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How children’s development is influenced by poverty and deprivation
Influence on the development of children due to poverty and deprivation
Poverty and child development
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Childhood development is both a biological and psychological period that occurs to every human from birth to adolescence. The transition from dependency to autonomy characterizes this period. The crucial factors that affect this period include parental life, prenatal development and genetics among others. Childhood period is immensely significant for the child’s future health and development. Efforts in ensuring proper child development are normally seen through parents, health professional and educators who work collectively. Such efforts are essential in making sure that children grow to reach their full potential. However, it is not extremely easy to raise a child in modern times because certain factors emerge to ruin this pivotal stage in life. Poverty is a serious problem that can immensely affect childhood development (Horgan, 2007). Children are susceptible developmentally to problems in their earliest period of their life. Poverty is not a selective issue and it can affect all ages in any place, but its …show more content…
Poverty causes corrosion of families and parental relationships parents making it extremely hard for parents to get involved in parenting and providing for the childhood basic needs. Parental stress affects the development process of a child, and extreme stress can impair the neuron pathways of the child’s brain, which is underdeveloped (Kail, 2006). As a result, continuous problems in learning, physical and mental health and learning emerge in the child’s life. Studies affirm that the prevalence of poverty is high in households with non-English residents, single parents and large families with high illiteracy levels. All these are contributing factors of poverty that result in stress. This implies that children in these families are exposed to childhood development problems, but it should not guarantee that children raised in English families do not experience childhood development
It is not difficult to document that poor children suffer a disproportionate share of deprivation, hardship, and bad outcomes. More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $23,550 a year for a family of four. (Truman, 2005) Living in poverty rewires children 's brains and reports show that it produces prolonged effects. Also, growing up in a community with dangerous streets, gangs, confused social expectations, discouraging role models, and few connections to outsiders commanding resources becomes a burden for any child. The concern about the number of children living in poverty arises from our knowledge of the problems children face because of poverty.
Even the mere inequality of wealth in a child’s social, cultural, or educational setting can have effects on a child’s peer to peer interactions, hierarchical structure and their ability to achieve. Gorard 2010 as discussed in Victoria Cooper, 2014 (p160), links poverty and or social deprivation with lower academic results. In the Xiao Bo case study by Child poverty research and policy centre, 2013 (Heather Montgomery, 2014) it demonstrates the multifaceted effects of poverty on a child, such as the stresses it places on the family to educate children, pressure on the children themselves to succeed in education to enable them to assist with family finances and lifestyle, the compromises and sacrifices made as a family unit in lifestyle and financial planning in order to pursue education of the child, as well as demonstrating the wide range of instigators that create inequalities of wealth, such as political/policy decisions, loopholes in aid assistance, cost of education and unequal access to resources. In 2001 the Millennium development goals were set out in response to the millennium summit of the united nations to reduce poverty and its associated issues, of the eight goals, the first goal was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, demonstrating the comprehension of the wide ranging affect of poverty on children and society as a whole, and an understanding that poverty ‘Damages children in every way’ as stated by Unicef
Allhusen, V., Belsky, J., Booth-LaForce, C., Bradley, R., Brownell, C. A., Burchinal, M., & ... Weinraub, M. (2005). Duration and Developmental Timing of Poverty and Children's Cognitive and Social Development from Birth Through Third Grade. Child Development, 76(4), 795-810. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00878.x
In addition to providing alarming statistics about the rate of childhood poverty, Jenson & Fraser highlight how much poverty can adversely affect the outcomes of children both directly and indirectly by impacting them at a familial and community levels (31-34).
Child poverty is and has been a big problem in America, and children below the poverty line do not do well in school. David H. Arnold, a scholar and studier on the subject, said in an article, "Child poverty has reached epidemic proportions within the United States. Of the 35.6 million people living in poverty in 1997, 14.1 million were children … One third of American children spend at least one year below the poverty line, and 18% experience extreme poverty … Younger children are more likely to face poverty… and its impact may be strongest during children's earliest years ... Among poverty's effects is a devastating negative influence on academic achievement; the relation between socioeconomic status … and underachievement is most dramatic near and below the poverty line” (Arnold). Child poverty is a very real problem in America and most children with money problems are likely to fall behind in school. In addition, Parents having a bad education will most likely lead to poverty, and it is hard for their children to improve their way of life after they have based under the poverty line. In Arnold’s article, he stated; "Numerous factors contribute to the relation between [economic stance] and educational outcomes … Such factors may, for example, have repercussions on child cognitive functioning or parenting, and in turn, educational
According to the Children Defense Fund 1 in 13 children will live in extreme poverty in the United States and a family of four is extremely poor if their income is below 10,000 or half of the official poverty line. (http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/census/census-2007-child-poverty-data.pdf,). Despite being wealthy the U.S. . has the highest rate of child poverty among all the other countries. Poor children are more likely to go hungry and are less likely to be read to during their early years. They are less likely to have health insurance and needed care. Poor children are more likely to start school behind their affluent peers and are less likely to graduate high school. They are more likely to grow up as poor adults and become involved in the criminal justice system. A family of four's annual income must be lower than 23,000 to reach child poverty. (http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/state-of-americas-children/documents/2014-SOAC_child-poverty.pdf(). Children in single parent homes were four times more likely to be poor than children in two adult families. Almost 70 percent of all children live with two parents.(http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data.) The south has the highest child poverty rate with 1 in 4 children compared to 1 in 5 children in the rest of the country. Growing up in child poverty can be a major effect on a healthy development for a child. Poverty and stress about finances can have an effect on children's cognitive development and their ability to learn. It can contribute to behavioral problems, social and emotional problems, and poor health. Living in poverty affects how a chil...
