Income & Infant Brain Activity: Role of Poverty in Early Childhood Development
In his book “Give Kids a Fair Chance,” Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman states that “the accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in America today.” Heckman argues that by the time children born into disadvantage enter kindergarten, they are already at a high risk of “dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, crime, and a lifetime of low-wage work.”
Heckman’s claim appropriately identifies the impacts of poverty in youth; now, a new study, Baby’s First Years, extrapolates neurological causes. A New York Times article describes a study that provided lower-income parents with cash stipends for the first year of their child’s lives and discovered that the children who received the compensation had more significant cognitive development. Data from the study, a randomized control trial, show that a predictable, monthly unconditional cash transfer given to low-income families may have a causal impact on infant brain activity. In the context of greater economic resources, children’s experiences changed, and their brain activity adapted to those experiences. The resultant brain activity patterns are associated with subsequent cognitive skills. While the results didn’t indicate a substantial difference, the study still serves as evidence that a single year of subsidies could alter something as profound as brain functioning and highlights the role that money and resources may play in a child’s development.
A federal program of near-universal children’s subsidies expired this month after Build Back Better, which would have extended it, failed in congress. However, this study elucidates why policies such as the Child Tax Credit and other guaranteed income projects should continue to receive support and experimentation.
