How Does Environmental Factors in Low Social Class Affect the Children?
In a perfect world, children and teens of all shapes, sizes, race, backgrounds, and family types would have the same opportunity for growth and development. Unfortunately some children carry around a stigmatism of “they will not amount to anything”, due to the social class of their families. The “lost cause” or “she/he will be just like her mother/father” label, that some place on an adolescent could lead them down a road of low self-esteem, depression, and could possibly lead to substance abuse later down the road. Children that come from the working class, and lower classes are often the children that carry around these labels. Several physical factors play into social
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Adolescents are often taught to blend in with their social class thus developing a personality that correlates with their social class. Educational systems can help or hinder the prospects of social mobility. Unfortunately, thee stigmatism that low social class teens carry with them, at times makes teacher overlook their potential. Low social status parents are not going to have the extra finances to purchase educational materials for their children, and typically do regulate the amount of TV their children are viewing. As a result of this parenting style, “low socio-economic children more frequently experience school failure (even in the early grades), which moves them on a trajectory of either conduct problems or withdrawal behaviors” (Bradley and Corwyn, 2009) Children, not receiving cognitively stimulating materials and experiences at home are more likely to fulfill negative stereotypes from their teachers. Teachers provide low socioeconomic children with not enough positive attention and less acknowledgement of good performance. “Over time, the frustrations connected with school failure and negative exchanges with teachers are likely to increase acting out behaviors (Bradley and Corwyn, 2009).” Another factor to consider, is not only the child’s education, but the parents’. Low income families have a higher rate of non-degree holding parents, due to lack of financial availability and the fact that they are working much of the time. Parents without an education, usually have a harder time finding employment, due to companies now looking for higher degree-holders to fill positions. Most companies are raising their standards and these parents do not fit them. Therefore, parents are forced to continue the constant battle of living paycheck to paycheck or to find way to better their education. Parents that do not have an education, will also have a more difficult time teaching
(Brooks-Gunn et all, 1997) That points out the disadvantage and how the family income influence youngsters overall childhood, since under the poverty condition, they children do not have enough money to support for their necessary needs, they will more likely to have low self-confidence and hard to blend in with their peers. Poverty has impact on children’s achievement in several different ways. Payne (2003) maintained that the poverty could affect children achievement though emotional, mental, financial, and role models (Payne, 2003). Thus, the children from low-income family are more likely to have self-destructive behavior, lack of control emotional response and lack of necessary intellectual, that is really important for the students under the age of 16.
This would lead to higher grades, test scores, school attendance, decreased use of drugs and alcohol, and lower rates of suspension and dropping out (What Research). With his parents not around to support him, he lacked the necessary moral compass, decision making, and social skills needed to succeed not only in school, but in the world. Many kids have the same parental situation as Holden, also with similar results. -----Family participation in education was twice as predictive of students ' academic success as family socioeconomic status. Some of the more intensive programs had effects that were 10 times greater than other factors” (What Research). Increased parental involvement could be the first step to breaking the cycle of poor education and poverty. Poor students are at a much higher risk of not having parental involvement, which draws a clear parallel to these students and Holden
Low-income adolescents, in later years, will experience conflict between their economically stressed parents, as well as lower self-esteem than other teenaged children.
Reading, writing, math, science, and other skills learned in school are instrumental for a child to have in order to be successful both in higher education and in life. Many factors contribute to a student’s acquisition of these skills such as their learning environment, preschool education, mental and emotional development, parental involvement, and dedication to learning. The issue that many young children are facing, however, is that all of these factors can be greatly influenced by the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of their family. Unfortunately, up until recently it was virtually unknown how teachers could help these “at risk” children, which caused an increase in the likelihood of children dropping out of school or repeating a grade. However, it is now becoming clear that there are ways that educators can help ensure children have successful academic careers and lead better lives.
I also learned that Children living below the poverty threshold are 1.3 times more likely to experience learning disabilities and developmental delays in comparison to children who aren’t poor. Also Poor children suffer from emotional and behavioral problems more frequently in comparison to children who aren’t poor. Gunn and Duncan also inform us “Emotional outcomes are often grouped along two dimensions: externalizing behaviors including aggression, fighting, and acting out, and internalizing behaviors such as anxiety, social withdrawal, and depression”. In light of this information we can better understand why poor children tend to get suspended more and withdraw mentally from
Vitality in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was not strictly determined by food, clean water, or a good paying job, but rather by the all-encompassing idea of social class. Being in a highly regarded social class provided better access to life’s necessities and frills. A business owner could afford more bread and appliances than a factory worker could, and an official in Parliament would most likely have more maids and land than a business owner. However, transitioning to a higher class was not the only way to improve someone’s social status. If the social class, as an entity, developed more of an influence, that class’ prestige could greatly increase, resulting in a greater reverence for all of its members. With this
There are many similarities and differences between the upper-class, middle-class, working-class, mixed income and low-income urban neighborhoods. There are many different social distinctions within each class and each class has their own way of living. Here are some of the difference and similarities between each class:
Social class has existed in our society since its foundation. Working class, middle class, upper middle class, or upper class, whatever your standing, social class can affect your place in society. Social class can be defined by where you live, who you talk to, where you get an education, even by the clothes you wear. These may not be definite determinants of social class, but categorization of people becomes easier when looking at these factors. In previous papers, I have claimed that social class is a result of capitalism. Though, I still believe this to be true, there are many factors that can affect social class and vice versa. Theorists have looked at different aspects of how these can affect social class. In my paper I am going to explore capitalism, stratification, racism, segregation, and education and their relationship with social class and how this can cause social conflict; I will have a primary focus of how Weber, DuBois, and Marx views this relationship.
