Mental illness poses many challenges for individuals when aiming to participate and contribute to social life; they encounter structural barriers such as social stigma, poor education, limited employment opportunities, and poverty. This paper will focus specifically on the negative interaction and cycle between mental ill health and poverty. This cycle increases the risk of mental illness among poverty populations and also increases the likelihood that those already living with mental illness will fall into or remain living in poverty (Chrisholm, Cooper, Das, De Silva, Knapp, Lund, Patel, & Plagerson, 2011). There are many influences that contribute to such causation such as poor access to quality health services, poor educational opportunities,
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We have learned a great deal about poverty and how it influences family life and psychological states. A researcher named Elder was one of the first researchers to link family economic hardship to psychiatric problems in children (Samaan, 2000); he found a positive association between economic privation and negligent parental behaviors such as rejection and lack of support. Consistently, economic loss in families caused parents to reject their children, causing adolescents to experience psychological distress and feelings of inadequacy. According to Samaan (2000), poverty also has a direct and indirect influence on depression and feelings of isolation and …show more content…
According to Manseau (2014), between 1979 and 2005, the top 1% of earners in the U.S. have experienced a growth in income of more than 150%, while the bottom 40% of earners’ income have remained stagnant. In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that more than 16% of the population is living below the federal poverty line (FBL), including almost 20% of U.S. children. Poverty in children has been directly associated with various mental health outcomes such as higher delinquency rates, depressive disorders, lower school achievement, cognitive and behavioral issues, attention-related outcomes, depressive and anxiety disorders, and higher rates of almost every psychiatric disorder when they reach adulthood (Manseau, 2014). Relatedly, poverty in adulthood has been linked with psychological distress, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, higher rates of imprisonment, and suicide. There are many intermediaries responsible for the association between poverty and mental health in both children and adults. According to Manseau (2014), mediators include poor nutrition, poor prenatal health and birth outcomes, financial stress, toxin exposure, stressful life events, and brain circuit changes (e.g., executive functioning, language processing, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis changes). Moreover, the duration and timing of poverty is also related to mental health outcomes. For
We have learned a great deal about poverty and how it influences family life and psychological states. A researcher named Elder was one of the first researchers to link family economic hardship to psychiatric problems in children (Samaan, 2000); he found a positive association between economic privation and negligent parental behaviors such as rejection and lack of support. Consistently, economic loss in families caused parents to reject their children, causing adolescents to experience psychological distress and feelings of inadequacy. According to Samaan (2000), poverty also has a direct and indirect influence on depression and feelings of isolation and …show more content…
According to Manseau (2014), between 1979 and 2005, the top 1% of earners in the U.S. have experienced a growth in income of more than 150%, while the bottom 40% of earners’ income have remained stagnant. In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that more than 16% of the population is living below the federal poverty line (FBL), including almost 20% of U.S. children. Poverty in children has been directly associated with various mental health outcomes such as higher delinquency rates, depressive disorders, lower school achievement, cognitive and behavioral issues, attention-related outcomes, depressive and anxiety disorders, and higher rates of almost every psychiatric disorder when they reach adulthood (Manseau, 2014). Relatedly, poverty in adulthood has been linked with psychological distress, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, higher rates of imprisonment, and suicide. There are many intermediaries responsible for the association between poverty and mental health in both children and adults. According to Manseau (2014), mediators include poor nutrition, poor prenatal health and birth outcomes, financial stress, toxin exposure, stressful life events, and brain circuit changes (e.g., executive functioning, language processing, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis changes). Moreover, the duration and timing of poverty is also related to mental health outcomes. For