Critical Reading Form

KJ Taylor
Citation:
McLoyd, V., Kaplan, R., Purtell, K., Bagley, E., Hardaway, C., & Smalls, C. (2009).
Poverty and Socioeconomic Disadvantage in Adolescents. Handbook of Adolescent
Psychology, 3, 444-468. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
Pages: 444-468
Kind of work:

Speculative

Practical

Authors purpose:
The purpose is to identify and explain what effects adolescents and children who grow up or at
some point are considered economically, socially disadvantaged.
Central Thesis (the key claim the author is using to defend the work):
Socioeconomic disadvantage has major topics that relate and come into play. These are mental
health, educational achievement, future orientation, and delinquency. Poverty levels are more
common with children 6 years and younger than adolescents. This is related to the fact that in
general, parents of older children are older in age and have a higher income and work
experience. Children are also less aware of their economic status compared to adolescents. The
timing of poverty is linked to academic achievement and cognitive ability. Poverty experienced
in early adolescence is strongly linked to achievement (cognitive ability) than if poverty is
experienced during childhood. Mental health is also a huge concern for childrens environment
that is considered at an economic disadvantage. These children are at increased risks for mental
health problems such as depression, stress, poor relationship skills, low self-esteem, anxiety, and
drug use. The family stress model explains how economic hardship within the family affects the
childrens psychological adjustment, and the parents behaviors towards the children in the
family makes a difference in the childs mental health. For example, fathers that earned little
income became more stressed, tense, and edgy. This then increased the amount of times he
snapped, rejected, or was inconsistent with discipline towards the child. During the Great
Depression studies shown that boys one-year-old or less were affected the most. Why? The
fathers harsh discipline and negative behavior. Five to ten years later, the boys were more likely
to be explosive and throw temper tantrums, due to the exposure to the behaviors of their father.
Boys who were 8-9 during the depression showed ongoing resilience and ego strength. Girls on
the other hand, showed negative effects later in age during the depression. The allostatic load as
an emergent model explains that physical stressors (noise, crowding, substandard housing) and
psychosocial stressors (family trouble, childhood separation, community violence) are linked to
physiological health. A child ability to adjust was much harder in exposure to these stressors. The
awareness of poverty by adolescents, and the American culture beliefs about poverty has fueled a
feeling of unworthiness within children.
Key Terms:
1. Economic stress
2. Socioeconomic status
3. Childhood poverty
4. Early experience

Critical Reading Form

5. Socioeconomic disadvantage
6. Stress-vulnerability response models
7. Allostatic load
Key claims or propositions: (at least 4 claims the author must spend some time defending):
Most children who are poor are only temporarily poor
Persistent poverty compromises childrens cognitive and physiological function to a
much greater degree than does transitory or occasional poverty
Ethic disparities in persistent poverty are much larger than ethnic disparities in poverty at
single points in time
African American children who are poor are much more likely than European American
children who are poor to live in poor neighborhoods
Favorite quote:
Out here, theres not the opportunity to make money. Thats how you get into stealing and all
thatTo get a job, first of all, this is a handicap, out here. If you say youre from the projects or
anywhere in this area, that can hurt you. Right off the bat: Reputation. Pg. 456
What did you gain from the reading?
What can we do with all this information? It is very astounding to me that children from the
Great Depression showed effects (even years down the road) from harsh, crude, and irritable
parents. Of course parents are a huge impact on development in their children, but what surprised
me was that it effected them 3-10 years down the road. The effects are not something to look
over. They are serious developmental setbacks (stress, depression, drug use, etc.). When people
say that the parents are the main influence, no kidding. My husband was raised in a stressful,
low-income, low parental engagement home. Hearing him talk about negative situations that
happened to him made me stress. It was normal to him, and he was so used to the way it was.
This article is so scary. To think that so many children are considered be at a socioeconomic
disadvantage, and are later on reaping the negative effects.
Discussion questions based on the stems below (at least 4):
Reading Question Stems
How would you use
to
?
What is an example of
allostatic load
?
Explain why neighborhood reputation can effect a youths perception of themselves
?
What do you think would happen if
?
What is the difference between
and
?
How are
mental health
and
poverty
similar?
What is a possible solution to the problem of
?
What conclusions can you draw about
?
How does
affect
?
In your opinion, which is best
or
?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
?
Do you agree or disagree with the statement:
? Support
your answer.

Critical Reading Form

How is

youths behaviors
we studied earlier?

related to

Video for facilitation:

Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK_RnxYdrqU
4:13 and 9:20
The Allostatic Load
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPNOUC0ybvQ

parental engagement

that