Social Structure, Adversity, Toxic Stress, and Intergenerational Poverty: An Early Childhood Model

Why are children of poor parents more likely to be poor as adults than other children? Early-childhood adversities resulting from social structures and relationships impact children's bodily systems and brain development through recurrent stress. These socially patterned biological processes in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnual review of sociology Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 445 - 472
Main Authors McEwen, Craig A, McEwen, Bruce S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Palo Alto Annual Reviews 31.07.2017
Annual Reviews, Inc
Subjects
Adversity
allostatic load
Brain
child development
Child poverty
Childhood
Children
Children & youth
Demography
educational attainment
Epigenetics
Intergenerational relationships
life course
Low income groups
Parents & parenting
Poverty
Recurrent
social inequality
Social reproduction
Social structure
Social support
Sociology
Stress
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Summary:Why are children of poor parents more likely to be poor as adults than other children? Early-childhood adversities resulting from social structures and relationships impact children's bodily systems and brain development through recurrent stress. These socially patterned biological processes influence social reproduction. Social support and interventions can prevent or compensate for the early biological effects of toxic social environments. This article integrates sociological, neuroscience, epigenetic, and psychological evidence to build a model of early-childhood developmental mechanisms contributing to intergenerational poverty. This model captures ways in which social structures interact with biological characteristics and systems to shape life trajectories.
ISSN:0360-0572
1545-2115
DOI:10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053252