So let me get this straight. The root causes of poverty are “the erosion of the public safety net, the increasing prevalence of low-wage employment, and decreases in low-wage earnings” coupled with lack of access to higher education. These root causes (among many others) of poverty also create “crippling stresses that significantly hamper people’s ability to develop and sustain” healthy lives. And your antidote to this structural cause is an individual-level intervention to help women better cope with an unjust society? This is not “better living through science”, this is treating the victims while leaving the source unchallenged. Its more of the same: the original source of the problem in society is left unchanged while expensive new services are proposed to cater for the individuals most affected. I appreciate the efforts to help those women who are suffering, but how about we use some of that fancy science and work in solidarity with poor women to advocate for a stronger safety net, higher wages, universal health care, affordable housing, labor rights, equitable public education, and a host of things that other developed countries with lower rates of poverty have already figured out.
I have recently become skeptical about the scores of research that have recently surfaced calling attention to the impact of stressors on the development of children and young people. It’s not the overly zealous conclusions researchers make about brain development that use rats, and mice that bothers me. Rather it’s the nearly unanimous conclusion that what really matters in the “secret sauce” to healthy development and learning is better parenting, no excuses teaching, or more robust character traits among children and youth. There is an eerie silence among some educators and researchers when confronted with the question “what are the root causes of stress for young people in low wealth communities in the first place”? More balanced attention to both the policies that create and sustain poverty and therefore stress, as well as the biological, psycho-spiritual consequences of living in poverty is needed.
Having worked for over 20 years with young people in urban schools, and community organizations, I am familiar with limits of arguments that singularly attribute learning, and development to what boils down to “individual” efforts despite the magnitude, complexity and scope of the challenges people face. Writers like Nicholas Kristoff, and Paul Tough accurately point out how environmental stress threatens brain development due to high and consistent doses of cortisol in the body. However, rather than identifying how to transform the root causes of stress from underfunded schools, violence, and joblessness, these writers (and others) overly rely on character development and social emotional learning as the antidote to building healthy strong young people. How might grit, gratitude and purpose (key features of social emotional learning) support learning when kids come to school hungry in the morning, dodge bullets during lunch, and fear the police as they walk home in the afternoon? How much grit actually makes a difference when nothing changes around you? I’m a fan of McFerrin’s popular song Don’t Worry, Be Happy, and Pharrel’s catchy tune Happy because they simply make me feel good. But these songs are also emblematic of a broader trend that suggests the solution to the woes of the poor can be realized through miraculous individual effort, and profound chemical regulation in the brain.
I recalled watching the moving Happy at the recommendation of a colleague. The basic premise of the movie was that happiness was something that could be cultivated and sustained despite the external conditions of our lives. Inspiring examples of poor families from the Mississippi delta gleefully enjoying the simple life, eating crawfish on the porch with family and friends, or a man in India finds solace in spending time with his wife and children in a shack. These stories are compelling but incomplete. We don’t see what emotionally happens when the man in the Mississippi delta gets sick and cannot afford the medical care. Nor do we see, the how the man from India tucks his beautiful children away at night, but tells them for the fourth night in the row that there is no food.
Happiness is both a function of external opportunities and our internal capacity to hope. Both are intimately tide to one another creating an inextricable elixir of possibility. As I applaud advances in brain research that shed light into the consequences of stress, and positive psychology’s claims that focus on character strengths, lets not let toxic public policy off the hook! No amount of happiness, grit, gratitude can alone counter policies and practices that lock undocumented immigrants out of health care, justify police homicide and dislocated residents from poor neighborhoods. We need both a policy of hope, and broader practices of possibilities to usher healthy development, more robust learning and happier young people.
This sounds like a great program, one that is very much needed. The above two commenters prefer to ignore the lives of the poor while focusing only on policy changes (which are unlikely to come to pass), leaving the poor without the tools needed to change their lives. One must deal with individual, cultural and structural changes if one wants an overall approach to poverty.
