How Does Poverty Affect A Child?

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 is on the agenda of the Every Child Matters framework, with one of the five outcomes stating that every child should ‘achieve wealth and economic well being.’ This means is it is important that children experiencing poverty have the same opportunities as their peers.’(CYPW, pg 186/187)

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).

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).

This is due to children from different social background have different access to resources and have different experiences of education. This means that lower class children are still more likely to have a lesser education than those pupils who are more privileged (). Rather than improving life chances for all the pupils through education the system, it still leaves a barrier which is not equal. This lack of equality could also reflect from the parents as the amount of knowledge parents have about schooling and the educational market would be different. Parents that have more of a cultural, social and economical capital have more choice on where to send their child. Money can help if the best school is far away of if the child needs their own textbooks for further study. Parents or guardians who have a good understanding and knowledge of how schooling works are in better position to influence their child to choose a certain path. This therefore puts the middle class and above in an improved position than the classic working class as they would have the knowledge as well as the finances to put their child in a higher achieving school with a higher reputation or place them in private schools, like; Harrow or Eton, which would be the ‘gateway’ to success as they would more and greater connections in the real

When the average person, who lives in the UK, thinks about child poverty, the first picture, which comes to their mind is some extremely poor country in the middle of Africa, where families live to survive on a daily basis. Meanwhile, here, in the UK, nearly four million children, which makes 30 per cent of the whole child population, are living in poverty (End Child Poverty, 2014).

As of 2013 approximately 45 million people in America lived below the poverty line. In an average three-person household, an annual income of $20,090 is federally considered to be at poverty level. In the year of 2014, 44 percent of children under the age of 18 were living at or below the poverty level. Coming from a low economic standing can be detrimental for children’s physical and mental states. Pursuing a higher education without proper funding can become nearly impossible. Most importantly however, without income of some sort children can go hungry. The poverty crisis in America not only affects the adults but it truly affects children through nutrition, education, and psychological factors.

Childhood and adolescence are expected to be the times of great functioning and physical health, yet poverty provokes this from occurring and children face poor health. Children living in poverty are at immense risk for their development, health and overall well-being. According to Komro, 2011, the absolute rate of poverty among children is higher in the United States than in other industrialized nations. Nationally, One in five children are living in poverty (Raphel, 2014). Malnourishment is one of the numerous outcomes from poverty; children are suffering each day in America with this threat to their health. Malnourishment is a result of either not having sufficient nutrients in their diet or having it excessively that it causes health problems.

About 15 million of the children who live in the Unites States live in official poverty. A child born into poverty, especially in 2015, axiomatically has an increased risk of poor physical, mental, and nutritional health due to a lack of adequate health care, is subject to a different upbringing, due to inabilities of low-income parents, and burdened by unsatisfactory education from socioeconomically segregated schools. These factors unfortunately cause lower income children to suffer from a lack of opportunity to achieve higher education, social problems that come with living in poverty, and decrease their chance of a prosperous life trajectory.

The statistics of children living in poverty are at elevated quantities. Nationally, around one in five children are living in poverty (Raphel, 2014). Social Services (2015), specifies that 21.6% of the United States’ children were living in poverty in 2013.

In terms of education, children’s cognitive development start showing difference at 22 months that can be related to parents social status, children from affluent family are 54.2% likely to get 5 or more A – C grades in GCSEs compared 26.6% of children from deprived background. (Children’s society, 2013) Lack of skills and qualifications are both cause and consequences of poverty. (Nechildpoverty, 2011) Since education and good qualification influences household income, this, in turn affects the child of the

Throughout history Poverty has been a problem that affects the world. There are multiple dimensions that are the result from living at or below the poverty level. Children suffer under the pressures of poverty, they are helpless victims. Poverty does not cause Child Abuse or neglect but it does contribute or exasperates an already dire situation.

The word poverty means being poor. This means luck of capital in both income and wealth. However they also suffer from education and good health. Families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty. However people who are in poverty will have fewer opportunities like others and less chance to participate in the community. Therefore we help those children by fundraising, to transform UK’S more vulnerable children. There are certain people who live in poverty these are, families and children alone parents, also people with disability problem. (Barnado’s, 2012) online

Throughout the course of history, millions of children have been victims of physical abuse; it has been shown that the effects of this abuse can profoundly influence ones mental and physical health in the span of his or hers life.

Society has gotten to a point in which many of those whom are left in poverty stricken situations are forgotten. We sometimes seem to care more about the health and wellbeing of those in other countries before helping those closest to home during their time of need. Many continue going about their day to day lives not realizing those forgettable people we threw to the side were once children that could have been helped if we had just taken the extra time and concern. Those people could have had the chance to live up to their full potential and perhaps could have changed the world. Children who live in poverty are subjected to such things as lower education attainment as well as low earning potential. Poverty stricken children are more likely to be raised in poor neighborhood environments, have less access to food, minimal access to health care, and a toll can be taken on their emotional and behavioral development.