The effects of poverty on children

As a child we lived below the poverty level.  My mother and father were divorced when I was three and my mother and I moved into a low income neighborhood.  She worked but received minimum wage.  She decided to enroll in college, but it took her several years to get her degree because she could only attend part time.  Those years were tough.  I can remember my mother asking me, “do you want those new shoes or groceries for the week?”  She wanted me to realize money was scarce and we had to provide for our needs before we could buy things we wanted.  I learned valuable lessons at a young age and also watched my mother work very hard juggling her job, school and taking care of me. 

Aside from the possibility of having an empty refrigerator, I also suffered in other ways.  My mom wasn’t home that much and I was either with family, a babysitter or alone quite a bit.  My mom also suffered from depression and I was tremendously impacted by that.  I often felt she was emotionally unavailable.  Also, I hurt for her and worried about her very much.  I suffered from depression myself and sometimes still battle the disorder.   

Speaking in developmental terms I know I was affected cognitively and psychosocially.  I did not ever have any problems with my grades but I will admit I was (and still am) a bit paranoid and insecure.   Emotionally I know I have suffered and have always been very dependent on my relationships with others, to the point of needy.  With age and experience, however, I feel better every day.  Also becoming a mother helped me grow and realize I have to be independent and strong for my own son.

When researching other areas of the world, I chose to find out more about poverty in Mexico.  When I was twenty years old, I traveled to Cancun.  It was my first time out of the country and the resort was beautiful.  We decided to venture out and go to the pyramids at Tulum.  We drove for a while and I was shocked at what I saw outside the resort area.  There were people living in cardboard houses.  It was surreal for me.  I guess I just thought everything was like the United States.  You can hear about it, but until you actually experience it, you don’t really know.

When I began to research children and poverty in Mexico, I came across the term “street children”.  UNICEF has classified three types of street children:  street-living, street-working, and street-family.  Here are the descriptions:

• Street Living Children: children who ran away from their families and live alone on the streets.
• Street Working Children: children who spend most of their time on the streets, fending for themselves, but returning home on a regular basis.
• Children from Street Families: children who live on the streets with their families.

Mexican street children facts & statistics

• Mexico City has 1,900,000 underprivileged and street children. 240,000 of these are abandoned children. (Action International Ministries)
• In the central area of Mexico City there are 11,172 street children. 1,020 live in the street and 10,152 work there. (City of Mexico/Fideicomiso, Report, 1991)
• In 1996, the Inter-American Development Bank and UNICEF estimated there were 40 million children living or working on the streets of Latin America--out of an estimated total population of 500 million.
• Begging - Some 20% of the children survive by begging, 24% by selling goods, and others by doing subcontracting work. ("Over 5 Million Child Laborers in Mexico", Xinhua: Comtex, 14 September 2000, citing National System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), "Prevention, Attention, Discouragement and Eradication of Childhood Labor")
• 8-11 million children under the age of 15 years are working in Mexico. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1993)

This information can be found at http://www.mexico-child-link.org/street-children-definition-statistics.htm.

As far as the effects of poverty on children, the American Psychological Association released the following information:

What are the effects of child poverty?

• Psychological research has demonstrated that living in poverty has a wide range of negative effects on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our nation’s children.
• Poverty impacts children within their various contexts at home, in school, and in their neighborhoods and communities.
• Poverty is linked with negative conditions such as substandard housing, homelessness, inadequate nutrition and food insecurity, inadequate child care, lack of access to health care, unsafe neighborhoods, and underresourced schools which adversely impact our nation’s children.
• Poorer children and teens are also at greater risk for several negative outcomes such as poor academic achievement, school dropout, abuse and neglect, behavioral and socioemotional problems, physical health problems, and developmental delays.
• These effects are compounded by the barriers children and their families encounter when trying to access physical and mental health care.
• Economists estimate that child poverty costs the U.S. $500 billion a year in lost productivity in the work force and spending on health care and the criminal justice system.

Poverty and academic achievement

• Poverty has a particularly adverse effect on the academic outcomes of children, especially during early childhood.
• Chronic stress associated with living in poverty has been shown to adversely affect children’s concentration and memory which may impact their ability to learn.
• School drop out rates are significantly higher for teens residing in poorer communities. In 2007, the dropout rate of students living in low-income families was about 10 times greater than the rate of their peers from high-income families (8.8% vs. 0.9%).
• The academic achievement gap for poorer youth is particularly pronounced for low-income African American and Hispanic children compared with their more affluent White peers.
• Underresourced schools in poorer communities struggle to meet the learning needs of their students and aid them in fulfilling their potential.
• Inadequate education contributes to the cycle of poverty by making it more difficult for low-income children to lift themselves and future generations out of poverty.

Poverty and psychosocial outcomes

• Children living in poverty are at greater risk of behavioral and emotional problems.
• Some behavioral problems may include impulsiveness, difficulty getting along with peers, aggression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder.
• Some emotional problems may include feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
• Poverty and economic hardship is particularly difficult for parents who may experience chronic stress, depression, marital distress and exhibit harsher parenting behaviors. These are all linked to poor social and emotional outcomes for children.
• Unsafe neighborhoods may expose low-income children to violence which can cause a number of psychosocial difficulties. Violence exposure can also predict future violent behavior in youth which places them at greater risk of injury and mortality and entry into the juvenile justice system.

Poverty and physical health

Children and teens living in poorer communities are at increased risk for a wide range of physical health problems:

• Low birth weight
• Poor nutrition which is manifested in the following ways:

a.     Inadequate food which can lead to food insecurity/hunger

b.     Lack of access to healthy foods and areas for play or sports which can lead to childhood overweight or obesity

• Chronic conditions such as asthma, anemia, and pneumonia
• Risky behaviors such as smoking or engaging in early sexual activity
• Exposure to environmental contaminants, e.g., lead paint and toxic waste dumps
• Exposure to violence in their communities which can lead to trauma, injury, disability, and mortality

Further information can be viewed at http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx#.