Why can childhood poverty impact someone's health even if that person is not aware of it? - 2 Finally, psycho-social factors such as low social cohesion and low self-esteem caused by childhood poverty may also impact health beyond just materialistic disadvantages. People who feel more socially isolated will have less social support and will feel helpless in their circumstances leading to increased anxiety and stress. Children living in poverty are more likely to be exposed to multiple chronic stressors including violence, family turmoil, separation from family members, and substandard living environments. Chronic exposure to stressors associated with living in low-income families has long-term negative effects on physiological stress regulatory systems. Kim et al (2013) found that adults with lower family income at age 9 exhibited reduced ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity (PCF) and failure to suppress amygdala activation during effortful regulation of negative emotion at age 24. This is indicative of dysfunctional emotional regulation as the ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) and dorsolateral PFC work with the medial PCF to control the activation of the amygdala which detects and responds to threats from the environment and is responsible for activating physiological stress responses. Increased activity of the amygdala means increased reactivity to negative stimuli which also increases the perceived negative effect. Other studies, such as Johnstone et al (2007), have shown that a key feature underlying the pathophysiology of illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse; is the lack of engagement of left lateral-ventromedial prefrontal circuitry. Therefore, childhood poverty can have adverse effect on health not just because of materialistic disadvantages but also due to psychological disadvantages due to chronic stress. In conclusion, childhood poverty does impact health significantly as it can directly increase exposure to pathogens and risk factors for chronic illness through poor housing and living conditions as well as indirectly through behavioural exposure such as smoking. Childhood poverty predicts adult morbidity regardless of adult poverty and one of the underlying mechanism that can be used to explain this is the effect of chronic stress. To conclude, a childhood poverty directly and indirectly affects the physiology and pathology of a person's body.
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