How Socioeconomic status, cultural context, and ethnicity effect human growth and development.

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Socioeconomic status, cultural context and ethnicity are the three most prominent factors that impact an individual’s growth and development. Each separate component is very closely linked in our everyday lives; touching and molding who we become. Socioeconomic status (SES), also referred to as social class, plays a major role in human growth and development. SES is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of an individual’s or family’s economic or social position in relation to others. SES can influence a person’s education level, quality of health care, diet, place of residence, even stress level. One example being, an individual that has a low socioeconomic status may have a lower education level than an individual with a higher SES thus resulting in a lower paying job. This lower paying job may then result in diminished health care, poor diet, and a higher stress level. An individual only having a high school education, working part time at a fast food restaurant with a family to support, would have a much lower socioeconomic status than an individual working the same job, making the same amount of money while attending college. Socioeconomic status impacts human growth and development from birth until death and can dictate the quality of our lives. Cultural context is also a large factor in a person’s growth and development. Culture is something we learn and is in all aspects of our everyday lives. It is defined as patterns of human activities or beliefs and the symbolic structures that give them significance and importance. Culture affects our beliefs, religion, manners, dress, even the way we think about life itself. One example of a cultural belief is the “American Dream”. In the United States most of us were taught from an early age that with hard work and determination our opportunities are

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