Factors That Affect The Child

Children who come from a lower social economic background are more likely to be in poverty themselves. This can lead to lower expectations of the child from both parents and also the education system, leaving them little or no hope of getting out of poverty even though they may have the ability to do so.

Poverty - A child may be living in a household with a very low income and their family may not be able to afford to provide for their children as they ad hoped. They may struggle to buy enough food, especially health food, to eat, buy clothes to wear or even to provide heating and electric. This can affect their physical and mental health due to poor hygiene and diet. Some children may suffer with low self-esteem and low self-respect because of the stigma attached to poverty, this can affect them in later life also.

As mentioned by Ruane and Cerulo in Second Thoughts, harsh realities of poverty affect children’s lives in profound ways. Children lack any power in improving their circumstances and depend on adults to gain access to basic necessities. Access to proper healthcare, education, and basic nutrition continues to be an obstacle for children. Poverty impedes children’s aptitude to learn and contributes to poor overall health and mental health. Perhaps most important, poverty becomes a cyclical nature that is difficult to overcome. Children who experience poverty when they are young tend to experience persistent poverty over the course of their entire lives. According to the Child Welfare League of America, the national poverty rate for children

The area a child grows up in has an effect, for example if a child is brought up on a council estate in poor housing they are more likely to have health problems. If parents are not working or have low income jobs they are likely to buy cheaper food and usually this means lower quality which can lead to health problems. Children and their families may have lower expectations. They might settle for the life that id mapped out. If a child lives in high rise flats or appartments they have less oppportunities to play. In poor quality housing there may not be a garden or safe playing area. This is reducing the childs opportunities to develop their physical gross motor skills. This of course is not always the case

Poverty is often associated with Third World countries, where the outcome of such poverty is often death from disease or starvation. However this is the extremes of poverty, and is rarely experienced within the UK. Despite this poverty still takes place within the UK just at a lesser extent, however this does not take away from the devastating effects that poverty can have. This poverty can be attributed to having less money and lower living standards than others of the same society (European Anti-Poverty Network, 2009). Child poverty is a direct result of adult poverty (Poverties.org, 2011-2012) however unlike and adult, the experience of poverty for a child can effect later life drastically. In April 2011, there were 13 million people in the UK living below the poverty line, this included 3.6 million children (Department for Work and Pensions, 2011), and these numbers are expected to rise further (Child Poverty action Group, 2000-2012). This type of poverty does not discriminate, it is a direct result of inadequate resources.

Poverty can result in unemployment, parental separation, illness or disability, addictions, or criminal activities. Children may suffer malnutrition or a poor diet as a result of their parents being unable to afford quality food. This could result in lack of concentration or poor performance at school.

If a child is living in poverty statistically they are more likely to to suffer ill health in later life and also be unemployed and turn to crime and substance abuse this will then cause their children to then suffer and the cycle continues.

According to cliffnotes, there are different types of poverty; absolute poverty: the lack of access to the minimum food and shelter that is necessary for maintaining life; relative poverty: the poor who earns less than half of the nation median income, so they tend lack what is necessary to live decently; feminization of poverty: a number of single women who live in poverty alone, mainly as single mothers; and cultural poverty: where nothing can be done to change their economic outcomes. There are so many serious effects from poverty, but children are known to be affected the most. It is shown that children who grow up in poverty are more likely to suffer from more persistent, frequent, and severe health problems, than those children who grow up in a better financial circumstances and environment

(Payne, 2005). Payne (2005) also said that poverty causes a lack of the following resources;

As of 2015, 14.5 million children are living in poverty. What is poverty you ask? Poverty defined by Webster’s Dictionary is the state of being extremely poor. In my opinion, poverty is much more than not having enough money to supply basic needs. Poverty is lack of shelter, lack of food in most cases, being sick and not able to see a doctor. Having very little to no resources in order to acquire the proper education, poverty is one of the major problems among society today. Affecting all ages at any place and time, it is not selective, but very common. However, the impact is worse when exposed to a child in their early developmental stage. The effects of poverty can be devastating. Preventing young children’s desire to thrive while overall negatively affecting their development. This paper exposes the various impacts of poverty in early childhood development.

We all know what it means to be poor, it means to be short of money, unable to afford many of services that other people of the society can. Child poverty means to be living in a family where they are having hard time making ends meet. As one of the richest country, 3.9 million children in the UK living in poverty is apalling.2 What is even worse is London, the capital city, having ‘the highest rate of child poverty of any English region.’3

Child poverty is children that fail to meet the minimum acceptable standard of living this applies to children that come from poor families or orphans being raised with limited, or in some cases no income at all. “For many families, it is very difficult to get out of poverty. There is not enough money to feed the children, clothe them properly, or even enough money to pay for the bus fare or to look for a job” says Grant Wilson, President of Canadian Children’s Rights Council. It is even harder for new Canadian children and aboriginal families as they are at a greater risk of living in poverty.

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. They are even capable of understanding and dealing with

Throughout the stage of childhood the attitudes and the values can be passed down to the child. When children are young they are deeply influenced by their parents and this is because their self-concept is forming. They can acquire skills that are the basic foundation for learning throughout childhood. Therefore, a strong support system in early childhood can greatly affect their development.

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.