Please become familiar with the long-time, effective work of communities that have been implementing Bridges Out of Poverty http://www.bridgesoutofpoverty.com (with a lens that looks at Individuals, Community social capital, Exploitation, and Policies—4 holes in the same ship called Poverty that all much be attended to, since fixing only one of them will not keep the ship afloat or progressing) ... and Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World (link from above website) ... and the Circles movement http://www.circlesusa.org , which couples the aforementioned trainings with empowered Circle Leaders (people seeking to leave poverty) with Allies (people from middle class and wealth who are supportive of the Circle Leader’s goals and personal progress).
Also check out the book, authors, and movement behind “When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor or Yourself.” http://www.whenhelpinghurts.org
Those engaged in the concepts behind these movements are truly helping people move out of poverty, leaving the tyranny of the moment lifestyle, and creating their own goals and stepping forward on the path to reach those goals.
All your talk about “brain research” truly sounds like you’re looking at people in poverty as lab specimens to be studied. Please view this depiction of Julia Dinsmore’s poem “My Name Is Not ‘Those People’” http://youtu.be/hQWbkVqZKeo
Poverty stresses and distresses the individual, their families and their communities thus society is distressed. So much latent talent wasted. Along with some of the most priviledged people accessing educational, business and employment that are wasted resources on them. Equality non discrimination serves all of us, including our beautiful planet that is under stress.
There is validity in the article. Speaking from personal experience, when you are consumed with trying to earn enough money for basic necessities daily, the capacity to make decisions that could potentially lift you out of economic and social constraints is diminished, and the stress is overwhelming. Like many others in the same situation, I am in survivor mode constantly, and there’s mentally no room to think and form strategies for anything else. Unless you’ve truly been in this situation (and by the way, everyone in my immediate family including myself, are college graduates), you don’t fully understand the truth of the article. If more people or organizations who create social programs take into account the almost crippling mental stresses, I’m convinced that we will have more successful programs, and more people will be able to escape the poverty cycle.
It is crucial that colleges and universities understand the role of adrenalin and cortisol in brain function. But above and beyond that dry intellectual acknowledgement of the things that hold some people back from being their very best selves, it’s also crucial that we understand the benefits of one-on-one mentoring.
College is the first time some people are away from their home environments. And for those who are already working and are taking courses part-time, it’s often the first time they’ve been asked to look at the world in a much broader context. We all need guidance during the process of higher education, because it’s a huge dose of diversity (ideas, people, etc.) But it turns out that the benefit of hands-on mentoring and advising is enormous for those whose young lives were bathed in stress.
Policy-makers and college administrators take heed: college is the time to be supported, not left to one’s own devices. It can be a turning-point in people’s lives—if we allow it to be so by offering personalized and timely support to each student. Let’s be there for people.
The ideas peddled in this article and deeper structural action are not substitutes but complements - in almost every sense. They are each good, and I expect any amount of one will be better with some of the other. I also suspect that they are political as well as economic complements - each reinforcing the other.
But yes, I guess the critics have a point that the enthusiasm for all these brain science based interventions do tend to pathologise poverty to the individual and focus solutions there.
Thanks for providing some scientific research on the crippling effect of poverty on an individual, family and community. Many people who have been through a stressful situation know how difficult it can be to make decisions during those bleak days so the science reinforces what most of us know.
The Bridge program/framework is commendable but from the description can be costly and time-consuming - luxuries that most community social service providers don’t have. Many funders only want to provide funding for one year and at the most two years. A program like this takes time to implement to ensure the outcomes are favourable, if not the participants can spiral back into the poverty cycle.
Yet, I am optimistic that each step we take, each program each offer will help to reduce poverty around the world.
Awesome article> We help people here in America and abroad with our fundraising strategies that create micro jobs with micro-enterprise operators. Check out http://www.funds2orgs.com. Creating OPPORTUNITIES are the solution while offering HOPE to the hurting.
A very good range of comments on a good article - we must bring any new knowledge/understandings back to the holistic picture of individual, community, society and environment - a completely interdependent system.
