America 's Child Poverty Levels

Who are America’s poor children? How many children in America are poor? What are some of the hardships that face poor children in America? These are only a few questions that we can ask ourselves when considering children who live in poverty in America. Children face monumental hardships in our country because of poverty or the condition of not possessing the means to afford basic human needs. The economic crisis that we find ourselves in today threatens to cause a dramatic increase in the number of America’s poor children; however poverty in America has long been a crisis that has faced the children of our nation. This essay will investigate the previous asked questions and research

Poverty, the state of being extremely poor, exists all over America! There are several different types of poverty, and the causes of poverty. Most people think of poverty as just somebody who is homeless and has no job, somebody who has no money to support the basic needs of life, and wears ragged clothing and lives under a bridge. What people don’t know is there are people living in poverty that have jobs and make money but live so poorly that they are categorized with people that live in absolute poverty.

The current poverty rate in America is 13.5 percent (US Census Bureau). That measures out to roughly 43.1 million Americans. What exactly is poverty? Poverty means not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is so much more than just not having enough money. Poverty is not having access to a doctor or medications you may need, poverty is not having access to a good education. Poverty can be the people who are barely able to pay for food and shelter and simply can’t afford other expenses such as car repairs, field trips with their children and any other extracurricular activity.

Did you ever consider everything that has to go exactly right for a baby to be born with out any birth defects, prematurity, or low birth weight? The answer is a lot, and according to the March of Dimes more then 460,000 babies are born prematurely every year in the United States alone (March of Dimes website). Recently, this statistic hit closer to home when a close friend of mine gave birth to her first child. At five months she was informed that her baby would be born prematurely with a hole in its diaphragm, a birth defect that could mean life or death. When the time came to deliver, the doctors performed a caesarean section. With the help of supporting organizations and

The topic being addressed in this article is the changing association among marriage, work, and child poverty in the United States. There has been numerous research conducted on the importance of marriage and work and the link that it has to child poverty and the negative association that has been shown through research. However over many decades, there has been a transformation that marriage and work is no longer a negative association with child poverty. This study thoroughly examined the relationships between marriage, work, and the relative measures from 1974-2010 using 10 waves of the U.S. Census Current Populations Survey data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The influence of demographic characteristics that relate to poverty shows that marriage negative association with child poverty has declined whereas work’s negative association with child poverty has increased.

The United States is the richest nation, yet millions of Americans live below the poverty line and millions more struggle every month. The children in society today living in poverty is increasing daily. The majority of these children are from single-parent homes where sometimes parents are not working or have become disabled and therefore cannot work. Children who are raised in foster care and leave as adults do not have strong relationship ties most of the time and are at an increased risk for experiencing poverty, early parenthood and homelessness (American School Board Journal, 2007). The reason for most of the poverty in the United States is due to low family incomes.

The U.S. is among the richest countries in the world today, yet millions of people in America still live below the poverty level. The number of Americans living in poverty is increasing day by day as well as the number of children. Poverty in America has become a great threat to children’s wellbeing as they are affected emotionally, socially, and even in their school performance (Wood 720). Poverty in America is mainly caused by lack of jobs. Many people who live in poverty in the United States is due to lack of jobs and getting jobs with minimum wage. Another cause of poverty is due to the rise in the cost of living. Poverty exists in America despite the fact that is among the richest nations in the world.

Death and illnesses among women, infant, and child are preventable. In pregnancy, existing health risks can distinguish or prevent any future health problems for women and their children. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2016), some high-risk factors that may consider are the following: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, depression, genetic conditions, sexually transmitted diseases, tobacco and alcohol abuse, inadequate nutrition and unhealthy weight. By having this government Healthy 2020 initiative, factors that can affect the pregnancy and childbirth such as poverty,

As of the 2016 census, approximately 323.1 million people reside in the United States of America. 14.5% of those Americans living in poverty, meaning that 45.3 million Americans are affected by poverty, an immense increase from 8 million in 2008. 97.3 million people who occupy the U.S are considered low income and 41 million people struggle with hunger in the United States. 1 in every 2 people are considered poor or receive low income. Poverty is not equal among various demographics, for instance, in 2015, 12% of men lived in poverty in the USA, and 14.8% of women lived in poverty and among non-citizens the poverty rate is 22.8%.

