Child poverty refers to the state of children living in poverty conditions. However, the level of which the state is considered as child poverty or the level of poverty differs based on the social interpretation of poverty. In American society, child poverty is one of the most pressing social problems as the United States holds the highest child poverty ate when compared to other developed countries. By 2014, the children that were reported t living in families that had income below the federal poverty line in the United States were approximately 21.1% for children below the age of 18 and 25% for children under the age of three (McCarty, 2016). The child poverty rate is alarming to both the economic and social status of the United States, considering that the country's overall poverty rate has decreased in the past decade. To evaluate different perspectives regarding child poverty within the United States, this paper provides the probable causes of child poverty within American society, the impacts of child poverty in the short term or long term, and the solutions that can be applied in American society to tackle the child poverty problem.
Causes of Child Poverty
The roots of child poverty in American society vary across the population and linked to other factors concerning characteristics of subgroups. According to Alyn McCarty, 2016, child poverty within the American society starts with the color of the child. Based on the 2014 research report by McCarty, the number of African American or non-Hispanic Black children living in poverty conditions was 38%, the rate for American Indian children in poverty conditions was 36%, and Hispanic or Latino living in poverty were estimated at 32%. However, the rate of children living in poverty conditions among non-Hispanic White were13% the same to those who are Asian or Pacific Islander. The rates indicate that poverty affects all children regardless of their ethnicity or race. However, high levels of child poverty are recorded among Hispanic children, African American, and American Indian children. The rates of the poverty level among children can be linked to the historical institutional practices that have disproportionally affected the people of color for a much longer period that have created poverty among the people of color. The disproportionally resulted in the growing agents of poverty based on race or ethnicity, including high rates of incarceration, low wages, low availability of employment, and poor education programs and facilities. The discrimination based on race or ethnic background can then be considered as one of the major roots of poverty among the American society.
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Another cause of child poverty is linked to immigration. Most migrants, who are rapidly growing in the United States, tend to have a background of low financial capability. The immigrant children in the United States represent almost a fourth of the children population in the country, with a high percentage being Mexican and Hispanic. The immigrants face the same agents of poverty as the race or ethnic minority groups with a much higher impact (McCarty, 2016). The poverty rates of immigrants are caused by the discrimination they face in terms of job availability aces to public services such as healthcare and education due to undocumented status and low wages. Declining rates in marriages and the growing burden of child poverty in the United States are also other factors that result in child poverty. Single-mother families have recoded the high number of child poverty compared to the married-couple families due to less potential associated with single mothers in terms of acquiring enough earnings to support the children. Some single-mothers also face difficulties when it comes to acquiring child support payments.
However, the bottom line cause of child poverty is money. According to Jeff Madrick, 2020, low income is the major cause of child poverty as it affects both parents and children. The effects of low income include maternal depression, poor parenting, and physical home environment, a child's cognitive ability are affected, low achievement levels, poor child's engagement in school, and it affects a child's behavior and anxiety. Without money, the parents or caregivers will not be in a position to buy or afford both basic and non-basic requirements that are essential for child development.
Effects of Child Poverty
The effect of child poverty can be estimated through different aspects. However, the most common estimation is considering the outcomes between the poor and non-poor families and their children; the period that the child was exposed to poverty in childhood; the accumulated effects of poverty revealed in adulthood; and the child's socioeconomic impacts including the schools and neighborhood. Some of the effects of poverty include the gap between the rich and the poor child in academic achievement. Madrick considers lack of money as a result of poor children's ability to reason and calculate due to lack of enough academic instruments to support their educational process. Although education is highly considered as a better chance of escaping poverty and attaining other life desires such as adult health, long life expectancy, and civic participation, children in poverty see it as an impossible dream. The gap between the rich and poor child in terms of schooling starts to open as early as kindergarten. Children in poverty are likely to start attending kindergarten some years older than those from rich families, a gap that continues to open up as they move up. Income remains the factor in the academic gap effect as it determines the parental ability to invest in the child's cognitive development.
