Children’s Environment on Developmental Outcomes

Children’s Environment
and how it impacts
Developmental Outcomes

Rosina Loyuk

March 23, 2018

Abstract
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Early childhood education (ECE) is a very important service provided by

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). This is responsible for developing

school readiness in young children (Sumana et al., 2017). Development isn’t just solely

based on genes, but also on one’s interactions and experiences. From prenatal stages

all the way up to birth and infancy, children are already taking in the world around them.

The environments that a child lives in and learns from will have significant impacts on

social, cognitive, and emotional development. The four types of abuse; physical, sexual,

emotional, and neglect will determine how the child acts because these negatively

impact development. Neglect is classified as the most common of the abuse cases and

it leaves children’s physical, social, emotional, and mental development hindered.

Poverty and single-parent families often determine how children will act out in the

classroom setting. They see violence in the poorer neighborhoods and it is more likely

that the one parent isn’t home very much, providing support. The study of obesity also

relates to lower levels of human development. Poorer parts of the population directly

correlate with higher levels of obesity while higher levels of development yield lower

levels of obesity. All parts of environment from abuse to obesity will have a significant

impact on a child’s development.

Introduction/Background

Child development entails psychological, biological, and emotional changes that

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occur in humans between birth and the end of their adolescence. As the individual

grows, they go from a state of dependency to increasing autonomy. The decisions they

make will then have to do with their experiences and the way they were brought up.

This is the human nature and our ability to learn from our environment. Parents play a

huge role in a child’s development, socialization, and ultimately life. Having multiple

parents can add stronger stability in the child’s life, encouraging healthy development

(Understanding Childhood Development, 2018). Another influential factor in a child’s

development is the quality of their care. The optimal development of children is

considered vital to society because it determines the type of adult they’ll be, the types of

adults the future will hold, their children and so on. Optimizing the years of children’s

early lives is the best investment we are able to make as a society in securing success

in their futures. The goal of this paper is to prove that a child’s environment determines

the result of their developmental outcome and not just their biological genes.

The environment before and soon after an individual is born into provides

powerful experiences that can chemically modify genes so that it defines how much and

when they’re expressed. Development is a very high interactive process, and life

outcomes aren’t developed completely by one’s genes. While genetic factors have great

influence on human development, environmental factors have the ability to change

family inheritance. Children are born with the capacity to learn how to control impulses,

focus attention, and retain information, however their experiences as early as year one

lay a foundation as to how well the other executive function skills develop (Center on

the Developing Child, 2017). While attachments to their parents are primary, younger

children benefit significantly from relationships with other caregivers both inside and out
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of the family. This being said, frequent disruptions in care and poor-quality interactions

in early childhood program settings can undermine a child’s ability to establish a secure

expectation about whether and how their needs will be met. Dodge (2011) explained

that neglecting investment in good health (before and after conception), good nutrition,

good parenting, a strong social support, and simulative interaction with others outside of

the child’s home reduces their value of investment in other areas. From pregnancy and

throughout early childhood, the environments that children live and learn from, and the

quality of a child’s relationships between adults and their caregivers have significant

impacts on their social, cognitive, and emotional development states Shonkoff (2011).

Body

Child abuse is a blanket term for the types of mistreatment of a child under 18

years old. There are four types of abuse which are physical, sexual, emotional, and

neglect. In most cases, children are victims to more than one of these types of abuse.

The abusers often times are parents or family members, caretakers or teachers, or

acquaintances. In rare instances, the abuser is a stranger to the victim. Child abuse was

viewed as a minor social problem that only affected a handful of children in the United

States. However, in recent years it has received close attention from the media, law

enforcement, and helping professions. With this came a sharp rise in the number of

reported cases. Experts suggest that the prevalence of abuse is much higher because

its victims seem too young or too fearful to speak out about their experiences. In 2014,

there were 702,000 incidences of child abuse and neglect reported to state Child

Protective Services (CPS) agencies. According to non-CPS studies, the number is likely
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low seeing as they estimated, one in four children experience some level of abuse or

neglect in their lives. Neglect accounts for almost 80% of cases with the other levels

less common. Girls are abused twice the amount as boys are and nearly 1,600 victims

died from abuse or neglect in 2014. About 27% of the victims are under the age of three

but this age group accounted for 70% of the fatalities (Black & Blackwell, 2018).