Enabling individuals to reclaim there ability to think, grow and choose their futures is still vitally important and any deeper understandings we can bring to this is great - ultimately if all individuals become self aware and enabled then as a community and society we can begin tackling any unjust polices ‘together’ - how many of the disenfranchised people who do not vote belong in a group of those trapped in poverty?
Here in NZ the poverty debate is very active as we have campaigned loudly during the recent election on the disturbing rise of population affected by poverty - in a country that claims to be fair and equitable with opportunities for all! Fortunately the noise is getting through and the re-elected centre-right government is now talking about paying attention to the issue after denying there was a real problem for the last six years in govt.
If humanity wants to have a long future, we must continue on all fronts to advocate for a just and inclusive society that also cares enough about it’s home - the earth.
Poverty is a mental thing which only Social Entrepreneurship can eradicate.
Social Entrepreneurship is indeed the way forward!
For a thorough presentation of Social Entrepreneurship and the impact it will have on the future of humanity,
I strongly recommend a recent book, Social Entrepreneurship, The Secret to Starting a Business Worth Living For.
Having worked with homeless families for years in a shelter environment I have seen the stress of it just shut them down, It is interesting to read about why that may be happening due to brain chemistry and how its effects them long term. If you have worked with families in crisis you know that there are not many “Frank Capra ” moments. Its often a long and hard road to achieve long term permanent stability. Having alternative way to re-engage these parents and help them restart their lives is very helpful. Also when they stall it is helpful to think OK let’s look at your stress reactions.
COMMENTS
BY Scot Evans
ON September 25, 2014 01:59 PM
So let me get this straight. The root causes of poverty are “the erosion of the public safety net, the increasing prevalence of low-wage employment, and decreases in low-wage earnings” coupled with lack of access to higher education. These root causes (among many others) of poverty also create “crippling stresses that significantly hamper people’s ability to develop and sustain” healthy lives. And your antidote to this structural cause is an individual-level intervention to help women better cope with an unjust society? This is not “better living through science”, this is treating the victims while leaving the source unchallenged. Its more of the same: the original source of the problem in society is left unchanged while expensive new services are proposed to cater for the individuals most affected. I appreciate the efforts to help those women who are suffering, but how about we use some of that fancy science and work in solidarity with poor women to advocate for a stronger safety net, higher wages, universal health care, affordable housing, labor rights, equitable public education, and a host of things that other developed countries with lower rates of poverty have already figured out.
BY Shawn Ginwright
ON September 25, 2014 02:53 PM
Don’t Be Poor, Be Happy
I have recently become skeptical about the scores of research that have recently surfaced calling attention to the impact of stressors on the development of children and young people. It’s not the overly zealous conclusions researchers make about brain development that use rats, and mice that bothers me. Rather it’s the nearly unanimous conclusion that what really matters in the “secret sauce” to healthy development and learning is better parenting, no excuses teaching, or more robust character traits among children and youth. There is an eerie silence among some educators and researchers when confronted with the question “what are the root causes of stress for young people in low wealth communities in the first place”? More balanced attention to both the policies that create and sustain poverty and therefore stress, as well as the biological, psycho-spiritual consequences of living in poverty is needed.
Having worked for over 20 years with young people in urban schools, and community organizations, I am familiar with limits of arguments that singularly attribute learning, and development to what boils down to “individual” efforts despite the magnitude, complexity and scope of the challenges people face. Writers like Nicholas Kristoff, and Paul Tough accurately point out how environmental stress threatens brain development due to high and consistent doses of cortisol in the body. However, rather than identifying how to transform the root causes of stress from underfunded schools, violence, and joblessness, these writers (and others) overly rely on character development and social emotional learning as the antidote to building healthy strong young people. How might grit, gratitude and purpose (key features of social emotional learning) support learning when kids come to school hungry in the morning, dodge bullets during lunch, and fear the police as they walk home in the afternoon? How much grit actually makes a difference when nothing changes around you? I’m a fan of McFerrin’s popular song Don’t Worry, Be Happy, and Pharrel’s catchy tune Happy because they simply make me feel good. But these songs are also emblematic of a broader trend that suggests the solution to the woes of the poor can be realized through miraculous individual effort, and profound chemical regulation in the brain.
