 Finally, there is increasing evidence that children raised in poverty are often exposed to adversities that produce “toxic stress”. Such stress “involves the frequent or sustained activation of the biological stress system” and is often the result of adverse events that are more likely to exist in low-income households, including maternal depression, child abuse and neglect, and spousal violence (C. McEwen &amp; B. McEwen 2017: 448). Toxic stress in turn negatively affects children’s early physical and cognitive development, with likely negative consequences for their later health, educational, and occupational outcomes (C. McEwen &amp; B. McEwen 2017; Boyce, Sokolowski, &amp; Robinson 2012).