Experts have been quick to point out that abuse occurs among all social, ethnic,

and income groups. Reported cases often times involve poorer families with little

education in their background. The most common in cases are also young mothers,

single-parent families, and parental alcohol and or drug abuse. More than 90% of

abusing parents aren’t psychotic or have criminal personalities, rather they seem to be

more lonely, angry, unhappy, etc,. “About 10%, or perhaps as many as 40%, of abusive

parents were themselves physically abused as children, but most abused children do

not grow up to be abusive parents” (Black & Blackwell, 2018). It’s very easily argued

that a child will either turn out exactly like their parent(s) or nothing like their parent(s)

out of despise. Additional factors that may contribute to child abuse are a lack of

parenting skills, unrealistic expectations regarding children’s behavior and capabilities,

social isolation, and frequent family cises. Child maltreatment is the ultimate example of

dysfunctional interactions between the caregiver and child. (Zirpoli, 2014) Child abuse

can be considered a symptom that parents are having difficulty dealing with their

problems. About 80% of abusers are parents, 6% relatives, and 4% were unmarried

partners of the child’s parents. Unfortunately. Relatives are more likely to abuse children

than caretakers such as a babysitter or teacher. Caretakers account for only 2% of

cases while women in general accounted for 54% of abusers. (Black & Blackwell, 2018)
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Neglect is classified as the failure to satisfy a child’s basic needs. This is the

most common of the abuses in reported cases. Neglect ranges from the failure to

provide food and shelter, to satisfying a child’s emotional needs, to failing to see that a

child receives proper schooling or medical care. Many of these cases occur because

the parent experiences strong feelings for the child which are negative. The neglected

children often don’t receive adequate nourishment or emotional and mental stimulation

and as a result their physical, social, emotional, and mental development will be

hindered. Physical abuse occurs when a parent loses control and lashes out at a child.

Signs of this may include unexplained or suspicious bruises or marks on the skin. This

causes a wide variety of behavioral changes in children. Children less than a year old

are vulnerable to an injury from shaking called “Shaken Baby Syndrome” (Black &

Blackwell, 2018). Sexual abuse is arousal in response to children and having the

willingness to act upon this arousal. There is often no sign of physical evidence but can

be seen in genital or anal injuries or abnormalities. A few behavioral signs children can

be impacted by sexual abuse by having anxiety, poor academic performances, and

suicidal tendencies. Emotional abuse can happen in any setting: home, school, sport

teams, etc,. Some possible symptoms would include loss of self-esteem, sleep

disturbances, headaches or stomach aches, avoiding school, and running away from

home. (Black & Blackwell, 2018)

More than 24 million children in the United States are age 5 and below. Of those

children, nothing about their well-being and social behavior is more important than the

environment they grow and develop in. An example of this is, children misbehave and

that’s normal, but how the caregiver responds to inappropriate behaviors will determine
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the future course for both the child and their misbehavior. When a caregiver provides

attention to their child during a temper tantrum, the child will be likely to use the tantrum

behavior in the future as a way of getting the adults attention and having their demands

met. This will actually increase the intensity of the tantrum over time as the child learns

how to use it to manipulate adult behavior. In retrospect, when the caregiver refuses to

give in to the child’s demands during and following the temper, the child is unlikely to

demonstrate this tantrum behavior in the future. Clearly, there is a significant

relationship between the rate of children’s misbehavior and the response they receive

from caregivers in their environment. The focus-on-the-child approach parents tend to

follow, while it is appropriate for children with specific emotional disorders, it fails to

recognize the role of the child’s environment as well as the people in that environment

in shaping the child’s behavior. (Zirpoli, 2014)

Poverty is discussed as the most significant impact on children’s overall well-

being, academic success, and social behavior. Sadly, children have the highest poverty

rates of any age group in America. 18% of American children live in poverty. Family’s

income plays a large role in the type of basic care a child receives. Children in low-

income families don’t have as much access to important early intervention programs

than children from higher-income families (Children’s Defense Fund, 2003). According

to the Illinois State Board of Education (2001), poverty is the single greatest predictor of

academic and social failure in the schools of the United States. It was found that income

level alone accounts for 71% of the difference in standardized achievement scores.

Children raised in improvised environments are at risk for behavior problems because

they live in neighborhoods where there aren’t many positive role models for appropriate
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social behaviors. The only adults these children see getting by, are doing it through

illegal activities. These children are more likely to be exposed to community violence

and children’s aggression within the classroom. As neighborhood conditions get worse,

a positive relationship between emotional support and mothers’ parenting was

weakened. Poverty sets the foundation for a cluster of negative outcomes including

school failure, violence, and delinquency. (Zirpoli, 2014)

Second to poverty is single-parent families. Children who have single-parent

families are at increased risk for academic failure; increased likelihood of dropping out

of school and/or becoming a teen parent; and higher levels of depression, stress,

anxiety, and aggression. 30% of American children live in single-parent households.