I recalled watching the moving Happy at the recommendation of a colleague. The basic premise of the movie was that happiness was something that could be cultivated and sustained despite the external conditions of our lives. Inspiring examples of poor families from the Mississippi delta gleefully enjoying the simple life, eating crawfish on the porch with family and friends, or a man in India finds solace in spending time with his wife and children in a shack. These stories are compelling but incomplete. We don’t see what emotionally happens when the man in the Mississippi delta gets sick and cannot afford the medical care. Nor do we see, the how the man from India tucks his beautiful children away at night, but tells them for the fourth night in the row that there is no food.
Happiness is both a function of external opportunities and our internal capacity to hope. Both are intimately tide to one another creating an inextricable elixir of possibility. As I applaud advances in brain research that shed light into the consequences of stress, and positive psychology’s claims that focus on character strengths, lets not let toxic public policy off the hook! No amount of happiness, grit, gratitude can alone counter policies and practices that lock undocumented immigrants out of health care, justify police homicide and dislocated residents from poor neighborhoods. We need both a policy of hope, and broader practices of possibilities to usher healthy development, more robust learning and happier young people.
BY Mike
ON September 25, 2014 04:50 PM
This sounds like a great program, one that is very much needed. The above two commenters prefer to ignore the lives of the poor while focusing only on policy changes (which are unlikely to come to pass), leaving the poor without the tools needed to change their lives. One must deal with individual, cultural and structural changes if one wants an overall approach to poverty.
BY R. Link
ON September 25, 2014 06:25 PM
Please become familiar with the long-time, effective work of communities that have been implementing Bridges Out of Poverty http://www.bridgesoutofpoverty.com (with a lens that looks at Individuals, Community social capital, Exploitation, and Policies—4 holes in the same ship called Poverty that all much be attended to, since fixing only one of them will not keep the ship afloat or progressing) ... and Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World (link from above website) ... and the Circles movement http://www.circlesusa.org , which couples the aforementioned trainings with empowered Circle Leaders (people seeking to leave poverty) with Allies (people from middle class and wealth who are supportive of the Circle Leader’s goals and personal progress).
Also check out the book, authors, and movement behind “When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor or Yourself.” http://www.whenhelpinghurts.org
Those engaged in the concepts behind these movements are truly helping people move out of poverty, leaving the tyranny of the moment lifestyle, and creating their own goals and stepping forward on the path to reach those goals.
All your talk about “brain research” truly sounds like you’re looking at people in poverty as lab specimens to be studied. Please view this depiction of Julia Dinsmore’s poem “My Name Is Not ‘Those People’” http://youtu.be/hQWbkVqZKeo
BY Colleen LaFontaine
ON September 25, 2014 10:35 PM
Well written argument Elizabeth and interesting work.
BY Sabatina Andreucetti
ON September 26, 2014 01:34 AM
Poverty stresses and distresses the individual, their families and their communities thus society is distressed. So much latent talent wasted. Along with some of the most priviledged people accessing educational, business and employment that are wasted resources on them. Equality non discrimination serves all of us, including our beautiful planet that is under stress.
BY Nikki
ON September 26, 2014 05:15 AM
There is validity in the article. Speaking from personal experience, when you are consumed with trying to earn enough money for basic necessities daily, the capacity to make decisions that could potentially lift you out of economic and social constraints is diminished, and the stress is overwhelming. Like many others in the same situation, I am in survivor mode constantly, and there’s mentally no room to think and form strategies for anything else. Unless you’ve truly been in this situation (and by the way, everyone in my immediate family including myself, are college graduates), you don’t fully understand the truth of the article. If more people or organizations who create social programs take into account the almost crippling mental stresses, I’m convinced that we will have more successful programs, and more people will be able to escape the poverty cycle.
BY Elizabeth
ON September 27, 2014 10:31 AM
It is crucial that colleges and universities understand the role of adrenalin and cortisol in brain function. But above and beyond that dry intellectual acknowledgement of the things that hold some people back from being their very best selves, it’s also crucial that we understand the benefits of one-on-one mentoring.
