Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The effect of poverty on children
Effects of poverty on children essay
Effects of poverty on children essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The effect of poverty on children
In the documentary “The Raising of America”, it was an eye opening experience for me. It shed light on issues related to children born into poverty and the long term effects due to stress it can have throughout their childhood and adulthood. What really captured my attention was the 20 year study researcher followed to determine how stress affect the child and the mother. As a society, we often overlook individuals that are in poverty, the following statement is widely recognized as the American Dream; “Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps.” In my opinion, this should no longer be a valid expectation of Americans especially for women and children. In this documentary, it provides a clear lens into a woman life that relies on government assistance.
In particular, this mother emphasized that she doesn’t want to depend on government assistance but has no other option due to the loss of her job after the birth of her second child because of the amount unpaid time she took from work to recover from a health complications. This is heartbreaking, the United States (US) is one of the richest countries in the world, who has the latest technological advances, advocate for other countries in need, yet we fail to care for our own citizens. Children are the most important investment to our society but we over them and fail to provide them with the proper resources needed for development. I believe that after a child is born, the mother’s role is a key aspect during this time however, due to lack of paid maternity and the need for financial stability mothers have to return to work shortly after birth. Which causes a great deal of stress on the mother and child, as she is responsible for finding affordable child care services and to return to work and maintain her job performance. In closing, we need to invest in our children as they will become future educators and leaders in our society. We have to educate them about individuals living in poverty and provide solutions about how to resolve this issue.
Bridge to Freedom provides the historical documentary behind the events that served as the narrative for Selma. Instead of a drama, the viewers receive an actual documentary that shows the confrontations between the marchers and the government. Like Selma, it highlights the violence, the deaths, and the beatings, but also goes further back in time to show society’s treatment of African Americans.
Government assistance was designed to help those in need, yet if an individual works the system to their benefit, it is seen as taking advantage. However, the biggest question is, do governmental programs provide all of a family’s needs or are they given the bare minimum necessities? This movie helped achieve the course objective of taking a personal exploration of African American cultural experiences for several reasons. Becoming dependent on welfare is the reality of many African American families. The government has become the father of millions of children. If the father does not step up to take care of his responsibilities, welfare will. The relationship between welfare and employment is also significant because although Claudine is employed in addition to receiving help, she can barely make ends meet. Furthermore, the moment Rupert married Claudine, her welfare would be terminated, although it was no way he could take care of the large family on a garbage man salary. What would be the ethical decision, to choose love or welfare? With all of the outside forces, there was no way for Claudine to succeed in a system that was designed for her to
This documentary, “The Freedom Riders” shows the story of courageous civil rights activists called ‘Freedom Riders’ in 1961 who confronted institutionalized and culturally-accepted segregation in the American South by travelling around the Deep South on buses and trains.
...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.
Innocent: Confessions of a welfare mother is a memoir that defies the stigma that comes along with welfare and poverty. It outlines the trials and tribulations of a single Caucasian mother and her ability to maintain her family. Forced to make pivotal decisions and keep the best interest of her family in mind, she must take welfare handouts to get through her financial struggles. This memoir is a way to highlight the obstacles it takes to keep a stable household and get by at the worst times in a single mothers life. At a time of racism and despair, this single mother was able to find a place to call home and give her family a comfortable life.
After this short but powerful preface, the documentary continues with two shocking interviews made by David Lowe to two under-educated women who are the heads of their families; Ms. Dobey, wh...
As stated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “the test of our progression is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Many people may agree with this statement considering that the United States is such a wealthy country and in 2012, 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States and 15% of all Americans and 21.8% of children under age eighteen were in poverty.The honest truth is that many people do not know the conditions this group of people must live in on a daily basis because of the small number of people who realize the struggle there is not a great amount of service. In the article Too stressed for Success, the author Kevin Clarke asks the question “What is the cost of being poor in America?” and follows the question by explaining the great deals of problems the community of poverty goes through daily by saying, “Researchers have long known that because of a broad reduction in retail and other consumer choices experienced by America's poor, it is often simply more expensive to be poor in the United States.
In The Working Poor by David K. Shipler, Shipler analyzes the effects of poverty and the accountability of working poor in America. Chapter six of the book focuses on traumas of childhood that affect the later life of a person. In this chapter, Shipler speaks of sexual abuse within families, neglectful parenting, and other factors that contribute to a poverty-stricken life. He gives real-life experiences and the effects that an individual’s childhood has had on his or her life. Although his examples are based on real lives of the poor in America, it appears as though he has found the most extreme cases. While these situations are horrible, not all poverty-stricken people are classified under these extreme conditions. Shipler offers excellent points and facts involving the traumas of childhood affecting the future, but fails to acknowledge that not all children will succumb to the struggles of poverty nor does he offer plausible solutions to his criticisms.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 African Americans held the highest poverty rate of 26%, with Hispanics holding the second highest rate at 24% (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). When comparing this to the poverty rates of Whites at 10% and Asians at 12% in 2014, we see that in America, racial and ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to experiencing poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In addition, discrimination is seen between genders among those living in poverty. Family households of a single adult are more likely to be headed by women and are also at a greater risk for poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In 2014, 30.6% of households headed by a single woman were living below the poverty line compared to 15.7% for households headed by a single male (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). Many factors such as poor wages for women, pregnancy associations, and the increase of single-woman parented families have impacted the increase of women in poverty. Children are most harshly affected by poverty because for them the risks are compounded, as they lack the defenses and supports needed to combat the toxicity surrounding them. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21% of all U.S. children (73.6 million children) under 18 years old lived in poverty in 2014 (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor,
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
Throughout Society, many families have seen struggle and lived through poverty. The economy is not always thriving which takes a toll on people who suffer through unemployment or low wage jobs. The Frontline documentary, “Two American Families”, is the perfect example of struggle in the United States. It shows the lives of two struggling families and their efforts to survive. Two essays, “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills, and “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” by Herbert J. Hans, support the analysis of the video strongly. They express many ideas that relate to the world and struggle throughout society. Also, there are many sociological terms that depict the events that occurred in the documentary.
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
America has come a long way with how people are treated as opposed to how things use to be not so long ago. In the film American History X (1998) we see how some parts of America were not adjusting to change in their towns which resulted in violent outbreaks and many deaths. Although throughout the movie we see the main character, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) that at the beginning of the film is in a “white power” gang and later transforms as a character to protect his brother and the rest of his family from being hurt and corrupted by the racist world that they were living in.
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.
A woman who had lived an unsteady life throughout her childhood was negatively affected as an adult by the things that she had went through in her earlier years. In an article entitled “One Family 's Story Shows How The Cycle Of Poverty Is Hard To Break,” Pam Fessler stated that “Like many before her, she carried her poverty into adulthood, doing odd jobs with periods of homelessness and hunger.” The woman had realized that her children were being negatively affected by the unsteady lifestyle that they were living. The mother had said that her six year old daughter had emotional issues, which led to her making herself throw up after eating, running away, and talking about killing herself (Fessler). The little girl had been emotionally affected by poverty, which caused her to do things that most six year olds would not think about doing. The people who live in poverty as a child are more likely to struggle in adulthood. Poverty has many negative effects on children and tends to affect the way they grow and live the rest of their life as an