Poverty impacts 15 percent of Americans, representing over 46.1 million people living in poverty. According to the report, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015, 16.1 million children under the age of 18 are living on or below the poverty line (Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica L. Semega, Melissa A. Kollar). Children amount to 21.8 percent of the population living in poverty in the U.S. This problem also causes the country in itself to suffer, since the children are the future of a Nation. Poverty can have serious long term effects on a child. Physical health, psychological health, and the diminished ability to function and prosper in society are the main problems impacting children in the U.S.
Health is very important to a child’s everyday …show more content…
A child growing up in poverty can cause psychological and mental setbacks like: depression, cognitive skills (like reading and writing), behavioral problems, and chronic stress. A famous 1995 study by Hart and Risley demonstrated that by the age of four, children from poor households hear 32 million fewer spoken words than their better off peer (362-370). This confirms that poverty can affect a child’s vocabulary development, and overall success in school. Also, chronic stress, depression, and behavioral problems can be directly related with poverty; these can be detrimental to a child’s psychological health. According to Evans and Shamberg (2009), “Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement” (p. 6545- 6549). Children that grow up in poverty, experience a lot of hard situations like, child abuse, violence, exposure to drugs and other hard circumstances that could seriously effect a child’s life. These stressors can cause a problem in the psychological health of children because of the need to continually adjust to changes and setbacks that stem from …show more content…
Kalff examines and analyses a study created to observe the relationship between socioeconomic status in neighborhoods and behavior problems in children. Kalff (2001) found “children living in the most and intermediate deprived neighborhoods had significantly more reported behavior problems than children living in the least deprived neighborhood” (p. 246-250). These results indicate that children are faced with more psychological difficulties according to the socioeconomic level that they are exposed to. According to Kalf (2001), “Many studies have shown that individual level variables, such as exposure to marital discord or coming from low income family, are associated with behavior problems in children” (p. 246-250). Circumstances such as marital status in families and income disparities play a major role in the emotional and psychological development of children because it places a certain amount of stress on them that they are not mentally prepared or equipped to deal with. As a result, children can suffer from chronic stress disorders and react to certain stresses by shifting their behavioral patterns to unhealthy
Health is very important to a child’s everyday …show more content…
A child growing up in poverty can cause psychological and mental setbacks like: depression, cognitive skills (like reading and writing), behavioral problems, and chronic stress. A famous 1995 study by Hart and Risley demonstrated that by the age of four, children from poor households hear 32 million fewer spoken words than their better off peer (362-370). This confirms that poverty can affect a child’s vocabulary development, and overall success in school. Also, chronic stress, depression, and behavioral problems can be directly related with poverty; these can be detrimental to a child’s psychological health. According to Evans and Shamberg (2009), “Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement” (p. 6545- 6549). Children that grow up in poverty, experience a lot of hard situations like, child abuse, violence, exposure to drugs and other hard circumstances that could seriously effect a child’s life. These stressors can cause a problem in the psychological health of children because of the need to continually adjust to changes and setbacks that stem from …show more content…
Kalff examines and analyses a study created to observe the relationship between socioeconomic status in neighborhoods and behavior problems in children. Kalff (2001) found “children living in the most and intermediate deprived neighborhoods had significantly more reported behavior problems than children living in the least deprived neighborhood” (p. 246-250). These results indicate that children are faced with more psychological difficulties according to the socioeconomic level that they are exposed to. According to Kalf (2001), “Many studies have shown that individual level variables, such as exposure to marital discord or coming from low income family, are associated with behavior problems in children” (p. 246-250). Circumstances such as marital status in families and income disparities play a major role in the emotional and psychological development of children because it places a certain amount of stress on them that they are not mentally prepared or equipped to deal with. As a result, children can suffer from chronic stress disorders and react to certain stresses by shifting their behavioral patterns to unhealthy