Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: How Low Socioeconomic Status Impacts the Neurobiology of Two Generations

Living in poverty may be accompanied by multiple stressors and negative health outcomes for both children and their mothers and fathers. Parents living in poverty are more likely to exhibit harsh parenting caused by the stress of living in poverty and/or development of mental disorders like depression which hinders one’s ability to parent most effectively. Exposure to harsh parenting and poor quality of parental care as a child increases the likelihood of children as adults providing similar low quality parental care to their offspring. This transgenerational transmission of poverty provides insight into how best to perform interventions for families living in poverty, as teaching protective factors to just children or parents may not be as effective when taking into account the family unit. Thus, a two-generational approach to intervention, providing coping skills and teaching protective factors to both children and their parents may be more effective than only one member of the family receiving this intervention. A discussion on the brain and the neurobiological impacts of poverty on children, their parents and parenting is explored along with how research into this intervention design could establish a framework for positive family adaptation in the form of family resilience.