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Potential Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Infancy Development

Socioeconomic Status (SES) impacts development in infants since it affects their cognition, physical, and even emotional development. That is because infants generally emulate the same reactions as what the caregiver showcases. They tend to learn from the adults who are present in their immediate environment.

Therefore, the socioeconomic status of parents impacts how a child perceives the world, their exposure to nutrition, the quality of education received, and many others. Cognitive development, for instance, is impacted because these exposures determine the child’s thinking ability as well as their understanding of various issues (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2018). Since those from lower SES are less educated than those from higher SES, most parents from lower SES are unable to teach their children various concepts that would promote their cognitive development. Hence, their understanding of various factors and even pronunciations may be quite flawed (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2018).

Emotional development is also impacted by the SES due to the difference in stress levels from the two SES groups. Typically, parent from lower SES experience significantly high levels of stress that trigger behavioural problems compared to those from higher SES (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2018). The exposure to this stress impacts how the child interacts with age mates since it is transferred to them. Due to lack of skills in infants to deal with stress, behavioural problems become more rampant in the lower SES (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2018). Those from higher SES experience lower levels of stress. Their children do not develop many behavioural problems since they are only exposed to minimal situations that will trigger their distress.

In conclusion, the SES of a family impacts the development of the child through various ways. The challenges that a particular SES experiences are transferred to the children. The more extreme the challenges are, the poor the child’s development becomes. A family’s socioeconomic status determines how individuals react to certain situations. In return, children are able to follow a similar pattern since it is what they are exposed to.