It is easy to see that the medical abilities and tools we had 50 years ago are nothing in comparison to what we have today. Among these advances has been the extent to which we can prevent illness and disability. Fetal surgery first emerged in the 1980’s by Dr Michael Harrison aka “the father of fetal surgery,” when he decided to look into ways doctors could fix certain defects before birth to avoid their inevitable, devastating consequences. It has since expanded its practice to a number of hospitals across the country, although it is still an uncommon procedure. It involves opening up the mother 's uterus (just as a doctor would during a caesarean section) so that the fetus is exposed as much as needed to be operated on. The fetus is then put back and the uterus is closed until it is time for the mother to go into labor. The fetus is never detached from the mother and is essentially being operated on while inside the womb (Smajdor). While it may seem like a positive life changing procedure, there are many perspectives out there that support

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 46.7 million Americans live in poverty equivalent to 14.8 percent of the population.

It is known that the children are unable to determine their life circumstances, their families, and care solely for themselves without supervision. With this being said, children have little to no jurisdiction in determining the situations that they are confronted with. Most of the time when we ponder child poverty we think of low-income families or lack of food in the household, but it extends beyond that to “an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development” (“Children Under Threat,” 2005). Unfortunately, the prevalence of youth poverty in the United States may seem uncommon to those who are personally unaffected by the crisis; however, statistics show that 15 million children (21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (Child Poverty, 2017). Moreover, when considering the demographics of impoverished children the following are true: a child in the U.S. has a 1 in 5 chance of being poor and the younger they are the poorer they are likely to be, and a child of color is more than twice as likely to be poor than a White child (Child Poverty, 2017). Research proves that poverty is the single greatest threat to a child’s well-being as it decreases the likelihood of a child graduating from high school, and it increases the chances of them becoming involved with the criminal justice system (Ending Child Poverty Now, 2017).

Different studies and different recourses show that about 1 in 33 babies that are born in the U.S have a birth defect. I decided to use this known fact from the Human Biology thirteenth edition textbook by Sylvia S. Mader and Michael Windelpecht due to the fact that not many people know or even care to think about it— that is— unless it happened to them or someone in their own circle. In order to understand how to prevent and test for a birth defect you need to understand some common definitions and words that can be used while reading about the topic. For starters, as stated in the merriam-webster dictionary, the medical definition of defect is “a lack or deficiency of something necessary for adequacy in form or function.” Another word that is used a lot when talking about this subject matter is test and testing. Based on the medical definition a test is “a diagnostic procedure for determining the presence or nature of a condition or disease or for revealing a change in function.” From this definition you can see how the word test is also used in medical vocabulary to see what is wrong with a patient so the doctors can determine what to do next. The last term that I want to explain briefly before continuing is one that people might get confused with, it is the word prevent. Although it might seem like an easy word people still confuse it with the act of curing someone. The dictionary without a doubt states that the word prevent means “to keep from happening or existing”

The expectations for an elegant, extremely comfortable lifestyle have gotten much higher, when the reality is that 85% of the world’s population are living in countries with extremely high poverty rates. In the dictionary, the word poverty means “the state of being extremely poor” and when people think of poverty, they think of struggling african families or malnourished children in continents like Africa. Contrary to what people think, America is a country where there is a lot of poverty. In 2015, 43.1 million americans were in poverty with the highest number being children under the age of 18. Compared to africa, America’s poverty rates are significantly low. In a study conducted in 2010, it showed that more than 414 million people in the

Every year in the United States around 120,000 infants are born with defects(1). This means that 1 in every 33 babies are born with a harmful defect(1). These children face many hardships throughout their lives. A birth defects is any physical or biochemical abnormality that is present at birth and that may be inherited or the result of an environmental influence. These defects can range from mild to severe based on each case. Children born with defects do not normally live the average life span and their life is filled with challenges and hardships. Birth defects are the leading cause for infant death in the United States. These children get shunned in today’s society. If or when they go to