Apr. 29, 2011 Children from homes that experience persistent
poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development
affected than children in better off homes, reveals research
published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health. Family instability, however, makes no
additional difference to how a child's cognitive abilities have
progressed by the age of five, after taking into account family
poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and
mother's age) and early child characteristics, UK researchers
found. There is much evidence of the negative effects of both
poverty and family structure on child development, particularly
persistent poverty and adverse living conditions. Poverty and
family instability are linked as poverty affects families
economically and socially and can increase the risk of
relationship break-ups. However, less is known about their
relative impact on children's cognitive functioning. UK
researchers from the Institute of Education at the University