If you’ve been following previous posts here about the predominance of Post Traumatic Stress disorder in at-risk St. Louis school children, or my Sunday story on probationary juveniles participating in the city’s Gun Court, you know that researchers have found disturbing links between long-term poverty and physiological stress in children.

That stress, researchers say, can impact learning and decision-making and lead to increased aggression in young males.

Just today The Washington Post reported new findings on the subject:

“Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area — working memory,” wrote reporter Rob Stein about a new study led by Gary W. Evans, a professor of human ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y

Working memory - also known as short term memory - is a critical component of problem solving.

“It’s critical for learning,” Evans said. “If you don’t have good working memory, you can’t do things like hold a phone number in your head or develop a vocabulary.”

The research also reported that the longer a child a remains in poverty, the more profound the stress’ impact on short term memory. Seventeen-year-olds who spent their entire childhood in poverty not only had significantly higher levels of stress hormones in their systems, but scored 20 percent lower on short-term memory tests than those who grew up in more stable circumstances.