Fear, stress among the poor hinder learning
These emotions are a constant for the poverty-stricken. New ideas are emerging to combat the long-term effects.
RAISED IN poverty, Dr. Shauna Blake Collins fought fear during nearly 14 years of education. A dropout from a South-Central Los Angeles high school, she earned a GED diploma at 22, became a licensed vocational nurse, a registered nurse, and finally, at 41, a physician. Confidence came only during the last two years of medical school.
"Every step of the way, I was petrified," says the Winnetka mother of two toddlers, who recently graduated from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. "The pressure I put on myself made me paralyzed."
Students who grow up amid economic insecurity often face many obstacles: overcrowded schools, lack of enrichment activities, violent neighborhoods. Fear and stress can be two more problems. Brain science is showing how these emotions have effects on the brain and how they can directly impede learning. Some scientists and educators are suggesting ways in which kids and college students can combat the long-lasting effects of poverty-related stress.
Taking over thoughts
In response to fear or stress, the brain quickly releases adrenaline and cortisol, activating the heart, blood vessels and brain for life-saving action -- fighting or running. The brain gives the threat priority over anything else -- including schoolwork -- and it creates powerful memories to help prevent future threats. "All families experience stress, but poor families experience a lot of it," says Martha Farah, psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
For 20 years, David Diamond, a neuroscience professor at the University of South Florida, has studied the effects of stress-related hormones in rats. He found that high cortisol levels affect the hippocampus -- a key learning center in the brain -- in three ways. They suppress electrical activity, decrease efficiency and reduce new cell growth.
These effects, thought likely to occur in humans as well, might be one reason it's hard for impoverished students to concentrate and learn -- especially if there is extra stress, violence or abuse in the child's environment, Diamond says.
In a 2006 issue of Brain Research, Farah reported that growing up in poverty affects thinking processes associated with several brain systems. Sixty healthy middle-school students matched for age, gender and ethnicity but of different socioeconomic status took tests that challenged brain areas responsible for specific cognitive abilities. Researchers found that children from low-income homes had significantly lower scores in areas of language, long-term and short-term memory, and attention.
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