoods (high levels of crime, unemployment)  education

Research Socio-economic background 1/3 of children from low-income communities are behind their peers when they enter kindergarten In elementary school 50% of these children don’t meet the standard for reading proficiency (National Center for Children in Poverty 2002) Wertheimer 2003 found that children from poor families were less likely to: Be identified as gifted, to participate in extracurricular activities and more likely to repeat a year in school. Generally: they suffer in a number of ways! Worse academic performance, less likely to enter uni, more likely to become teen parents and unemployed.

Pisa 2009 at a Glance Socio-economic background and reading performance The performance gap between students from different socio- economic backgrounds narrowed in nine countries between 2000 and 2009, most markedly in the Czech Republic and the partner countries Albania and Latvia. The gap widened in five countries, most markedly in Korea, Sweden and the partner country Romania. In the other 22 countries with comparable results in both PISA 2000 and 2009, the relationship between socio-- economic background and reading performance was unchanged.

Socio economic backgrounds: Farah et al see study guide Krugman 2008 book + study guide Wahlstein 1997 (IQ, see p ) Malnutrition: Bhoomika et al see study guide

Summary Cumulative effect of positive and negative factors (although not cause and effect)

Environmental Variables Stimulating environment Schools (access) Polluted environment Rosenzweig and Bennet 1972 More info from 6.3 can be used to answer this LO as well

Farah et al Aim: to investigate the relationship between environmental stimulation and parental nurturance on cognitive development Procedure: longitudinal study using 110 African American children from middle school M age: 11,8 yrs. Recruited at birth, then evaluated at four and eight

Procedure: Used interviews, observations, cognitive tests (memory and language) Env. Stim: variety of experience, encouragement Parental nurturing:warmth and affection, emotional and verbal responsivity

Results: Positive correlation between env. Stim and language development. + correlation between parental nurturance and long-term memory performance Evaluation?