Stress can lead to adverse changes in the cardiovascular system, the immune system and the neuroendocrine and cortical systems, which have implications for learning and decision-making (Aber, Morris & Raver, 2012). Increased stress is a known causal factor through which poverty impacts developmental outcomes. That is, children at every age and developmental stage are impacted by impoverished environments, and those impacts build upon one another and continue across time.Ĭhildren living in poverty experience the daily impacts that come easily to mind - hunger, illness, insecurity, instability - but they also are more likely to experience low academic achievement, obesity, behavioral problems and social and emotional development difficulties (Malhomes, 2012). It impacts them in the moment, and across time. The easy answer to this question is that poverty means deprivation for children, but, of course, this is an oversimplification. My goals are still the same, but I’ve become increasingly focused on the dissemination of evidence-based information and the translation and implementation processes needed to effectively integrate what we know about child development and the needs of our children and families into what we do to support and empower them. The early passion that drove me throughout my graduate education has evolved through experience gained from a variety of positions. So, I decided to seek a PhD in developmental psychology and to go to law school. To truly do the work I wanted to do, I also believed that I needed to understand the legal, regulatory and legislative processes and functions that create and maintain those systems. This desire to work to improve the support systems for children and their families led me to want to better understand the fundamental processes of child development. I became increasingly interested in systemic effects on child development, and in particular, ways that we might improve the support systems, programs and policies that seek to improve outcomes from children, youth and families, especially those particularly at risk for poor outcomes. Week after week of passing through the barbed-wire fence and the heavy metal locked gates to get to the girls’ ward led me to think about the impact on the girls’ outcomes of the system that was supposed to be helping them. Although the girls with whom I was working were not involved in the juvenile justice system, this was the only place the state had for them to receive residential treatment. The first time I drove to the residential facility after my training, I was shocked to see that it was, in fact, the state prison. When I was an undergraduate psychology major, I signed up to volunteer to work with adolescent girls in residential mental health treatment. I’ve always been very interested in how people turn out to be such individuals, and what leads one child to thrive in the same conditions or in response to the same stimulus in which another child struggles to attain basic developmental milestones. How did the study of children, youth and families come to be mainstays in your professional career? In her spare time Lauren enjoys chauffeuring her daughter (and favorite seventh grader.) To view some of the Children, Youth and Family Office resources, visit their website. Caldwell is the APA staff liaison to the Task Force on Violent Media, charged with conducting a meta-analysis of the current scientific literature, while reviewing the relevance of the 2005 APA policy, Resolution on Violence in Video Games and Interactive Media (PDF, 90KB) to ensure that it is informed by the best science currently available. Caldwell has a passion for keeping evidence-based practice in the forefront to enrich the laws and policies that affect children and families. She hails from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, Center on Children and Families where she served as the director of research. Lauren Fasig Caldwell, JD, PhD, directs the American Psychological Association’s Children, Youth and Families Office.
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