Another major impact of poverty on children is physical and mental health. Infant and childhood development is determined by the availability of enough health care. Healthcare accessibility cannot be possible when one does not have an income or money to acquire health services. Child poverty is related to different physical health problems for children, including high exposure to injuries associated with physical abuse or accidents; high risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, vision, speech and hearing problems; and the child also may suffer from frequent acute illnesses (McCarty, 2016). Poverty might also result in the child missing essential health programs such as immunizations, nutrition, and medication for growth and development. The mental impacts that the child might suffer due to poverty and proper healthcare include ADHD, disorders associated with mood, conduct, oppositional defiant, and anxiety. Physical and mental health effect increases with the duration that the child lives in poverty; those that end up spending more of their childhood in poverty conditions tend to suffer more damage including in adulthood.
Influences of Poverty
The influences of poverty are ways in which poverty affects children in American society. The mechanisms that link poverty to the outcome of children include the availability of resources, culture, and family and environmental stress. Resources involve the material and social resources acquired through income. Families struggle to achieve enough income capable of supporting a child's basic needs, such as clothing, food, housing, and education, impact the outcome of children. For instance, Madrick, illustrate that increased incomes for poor children provided positive effects for children. The Canada based illustration provides that early guaranteed income program in Manitoba, Canada, which increased annual income of parents, was linked to the reduction of children's hospitalization, and children from families that received the income support tend to stay in school longer.
The other influence of child poverty is culture, which incorporates parenting approaches that influences the impact of poverty on children. For instance, parents that are financially stable practice "concerted cultivation" that involves parents actively fostering and assessing their children's talent, skills, and opinions. However, poor parents tend to use the "accomplished of natural growth" approach where they allow their children to have unstructured free socializing time with community and family, and also they teach their children to be quiet and deferential (McCarty, 2016). The approach used by poor family results to their children to develop a sense of entitlement that creates a distinct exhibit advantage that affects their abilities within educational institutions. The children brought up in rich family under the concerted cultivation approach develop a sense of constraint concerning schooling and the social world making them more responding to school demands and practices. Another influence of child poverty is stress pathways that are a result of constraints related to social, economic, and cultural factors. Children growing in poverty conditions develop "toxic stress," which is the potential impact on body systems due to living in environments that are disorganized, unpredictable, and unstable. Toxic stress can impact the body's ability to respond to stress factors by prolonging the body activation to stress that undermines the brain organization. The effect of toxic stress impacts the ability of children responding to both negative and tolerable variety and finds it difficult to cope with less stressful situations in adulthood.
Solutions
Money is the main factor that can be used to concur with the child poverty effect in the United States society. The initiatives, such as unconditional cash welfare, such as federal Mothers Pensions programs, can be used to provide funding to single mothers for helping children in terms of education, housing, and decent nutrition (Madrick, 2020). Income policies are considered as the best anti-poverty measure that can be implemented. An example of already in place anti-poverty initiatives that are based on increasing income is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that supports poor parents in acquiring food at authorized stores. Since the effects of child poverty tend to be long-lasting and can impact adulthood, the use of interventions that major in the therapeutic approach that aims in changing perspectives of individual that were affected by child poverty.
The community-based intervention approach should also be used as a solution to child poverty. Some of the community-based interventions include direct investments that involve the provision of stable and affordable institutions such as schools and housing (McCarty, 2016). The community can also engage in building resourceful social connections such as social control, social support, and advice and information programs. The governments can also invest in low-income neighborhoods in terms of schools, healthcare centers, stable markets, and housing capable of supporting the basic needs of poor families.
References
McCarty, A. (2016). “Child Poverty in the United States: A Tale of Devastation and the Promise of Hope.” Sociology Compass . 10(7): 623–639. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12386
Madrick, J. (2020). “Poverty Hurts Children in Ways We’re Just Beginning to Understand” in Invisible Americans . New York: Penguin Random House.
