Effects of Poverty on Children
Poverty in America is defined in a statistical manner where dollar amounts are assigned to definite variables such as family dimension and structure. This forms a least fiscal amount that is required to offer the sufficient basic requirements for a household. Any family that falls short of the specified number is termed to be poor. There are two divisions that are used to define poverty and this includes situational poverty and generational poverty. Situational poverty is where there is a sudden decline in resources for instance if the breadwinner dies, after a divorce or after one has lost his or her job (Sharkins, Leger & Ernest, 2017). This type of poverty comes with psychological impacts but it is generally considered to be temporary. Generational poverty is when a family has been experiencing social economic problems for more than three generations without any changes (Sharkins, Leger & Ernest, 2017). Children are delicate and they are affected by the living conditions around them one of them being poverty.
Statistics of children living in poverty
Almost 20% of the children that are existing in the United States that are below the age of 18 years living in poverty as current statistics indicate (Sharkins, Leger & Ernest, 2017). Poverty is however not about the numbers; the multifaceted issues that influence the children that live in poverty manifest themselves physically, socially and psychologically. Classification of children fall under the three classifications, poverty and the multitude of the complicated issues that are associated with it can have very devastating effects on the development of children and their education (Flouri & Midouhas, 2016). Almost 13 million children within the United States live in poverty which translates to one in every six children and this numbers continue to increase with time. The numbers are even worse for minority communities where (Sharkins, Leger & Ernest, 2017) indicates that one in every three African Americans children lives in poverty. The Hispanics is estimated to represent about 58% more of households that are living below the poverty levels.
Effects of poverty on child development
- Effects of poverty on youngsters’ social and education life
The psychological effects poverty on children is both stressful and damaging to the development of the child. Children that are living in poverty often feel ashamed of their situations and they are often humiliated by their status in the society (Evans, & Schamberg, 2009). As they grow older they develop insecurities as they start to understand that their worlds are different from those of their peers. This brings along some damaging negative feelings that cause the developing child to have low self-esteem, diminished self-efficacy and also educational gaps that can be observed rights from when they are in kindergarten. These children that are brought up in poverty tend to lag behind in academic performances because they do not have the necessary resources to help them have comprehensive studies (Flouri & Midouhas, 2016). The burdens of the family status and the stresses of trying to make ends meet for them often cause these children to lack proper attention that is needed in schooling thus affecting their academic performances.
- Psychological effects of poverty on children
Poverty has often been linked with stressors such substance and alcohol misuse. Living under deficiency can create astonishing quantities of pressure, hatred and irritation for parents which can in most cases central to viciousness. The children that are brought up poverty are always at high risks of experiencing mistreatments for instance physical, sexual and emotional abuse that greatly affects their psychological status (Evans, & Schamberg, 2009). The sad fact is that despite all this known stressors and the effects that they can have on children, there still exists a colossal gap between the children that need both mental and physical healthcare treatment and those that actually get a chance to receive it. Over 50% of the children that are living in poverty always expect mental health needs but only 16% of them actually receive this help. If not taken care of, the stressors of abuse, neglect and violence on children caused by poverty can lead to serious mental and emotional damage (Sharkins, Leger & Ernest, 2017).
Most impoverished homes are likely to be those from single parent households. It is estimated that 72% of children that are living in poverty comes from single parent homes where a female is the head parent. With the limits of generational poverty, mums are likely to have petite to no prenatal attention to children and poor nourishment (Flouri & Midouhas, 2016). These poor parenting skills are always as a result of insufficient income to meet the needs if the child since the mother is expected to take care of the child and still get a job to sustain them which can be very difficult. The psychological stress of being unemployed can lead to stress on the parents causing him or her to abrasive on the child (Cuthrell et al., 2010). Parents that are under stress establish less fostering, reduced honest worry for fit growth of a child and little care for educational development on a child. The effects of careless and insufficient childcare due to poverty can central to teenage misbehaviour, inadequate and inadequate education and poor well-being practices. Short of any proper direction and training, the cycle of deficiency and abuse can rear itself and hence generate a whirlpool of generational poverty (Cuthrell et al., 2010).
- Poverty effects on nutrition for children
Poverty has a great effect on the children’s nutritional habits. Positive nourishing practices are significant for young evolving minds and physiques of children. Malnutrition can cause serious detrimental effects to reasoning, memory growth and linguistic ability (Flouri & Midouhas, 2016). Improper nutrition is something that is at epidemic proportions among children that are impoverished within the United States. Research indicates that over 12 million children consume diets that are below the recommended nutritional allowance (Flouri & Midouhas, 2016). Lack of important nutritional diet needs have negative effects on the developing brain of a child and it can also lead to development of learning disability meaning that this is an issue that exposes the potential limitations for the impoverished children.
United States spends billions trying to provide public assistance to the poor which include provision of free public education to make education available to everyone including the poor. Not much is however done to deal with the issue of malnutrition for these children because when they go to school without having proper nutrition, their chances of understanding what they are taught is weakened by poor nutrition (Evans, & Schamberg, 2009). Programs that have been created to help with food issues for the poor children are often times not effective because the funds are misused by the administrations that are supposed to distribute them.
Conclusion
Children are the future generations, this are the leaders of tomorrow. If they are not well nurtured, there is the risk of the world bringing up weak generations that are not economically capable. Governments all over the world need to look into the issue of children living in poverty and find ways to help them with the required nutritional needs, healthcare needs and educational needs to help them lead fulfilling lives that will help them change their family’s poverty status.
References
Bennett, M. (2008). Understanding the students we teach: Poverty in the classroom. The
Clearing House, 81(6), 251-257. http://www.heldref.org/pubs/tch/about.html
Cuthrell, K., Stapleton, J., Ledford, C. (2010). Examining the culture of poverty: Promising
practices. Preventing School Failure, 54(2). doi: 10.1080/10459880903217689
Evans, G., & Schamberg, M. (2009). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working
memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 106(16), 6545-6549. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0811910106
Flouri, E., & Midouhas, E. (2016). School composition, family poverty and child behaviour.
Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51(6), 817–826. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1206-7
Sharkins, K., Leger, S., & Ernest, J. (2017). Examining Effects of Poverty, Maternal
Depression, and Children’s Self-Regulation Abilities on the Development of Language and Cognition in Early Childhood: An Early Head Start Perspective. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(4), 493–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-016-0787-9
