Living in disadvantaged neighborhood equivalent to missing a year of school

Childhood exposure to severely disadvantaged communities is linked to decreased verbal ability later in childhood, a lasting negative effect that continues even after moving out of the neighborhood, according to research that will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

According to the study, living in concentrated disadvantage decreases later verbal test scores by about four IQ points, which is roughly equivalent to missing a year of school.

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