The development of children withstanding poverty can be impacted radically by its cruel effects on their everyday lives. Children which must endure the likes of poverty are more likely to suffer chronic illness during childhood or to have a disability (cpag). This is truly a travesty, a large portion of our next generation is suffering from an issue that burden’s many on this planet. Some of them do receive financial support, but many are left to fight for their own lives in the battle against starvation. Poverty had been thought to be primarily a financial issue for many years, but recent studies show that the brains of
...r lives were like. They found that 86% of the resilient children seemed to doing well as adults and compared with non-vulnerable children had a higher rate of reporting to be happy. However, they did record high amount of health problems such as dizziness, back problems for men and pregnancy, childbirth for women. In addition, other children from the vulnerable group reported significantly better results compared to their teenage selves e.g. going back to school, getting a job etc. the study proves to show that children can grow up to be competent members of the society even if born into impoverished environment and under stressful situations as long as there is a balance between the environment, stress and support. she suggest early intervention programs and nurturing environments for children in vulnerable conditions to improve the child’s development in future.
The study of children and their development is a new interdisciplinary field unifying research from sociology, anthropology, development psychology, law, and healthcare. Childhood studies emerged from the universal need to understand children’s development, their susceptibility to external factors, and what it means to be a child from the child 's perspective. Children differ depending on many factors, such as place, time, social status, religion, and tradition, and each of these aspects
In the United States, the phenomenon of child poverty has reached unprecedented levels in only the last couple of years. Poverty is known as a state of deprivation and a lack of monetary income or material possessions. The level of poverty is most often gauged by the poverty threshold, which is set by the United States Census Bureau. Children in impoverished families have access to fewer material goods compared to their counterparts in middle-class or high income families and are at a greater risk for developing mental health and behavioral problems. Children being born into poverty exacerbates their chances of growing up as impoverished adults. The public concern for children in poverty highlights their material well-being,
Child psychology, also known as child development, is the study of psychological growth of children; how these mechanisms develop from infancy to adolescence and why they deviate from one child to the next. Child development is associated with biological, psychological, and emotional diversity that occur in humans. Although there is a different advancement for each child, these developmental changes may be greatly determined by genetic factors and experience during prenatal life. The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development. Parents, health professionals, educators, and others can work together as partners to help children grow up to reach their full potential.
Thus, poverty has extreme detrimental effects and consequences for children and families suffering through it. It is still unclear whether poverty can ever be eradicated as there are millions still in poverty around the world. The effects of poverty on children have extreme consequences for the early stages of their development, and the consequences for a family relies on the income inadequacies that many in poverty face. These consequences are reinforced by Saunders (2005) as discussed throughout this essay. Therefore, poverty has some major damaging effects for all individuals involved.
Poverty is the state of being very poor, unable to provide the daily needs for themselves along with the household. It is an extremely large problem in Canada, as well as various other countries, especially in third world countries. The paucity of poverty begins affecting children in their early years then increasingly worsens throughout their growth. The ability to use what has been taught in school has been a major effect that has caused numerous problems in trying to escape poverty. The main questions this paper will be addressing is: how does poverty affect the brain 's development, what does this means for the child, how does poverty affects the future life of children, and what we can be done to prevent effects from occurring, or how to start to eliminating poverty
When analyzing children growing up in poverty a lot of factors come into play such as their physical, psychological and emotional development. To grow up in poverty can have long term effect on a child. What should be emphasized in analyzing the effects of poverty on children is how it has caused many children around the world to suffer from physical disorders, malnutrition, and even diminishes their capacities to function in society. Poverty has played a major role in the functioning of families and the level of social and emotional competency that children are able to reach. Children in poverty stricken families are exposed to greater and emotional risks and stress level factors.
‘Deep poverty affects approximately 3.9 million young children, making them vulnerable and limiting their life experiences.”(deep poverty) The effects of poverty today are huge effecting not only children but “The World Bank projects that the number of people living in poverty fell to 702 million people in 2015, or about 9.6% of the global population.” (World poverty rate).Even though there are many systems out there helping these children, they are still vastly suffering by not being able to go to school to have a formal education and having low educational scores, malnutrition, and missing key social events causing social incompetence.