Essay On Poverty In The Future Generation

One fact that everyone can agree on is that children are the future. Society must protect these children so that they can aspire to live better quality lives than their parents did and the previous generation. The article by Ludwig and Mayer entitled, “Culture and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: The Prevention Paradox” explores with research on the importance of the factors that will effect children and their socioeconomic status when they are adults. The article explains that changing the factors of parental behavior that will be later discussed in detail, has the ability to reduce poverty in the future generation. This analytical memo will explore the factors and parental behaviors that have been discussed and researched in

Parental employment has been found to be important when children are growing up. In Maria Cancian and Deborah Reeds article entitiled, “Family Structure, childbearing, and parental employment: Implications for the Level and Trend in Poverty, explains the importance of working parents. It makes sense that families that have more adults and less children have decreased likelihoods of decreased poverty. Families that have working adult males are also less likely to be poor (Cancian & Reed, 2009). Moreover, religiosity can also act as a protective factor against poverty. In research conducted by Patrick Fagan for the Heritage Organization, lists evidence that proves the importance of religiosity in the family. One of the reasons that he states is that those that go to church are more likely to be married and more likely to have satisfactory marriages. He states that church attendance can act as an instrument for young people to get out of poverty. Religion can keep children out of substance abuse problems. Patrick Fagan, quotes Allen Bergin, a professor of Psychology, “ religious involvement reduces "such problems as sexual permissiveness, teen pregnancy, suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, and to some extent deviant and delinquent acts, and increases self esteem, family cohesiveness and general well being.... Some religious influences have a modest impact whereas another portion seem like the mental equivalent of nuclear energy.... More generally, social scientists are discovering the continuing power of religion to protect the family from the forces that would tear it down” (Fagan,