Child Poverty In America

Fortunately there are programs that assist families in crisis and can help to feed the children of the United States; however the number of hungry children is growing. Child hunger in the United States has been described as an increasingly complex problem and has been called the “silent epidemic.” (Goldstein, 2009)

Living in a household of ten members was really tough. I can remember going to the store and not being able to buy anything I wanted. We barely had enough money to buy something for us to eat. It was hard for me to understand why my parents always said no to me when I asked for a candy, but later on, I realized my parents were struggling to get food on our table. Sometimes I would go hungry to bed, worried about what we would eat the next day. Living a childhood in poverty has made me realize that the little I had was enough for me to be happy and to appreciate what little we had because my mom always told me “there are other people who have less than we do”.

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.

It was difficult to read that countless millions of federal dollars and many of our country's most successful efforts to halt the spread of childhood hunger and starvation have recently been withdrawn. And as a result, this problem of childhood hunger is not getting better but is actually getting worse. The most recent estimates compiled by the USDA in 1999 indicate that 36.2 million Americans live in food-insecure households, which means that their access to adequate and safe food is limited or uncertain. This too is very disturbing information.

Poverty is an epidemic that has swept the American nation many times over. Whether it be quietly lingering under the surface, or blatantly staring us in the face as it is in this current recession, it affects people across America on individual, community and national levels alike. While there are many causes and effects of poverty, it is important to view the issue of poverty and its causes from all angles when one seeks to tackle the problem. These factors include socio-economic status, mental illness, family values and work ethics, to name a few. In this essay, I will be examining these factors as they are discussed in the book, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (referred to as Glass Castle throughout essay), as well as in the article

Poverty is a human services issue that is spread throughout the nation and world. ‘The percentage of children who are poor is more than three times as high in the United States as it is in Norway or the Netherlands.’ (Porter, 2016) The trend since 2000 is that there is an increasing amount of families, and in turn children, living in poverty. Poverty has been defined as the state of being extremely poor. But what does that mean? Poverty is the lack of financial, emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical resources. Children cannot change their situation because they are dependent on adults to provide for them which makes poverty easily passed from generation to generation. “Poverty directly and indirectly affects

America 's child poverty levels are considered worst than any developed country in the world. Children in European nations, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia fare better than U.S. According to Coplan (2015), officially, 14.5% of Americans are impoverished which means 45.3 million people based on the latest US Census data. Thus, U.S. Rank 36th out of 162 countries. Now America 's poor are more often in their prime working years, or in households headed by single mothers.

Whatever happened to the idea of “women and children first”? This concept has been slowly diminishing throughout the years. In today’s society, poverty can be seen in the faces of women and children across the globe. The overwhelming majority of the poor consists of women and children. As of 2013, one in seven women live in poverty (Robbins and Morrison 2014: 1). The poverty of women and children is a global problem, but it is also a problem that hits home. Poverty exists in our hometowns and neighborhoods across the United States. This problem is not just in low-income countries like much of Africa or the third world countries we see on commercials. It is also prevalent in high-income countries like our own. Poverty may have a women’s face,

Fifty-five percent of boys and sixty-six percent of girls miss out on at least one of the three meals were meant to have a day. Child poverty in the first three years of life is related to substandard nutritional status and poor motor skills; poverty is also associated with childhood obesity- as they get older, poor children are more likely to have chronic health problems, such as asthma and anaemia. (American Psychological Association, 2018).

In a valley known for such wealth and prosperity, there is a growing rate of child poverty. Child poverty is very visible and could be practically eliminated by building more affordable housing for families, creating more jobs to give people a chance to get above the poverty line and, raising the minimum wage to help low income families make enough money to support themselves and their families.

In the United States of America more than sixteen million children live in poverty. In the news today we notice many examples of poverty due to the lack of jobs. Job scarcity is a root cause for lower-income families. Poverty has a substantial effect on children: physically, mentally, and educationally.

Most people from other countries think about the States as being the land of the “American Dream”. Despite being home of the “American dream”, poverty has become one of Americas most major leading problems. Poverty affects multiple groups of people throughout the United States. Child poverty specifically has grown vastly and has fostered major issues such as educational issues, behavioral problems, and generational poverty. Through the pursuit of knowledge, developing critical thinking skills among youth, creating a relatable educational experience for student, and giving students the tools to brake generational disparities, childhood poverty can be reduced.

Since America was founded, immigrants have developed and shaped each state, making the country so unique and to some, the most desirable place to live. “The streets were paved of gold” was the slogan used to attract so many people from around the world, but, how many people truly “struck gold” after moving here? Only 28% of the population (according to a 2005 census) live in the middle to upper class. To put this statistic into perspective; one in every 4 families are living knowing that they are financially stable. The question presented to teens today is whether you’re born into wealth or work for it. Day to day people swear by the phrase; “It’s not what you know it's who you know”, and this does hold a substantial amount of truth but it

Childhood poverty is a pervasive problem in the United States. Unfortunately, many children are affected by poverty, with young children being the most vulnerable. Some of the causes of poverty include lack of education, family composition, immigration, and unemployment. The government can help in many ways by promoting marriage and free and reduced school lunch programs. Poverty is a social problem because it’s widespread. People do not have the acquired skills needed to succeed in today’s society. Childhood poverty is even more challenging because children cannot help themselves and the solutions must come from social change in order to have a significant impact. To improve poverty, it is important to create enhancements in education