The Science of Social Welfare
Social Welfare grew from a series of studies that determined children and babies who were malnourished or overly stressed suffered lifetimes of problems behaviorally and economically.
Folksonomies: politics science social programs welfare scientific observations
Memes
02 MAR 2014
How Poverty Affects IQ
In a series of experiments, the researchers found that pressing financial concerns had an immediate impact on the ability of low-income individuals to perform on common cognitive and logic tests. On average, a person preoccupied with money problems exhibited a drop in cognitive function similar to a 13-point dip in IQ, or the loss of an entire night's sleep.
But when their concerns were benign, low-income individuals performed competently, at a similar level to people who were well off, said...
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Fascinating for the fact that IQ appears so plastic in just day-to-day environment. Removing the stressors increases the IQ.
02 MAR 2014
Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function
The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance ...The stress of poverty can cause a 13 point reduction in IQ that improves when financial security is attained. Details from this article: "In a series of experiments, the researchers found that pressing financial concerns had an immediate impact on the ability of low-income individuals to perform on common cognitive and logic tests. On average, a person preoccupied with money problems exhibited a drop in cognitive function similar to a 13-point dip in IQ, or the loss of an entire night's sleep."
24 JUL 2013
Iodization of Salt in 1924 Increased American IQs 15 Points
Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in the world today. The condition, which was common in the developed world until the introduction of iodized salt in the 1920s, is connected to low iodine levels in the soil and water. We examine the impact of salt iodization on cognitive outcomes in the US by taking advantage of this natural geographic variation. Salt was iodized over a very short period of time beginning in 1924. We use military data collected during W...Folksonomies: public health social welfare
Folksonomies: public health social welfare
It dramatically reduced mental retardation, but temporarily increased death by hyperthyroid as iodine-depleted people overdosed.
24 JUL 2013
Cost Benefits of Lead Cleanup
It's difficult to put firm numbers to the costs and benefits of lead abatement. But for a rough idea, let's start with the two biggest costs. Nevin estimates that there are perhaps 16 million pre-1960 houses with lead-painted windows, and replacing them all would cost something like $10 billion per year over 20 years. Soil cleanup in the hardest-hit urban neighborhoods is tougher to get a handle on, with estimates ranging from $2 to $36 per square foot. A rough extrapolation from Mielke's est...While it would cost tens of billions to clean up lead in the environment, it would generate a hundred billion in health benefits.
24 JUL 2013
Potentially 90 Percent of Crime Rate Changes Explained by...
IN 1994, RICK NEVIN WAS A CONSULTANT working for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on the costs and benefits of removing lead paint from old houses. This has been a topic of intense study because of the growing body of research linking lead exposure in small children with a whole raft of complications later in life, including lower IQ, hyperactivity, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities.
But as Nevin was working on that assignment, his client suggested they might b...23 years after lead was removed from gasoline, crime rates went up and down dramatically.
28 JUL 2011
The Affect of a Nurturing Environment on Babies
If survival is the brain’s most important priority, safety is the most important expression of that priority. This is the lesson Harlow’s iron maidens teach us. Babies are completely at the mercy of the people who brought them into the world. This understanding has a behavioral blast radius in infants that obscures every other behavioral priority they have.
How do babies handle these concerns? By attempting to establish a productive relationship with the local power structures—you, in other ...
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27 JUL 2011
Preschool Social Programs Demonstrate the Importance of a...
In 1962, researchers wanted to test the effects of an early-childhood preschool training program they had designed. Kids in Ypsilanti, Michigan, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first attended the preschool program (which eventually became a model for other preschool programs nationwide, including Head Start). The second group did not. The differences powerfully illustrate the importance of a child’s early years.
The kids in the program academically outperformed the controls...Programs like Head Start have a lifetime's worth of positive benefits for the children enrolled in them.
19 JUL 2011
The Importance of Nutrition in the Developing Mind
In the case of a mother's more general nutritional status—her tota caloric intake—the brain is actually less sensitive during the first three to four months of gestation. In spite of its massive developmental changes, the fetus grows surprisingly little in size during this period, so its growth is not very dependent on the mother's diet. (This is probably no accident, since women are often unable to consume many calories because of first-trimester nausea.) Beginning around midway through gest...There is a crucial period in fetal development where nutrition is of the utmost importance to the growing brain. If these nutritional needs are not met, then the baby's intelligence may suffer.
08 JUN 2011
Food Stamps Improves Quality of Life for Children
Seizing on yet another natural experiment, Almond examined the impact of the introduction of the food-stamp program in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The program was rolled out on a state-by-state basis, allowing Almond to compare birth outcomes for poor women who received food assistance during pregnancy to those who did not. His results, published in The Review of Economics and Statistics, found that women who were enrolled in the program three months before they gave birth delivered babie...Babies born after the introduction of food stamps were healthier.
08 JUN 2011
A Flu Pandemic Reduces Quality of Life for Babies
Initially, Almond doubted that the intrauterine conditions provided by a pregnant woman, even one sick with a virulent strain of the flu, could exert any lasting influence on her offspring. “When I started looking at the influenza pandemic, I was skeptical of the fetal origins hypothesis. I didn’t think I’d find any long-term effects,” Almond says. “But the evidence was the opposite of what I expected.” Through an analysis of census data, Almond discovered that those individuals gestated duri...Folksonomies: pregnancy fetal development
Folksonomies: pregnancy fetal development
Children born during the flu pandemic grew up to have a poorer socioeconomic status than those born at other times.
08 JUN 2011
Prenatal Influences as Information for the Fetus
The notion of prenatal influences may conjure up frivolous attempts to enrich the fetus, like playing Mozart through headphones placed on a pregnant belly. In reality, the nine-month-long process of shaping and molding that goes on in the womb is far more visceral and consequential than that. Much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life—the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the emotions she feels, the chemicals she’s exposed to—are shared in some fashion with he...Folksonomies: pregnancy fetal development
Folksonomies: pregnancy fetal development
Diet and other environmental factors are data for the fetus about the conditions of the world outside the womb and influence its development to be best adapted to that environment.
References
02 MAR 2014
Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for...
Periodicals>Magazine Article: Kelly, Morgan (August 29, 2013), Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for navigating other areas of life, News at Princeton, Retrieved on 2014-03-02Source Material [www.princeton.edu]
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02 MAR 2014
Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function
Periodicals>Journal Article: Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, Zhao (30 August 2013), Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function, Science, Vol. 341 no. 6149 pp. 976-980 , Retrieved on 2014-03-02Source Material [www.sciencemag.org]
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24 JUL 2013
The Cognitive Effects of Micronutrient Deficiency: Eviden...
Periodicals>Journal Article: Feyrer, Politi, Weil (July 2013), The Cognitive Effects of Micronutrient Deficiency: Evidence from Salt Iodization in the United States, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2013, Retrieved on 2013-07-24Source Material [www.nber.org]
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24 JUL 2013
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead
Periodicals>Magazine Article: Drum, Kevin (01/2013), America's Real Criminal Element: Lead, Mother Jones, January/February 2013, Retrieved on 2013-07-24Source Material [www.motherjones.com]
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27 JUL 2011
Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Chil...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Medina , John (2010-10-12), Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five, Pear Press, Retrieved on 2011-07-27
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18 JUL 2011
What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develo...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Eliot , Lise (2000-10-03), What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life, Bantam, Retrieved on 2011-07-18
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08 FEB 2011
Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest ...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Paul , Annie Murphy (2010-09-28), Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives, Free Press, Retrieved on 2011-02-08
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