Child Poverty Research Paper

The Toronto Star published an article reporting that Toronto currently has the highest rate of children living in households that are considered low income in Canada (Monsebraaten, 2015). The article reports that in Toronto the child poverty rate is higher than the poverty rate of any other age group. This paper will discuss child poverty, how this is a challenge to public health practices and policies, and finally, discuss potential solutions for public policy that address this issue.

Assuaging poverty is one of the gist missions of the Harlem Children’s Zone. In the United States today, exceeding “13 million” children live in poverty. We understand that children, who experience the backlash of poverty, often live in an unpleasantly conditions, unstable homes, and are at a great distance less likely than other children to get a favorable education and/or sufficient health care. The exposure to life of poverty more often limits learning abilities; bringing about the inability of getting the best jobs and earning maximum income, making it impossible for them to live up to their full potential, which will more like result in imprisonment.

Grace Abbott once said, “Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” Child poverty is one of the biggest issues facing Canadian children today. Child poverty can significantly shorten a child’s life. One of the major reasons child poverty in Canada is so high is because of low wages. These children have a disadvantage to all the other children in Canada. There is major inequality among these children. There are many problems that come out of child poverty and effect the children directly. This paper will talk about the four major effects of child poverty; health issues and nutrition, emotional and behavioural issues, education, and their home environment. (Introduction: dimensions of children’s inequality, 2003).

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

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.

Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, notes “More than fifteen million children are poor, and more than one in five will experience poverty during the most crucial year of brain development” (2015, p.1). Some of the long-term negative effects of childhood poverty include health problems, greater high school dropout rates, and increased crime as adults. Not only does it impact the individual person, it also impacts the nation: “Year after year the loss of productivity and extra health and criminal justice costs associated with it add up to roughly half a trillion dollars” (Edelman, 2015, p.1). Three sociological theories that deal with the issues of poverty are structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. Structural functionalism focuses on how society institutions are interdependence. Social problems happen when the interactions break down. Conflict theory is when there are conflicts between various social groups. Symbolic interaction is the perception of the situation as a problem. Of these three theories, childhood poverty applies more directly to structural functionalism and conflict

“In the United States, child poverty rates are higher than rates for the adult and elderly populations.” (Katherine Magnuson and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal 1) As poverty rates increase, more children are involved. Children, uninfluenced by the evils of the world, are pushed by these harsh living conditions and treated unfairly by others. Growing up in poverty can lead to lasting effects, and those effects include education issues, physical health is proven worse, and inadequate behavior. As an adult, these issues can turn into whether or not survival is promised.

In the last 30 years, there has been increase in child poverty in the Britain.1 We, as a community, should do as much as we can to help in removing child poverty.

Nelson Mandela once said, "Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future." (Nepaul). Yet, in 2014, 31.4 million American children lived in low-income households and 15.4 million lived in poor families (phys.org). By 2016, the number of children living in poverty still stay the same. In fact, it even shows sign of increasing when nearly half of children in America are living dangerously close to the poverty line, where their families barely make enough to afford the most basic needs (phys.org). Looking at these statistics, it is clear that we need to these children and their families. And in order to do so, we first need to change our attitudes towards the poor and create more effective plans, such as...

Evidence shows that the United States has the second highest child poverty rate in the world today (Anthony). I believe cooperation is better than competition. Tackling child poverty is in everybody's interests and needs to be everybody's business. It is only by working together that we can up the pace of change. Poverty status is related to a number of economic factors such as, unemployed parents, unstable homes and families, and homelessness.

This Infographic caught my attention because it was using very bold colors such as blue, white and yellow. The infographic also caught my attention because it had a theme of a school it also had a title which started with “child poverty”. The word “poverty” when look at it, I expect a homeless child in some developing country. The child I expect looks very skinny, hungry and has clothes on that are torn up or no clothes at all. Also this infographic had a lot of numbers side by side, this caught my attention because I was very curious about what those numbers were for. In my thoughts I was thinking the numbers were to do with education inequality’s but I soon found out that I was wrong.

Over the past couple years the cost of expenditures for child poverty has increased. It is now costing more to take care and provide for children in poverty than it is for governments to reduce and eliminate poverty as a whole. A large cause for child poverty is that children are born into families who have lower earnings which lead to those children growing up with a low potential to excel and therefore have job that pays low thus causing a recycled process. Living in poverty and low class segments in countries also takes a hit towards that country’s economy in the form of foregone earnings, crime and healthcare for those who grew up in poverty, one country that sees a large hit is the United States that faces a cost of $500 billion annually.

Child poverty is becoming more of a big issue now more than ever in the U.K, with so many people unemployed and living on benefits. Children across the country are being deprived of basic living standards. The price of living is going up and it’s no wonder people are struggling to make ends meet. In my essay, I will talk about all aspects of how child poverty impacts greatly on children’s lives. I will talk about the effects poverty has on a child’s health, housing, education and social exclusion. I will also talk about how child poverty can be tackled, and the causes of child poverty with in the United Kingdom.

The role that child poverty play in advocating and formulating public policy related to this issue is that reducing child poverty is crucial for economic and social development. Enhancing a child’s well-being includes proper nutrition, better education outcomes, housing and medical support for the child, families, and community. In addition, reducing child poverty or fighting hunger and child malnutrition improves

Poverty is a considerable social problem; with a significant impact on those who suffer within. Growing up in poverty “reduces a child’s chance of growing up to be a healthy, well-adjusted, and contributing adult in our society” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 59). Poverty is families having to struggle to afford necessities. Poverty does not know where your next meal is coming from or having to choose between paying rent and seeing a health care provider. The impact of poverty affects one’s ability through physical, social, emotional, and educational health. Even though individual overcome poverty it still extends across cultural, racial, ethnic, and geographical borders. Children represent the largest group of poverty in the United States. “Growing up in poverty places a child at a profound disadvantage and substantially lowers the chances that the child will mature into a well-adjusted, productive, and contributing