College is the first time some people are away from their home environments. And for those who are already working and are taking courses part-time, it’s often the first time they’ve been asked to look at the world in a much broader context. We all need guidance during the process of higher education, because it’s a huge dose of diversity (ideas, people, etc.) But it turns out that the benefit of hands-on mentoring and advising is enormous for those whose young lives were bathed in stress.
Policy-makers and college administrators take heed: college is the time to be supported, not left to one’s own devices. It can be a turning-point in people’s lives—if we allow it to be so by offering personalized and timely support to each student. Let’s be there for people.
BY Nicholas Gruen
ON September 30, 2014 02:10 AM
The ideas peddled in this article and deeper structural action are not substitutes but complements - in almost every sense. They are each good, and I expect any amount of one will be better with some of the other. I also suspect that they are political as well as economic complements - each reinforcing the other.
But yes, I guess the critics have a point that the enthusiasm for all these brain science based interventions do tend to pathologise poverty to the individual and focus solutions there.
BY Sabatina Andreucetti
ON September 30, 2014 04:25 AM
Agree with Nikki so much.
BY Angela Carter
ON September 30, 2014 06:12 PM
Thanks for providing some scientific research on the crippling effect of poverty on an individual, family and community. Many people who have been through a stressful situation know how difficult it can be to make decisions during those bleak days so the science reinforces what most of us know.
The Bridge program/framework is commendable but from the description can be costly and time-consuming - luxuries that most community social service providers don’t have. Many funders only want to provide funding for one year and at the most two years. A program like this takes time to implement to ensure the outcomes are favourable, if not the participants can spiral back into the poverty cycle.
Yet, I am optimistic that each step we take, each program each offer will help to reduce poverty around the world.
BY Wayne Elsey
ON October 1, 2014 12:48 PM
Awesome article> We help people here in America and abroad with our fundraising strategies that create micro jobs with micro-enterprise operators. Check out http://www.funds2orgs.com. Creating OPPORTUNITIES are the solution while offering HOPE to the hurting.
BY Veronica
ON October 7, 2014 12:51 PM
A very good range of comments on a good article - we must bring any new knowledge/understandings back to the holistic picture of individual, community, society and environment - a completely interdependent system.
Enabling individuals to reclaim there ability to think, grow and choose their futures is still vitally important and any deeper understandings we can bring to this is great - ultimately if all individuals become self aware and enabled then as a community and society we can begin tackling any unjust polices ‘together’ - how many of the disenfranchised people who do not vote belong in a group of those trapped in poverty?
Here in NZ the poverty debate is very active as we have campaigned loudly during the recent election on the disturbing rise of population affected by poverty - in a country that claims to be fair and equitable with opportunities for all! Fortunately the noise is getting through and the re-elected centre-right government is now talking about paying attention to the issue after denying there was a real problem for the last six years in govt.
If humanity wants to have a long future, we must continue on all fronts to advocate for a just and inclusive society that also cares enough about it’s home - the earth.
BY Alain Kongo
ON October 12, 2014 11:25 AM
Beautiful Post!
Poverty is a mental thing which only Social Entrepreneurship can eradicate.
Social Entrepreneurship is indeed the way forward!
For a thorough presentation of Social Entrepreneurship and the impact it will have on the future of humanity,
I strongly recommend a recent book, Social Entrepreneurship, The Secret to Starting a Business Worth Living For.
A good review of the book can be found Here.
BY Mary Fish
ON October 23, 2014 03:05 PM
Having worked with homeless families for years in a shelter environment I have seen the stress of it just shut them down, It is interesting to read about why that may be happening due to brain chemistry and how its effects them long term. If you have worked with families in crisis you know that there are not many “Frank Capra ” moments. Its often a long and hard road to achieve long term permanent stability. Having alternative way to re-engage these parents and help them restart their lives is very helpful. Also when they stall it is helpful to think OK let’s look at your stress reactions.