Everyone knows about the various stereotypes and social stigmas that come with socioeconomic status whether they will choose to admit it or not. Society has come to assume that a child who comes from a family of low socioeconomic status, that they will not do as well as a child who comes from a family of a greater socioeconomic status. Unfortunately these assumptions are so ingrained in our brains that we start to follow the self-fulfilling prophecy. When a child from a noticeably low socioeconomic status walks into a classroom, it is not uncommon for the teacher to automatically assume that the child will not perform well in class, and in turn either grades the child more harshly or does not give the child as much attention as the other children from high socioeconomic status families. Do these children not perform well in class because of the self-fulfilling prophecy or is there something that happens during the critical period that causes the child to fall behind?
The world contains a lot of societies, cultures, and classes. Each household belongs to some social class that represents their level of education, their work position, and their financial status. These different classes have created a conflict between people. It fills rich people's minds with the thought that poor people are criminals, and that conflict ended up with creating poverty. The authors Gilbert, Kahl, Magnet, and Gans are discussing the important causes and reasons that created poverty in comparing and contrasting these points with each other.
In a study by Albert Bandura, Bandura found that children learn by watching. He called this observational learning and found that those children who were exposed to an adult who expressed aggressive behavior would then express aggressive behavior after watching them. Because of this study, we know that children who grow up in toxic environments may grow up to be destructive parents. One way of stopping this is getting more children of these families a proper education. A problem with this theory is that many schools in poor neighborhoods are under funded by the government and don’t have the essential materials for kids to receive a good education.
There are research findings that have proven children in poverty are more likely to display higher rates of disruptive behavior (Roy & Raver, 2014). For the reason that parents who live in poverty are at higher risk in losing their jobs, working multiple jobs, poor health care, and unsafe neighborhoods, it is difficult for parents to have quality and efficient childcare and healthy parenting styles. Disregarding gender, challenging behaviors have been apparent
Students who have supportive parents that foster learning are less likely to show reluctancy to learn in the classroom, while students whose home life is full of fighting and little academic support may show less interest in the classroom (Let's Talk Motivation, 2005). Another reason why a student may not be motivated to learn could be because of a low-socioeconomic status (SES). According to Woolfolk, low-SES students suffer from "poor health care, low expectations, low self-esteem, and learned helplessness" (2004, p.158-159). These students have much more on their mind than learning. One final reason why students may be reluctant to learn is because they have fallen into the stereotypes of gender traps. Knudson-Martin argues that "perceived gender differences are rooted in power differences that limit relational development for both women and men" (Knudson-Martin, 1999). This means that in a co-ed classroom, teachers may challenge boys more often than girls, attributing male failure to a lack of effort and female failure to a lack of ability.
It can be argued that the academic performance of children has nothing to do with their socioeconomic status, because there have been many cases of children from very poor families who have excelled greatly in academics (APA, 2017). Furthermore, many predominantly high-end schools have posted poor results when compared to school with poorer backgrounds. This is despite the fact children from lower socioeconomic classes do not have access to the best forms of learning materials. The high performance of children from poor backgrounds is often attributed to the fact that they are not preoccupied with many activities which would otherwise hinder them from concentrating on their studies (Sacerdote, 2002). Therefore, some believe it is false to say that poor performance is associated with children who come from low socioeconomic classes. Rather, they believe academic achievement is genetic (Sacerdote, 2002).
Before I read the chapter on social class, I thought social class was a category about people who are put into class by how much money they make; you are either poor or rich. However, there is much more regarding social class than I had originally thought. Social class it separated into a four tier criteria. Beginning at the bottom is the “lower class”, or “underclass” which is referred to by poverty, homeless, and unemployment. This class, usually hasn’t finished high school, doesn’t have medical care and can’t afford sufficient housing. Many people mischaracterize these poor people as mothers who abuse the welfare system by baring several babies that they can’t afford and fathers who are able to work but do not due to drug addiction or their