This archive report was first published on 23 August 2020.
Published on August 23, 2020, a report by the academies warned that children exposed to excessive stress can suffer permanent changes in brain structure and function, leading to problems from learning disabilities to heart disease and diabetes.
Child poverty in the United States is a growing crisis, with the country's public spending on children ranking last among its English-speaking peers. The pandemic has worsened the situation, with mass unemployment, closed schools, and fears of a deadly pandemic taking a toll on vulnerable populations.
Unemployment rates have grown by 4.8 percentage points for college graduates, but 9.7 points for workers without a high school degree. Undocumented immigrants, who are ineligible for government aid, are particularly affected, with over four million American children in their households.
Infants in the womb, schoolchildren, and young people joining the workforce are all at risk of long-term harm. Toxic stress has been shown to harm infants still in the womb, while school closures will confine rich and poor kids to homes even more unequal than their classrooms.
“The kids are not all right — every aspect of their lives is being affected,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children, a Washington advocacy group.
Young people joining the workforce are at special risk of long-term harm, with the earnings penalties large and lasting. Till von Wachter, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that a five-point rise in unemployment rates costs disadvantaged workers about a quarter of their first few years' pay.
