Research on the Effects of Poverty in Childhood 1 The American Association for the Advancement of Science Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain Poverty produces stress hormones that impair neural development limiting language development and memory 2 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Berkeley study EEG s compared brains of children from poor and wealthy families Poor kids brains damaged by stressful and relatively environment associated with low socio reading fewer games economic fewer visits to the museum impoverished status fewer books less STEREOTYPES Stereotypes are overgeneralizations about the appearance behavior or other characteristics of all members of a group Symbolic annihilation is the absence of representation or underrepresentation of some group of people in the media often based on their race sex sexual orientation socio economic status etc understood in the social sciences to be a means of maintaining social inequality