Single fathers make up almost 1 in 5 single parents that live with their children and

research suggests that boys can be less aggressive when they have a strong father or

dominant male figure in the home. It doesn’t matter who’s doing the parenting, a strong

parent figure and a supportive environment (even support from a school) is the key to

great academic and social outcomes for children. (Zirpoli, 2014)

Childhood obesity is recognized as a global public health concern. It occurs in

anyone no matter their race, ethnicity, or origin. There has been a recent rise in obesity

rates in both developed and still developing countries so the obesity epidemic is

believed to be caused by environmental and social factors. The social patterning of

obesity was consistent with the theory of epidemiologic transition but the research was

very limited in children. The limited research on the socioeconomic gradients in obesity

has been conducted in generally predominantly developed countries, and the studies

have used inconsistent measures of individual socioeconomic status (SES) and

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adiposity. In opposed to the current study, International Study if Childhood Obesity,

Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE), the prior study used “self-reported” measures

of body mass and height and didn’t include countries with low or middle levels of human

development. The ISCOLE study will use a country’s economic level and socioeconomic

differences in overweight based on a large multinational sample of children. The goal for

the study was to describe the relationship between childhood obesity and household

income using several measures of adiposity. Each study site recruited a target sample

size of 500 children and detected their body mass index (BMI). (Broyles et al., 2015)

The mean of the children’s ages was 10.4 years old and 12.6% of these children

were obese. Obesity was positively associated with income at lower levels of human

development (HDI) and negatively associated with income at higher levels. Across

higher levels of country human development, obesity levels declined in the highest

income group but increase in the lower income groups. Only one other published study

has investigated the relationship but their study failed to find any ties. The epidemiologic

transition predicts a social patterning of obesity in countries experiencing transition such

that groups with higher income, the standards of living and levels of nutrition come first.

This results in higher levels of obesity compared to lower income groups. As global

development increases, poorer parts of the population should see the highest increase

in obesity, further increasing the global burden of cardiovascular disease. The ISCOLE

sample provides insights to how social determinants of health may impact childhood

obesity all around the world. (Broyles et al., 2015)

There has been limited research on the relationships between childhood factors

and adult physical health relating their quality of life. The maturation of these cohort
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studies can now draw on data from participants for their health outcomes later in life. It

has also prompted a focus on the understanding of the role of childhood exposures and

intergenerational effects as well as adult factors. A recent review identified childhood

socioeconomic position (SEP) as being associated with one’s physical capability levels

in adulthood. The physical component summary (PCS) score has weighted

contributions from eight different subscales, including those for physical functioning

(PF), role limitations because of physical problems, bodily pain, and general health. In

the City of Helsinki, childhood circumstances weren’t directly associated with the PCS

scores, but it was found to act indirectly through adult SEP. This ultimately lead to lower

education level, occupational class, and income which all linked clearly with PCS score.

In order to investigate the data for further understanding, factors in childhood (including

family environment, parental health, physical health, and personality) on physical health

later in life. (Mishra et al., 2014)

Conclusion

The hypothesis of this essay was that children’s environment directly impacts

their development. Overall, it was proved to be true. Numerous research and studies

have been conducted that provide evidence that the environment around a child will

impact their development. Although there were arguments that a child’s development is

based solely on biological genes, the arguments that based the environment a child

lives in and learns from has significant impacts on their social, cognitive, and emotional

development were far more stronger. It is a proven fact that children do things that they

saw being done by another person because the young brain is so easily molded. It’s a
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child’s way of learning, they have to try things on their own. Children adapt by doing

what they saw was being done.

The next steps for parents to ensure success in child behavior is to not give in to

a child’s wants. During temper tantrums for example, when a child reacts and the

caregiver gives in to it, the child has just learned that if they misbehave, they can get the

adults attention. This only increases the intensity over time. The child is experimenting

with behaviors and getting what they want allows them to continue that behavior. Ending

child poverty would also have a really significant positive impact on child development

but it’s impossible to tackle something that widespread. Instead, the smaller factors can

be worked with, starting with something like sufficient child care. If well child care could

be provided to every eligible child, parents could go to work more often to provide for

their families. In neighborhoods with lower education levels and a poorer population,

there is a struggle to find safe and self-sufficient child care so the caregiver often times

stays home. People have to come together to take care of children because they’ll be

the future generation and everything they learn from others, good or bad, determines

how they make decisions.

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Appendix
ECE- Early Childhood Education

ICDS- Integrated Child Development Services

Autonomy- freedom from external control or influence; independence

Executive function- neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-

regulation

Child Maltreatment- behavior toward a child that is outside the norms of conducts and
entails substantial risk of causing physical or emotional harm

Shaken Baby Syndrome- a serious brain injury resulting from forcefully shaking an
infant or toddler

Epidemiologic transition- a phase of development witnessed by a sudden stark increase

in population growth rates brought by medical innovation in disease or sickness therapy
and treatment

Socioeconomic gradient- stepwise fashion health outcomes. Can be measured by a

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person’s income, occupation, or the highest level of education they have

Adiposity- a condition of being severely overweight, or obese

ISCOLE- the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment

BMI- Body Mass Index

HDI- Human Development Index

Cohort- a group of people banded together or treated as a group

Intergenerational- where multiple generations of people intermingle or come together

SEP- Socioeconomic Position

PCS- Physical Component Summary

PF- Physical Functioning

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