For my personal research I decided to gather information on poverty( or low-income families) and the cognitive, biosocial, and psychosocial effects it has on early childhood children and their families. The reason I chose this topic is for one I am in the early childhood field now so I am personally experiencing the effects from the children because I am with them all day. I am working with a range of families for high-income to low-income and the odd part is that I have a 3 month cousin at my childcare and her mother is in the percentile of low income so its at great interest how the state assists her with the needs of her and her child. I feel that if it wasn't for the state and their assistance 85% of our students wouldn't be enrolled in the daycare. I never thought about any of this until I actually got in the field and began working one on one.
So far I am learning how to gather the information from my research and it seems like I find myself having to find a stopping point because it is so much information that is presented its hard to decide which to use as well as the information I gather on my own. I know there will always be some grayish areas when it comes to research and I am always opened for suggestions and assistance. So if anyone knows of good site, journals, and etc please feel free to share the wealth.
Another reason I an interested in poverty is because I have a close friend that is from Africa and it touches me everytime she states how good it is to finally be an american citizen. She believes there are so much more opportunites here for her and her family and if she was still in Africa she wouldn't have dreamed to be doing the things she is doing now because of the poverty and the lack of opportunities.
I see we share this topic in common. The only difference is at the school I work at, the title "high income" is non-existent. I guess I feel for these kids because I feel no child should have to deal with these circumstances. I hope you find the material you are looking for. I am on the quest to find the root of the problem. However, there are so many causes, I don't think just one thing can ever be pinpointed. As well, I would love to share information since we are talking about the same topic. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI too decided to conduct research on poverty, but I finally decided to focus on the effects of gaining access to high-quality progams. It will be great sharing information.
ReplyDeleteI can somewhat understand your friend from Africa, I too have a very close friend from Nigera. She came from a poverty sticken country, where there were not many jobs to support family family. Even though are economy is not doing very well right now, there are still more opportunties for her here in America. She is now a full time nurse.
Rena,
ReplyDeleteI think research on how poverty effects children is extremly important in the field of early childhood. Living in the state of West Virginia poverty effects many children and it impacts their lives on a daily basis. I think having free universal prek systems will help close the academic gap that these children face and will be a way to provide these students with nutritional meals to assit them in their developmental needs.