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Recommended: Essay on social class in the United States of America

A general worldview of the United States is a country enriched in luxury, where attaining “the American Dream” is the ultimate goal. America is seen as a country that offers freedom and most importantly provides opportunities. However, behind this façade is the dilemma that exists between the rich and poor neighborhoods in the United States. The socioeconomic status of parents plays a vital role in their offsprings’ future socioeconomic status. The effects of poverty and wealth among children in neighborhoods are examined in Tama Leventhal’s and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn’s article Children and Youth in Neighborhood Context.
The studies conducted in the article took into consideration two different socioeconomic statuses, which included social and economic aspects. A low socioeconomic status takes measures such as percentages of poor, percentages of people with the help of public aid, unemployment rate, and ethnicity composition; whereas a high socioeconomic status takes measures in percentage of college educated residents, income, and percentage of professionals in the neighborhood (Leventhal & Brooks-Dunn, 28). A family’s characteristics also play a role in a child’s and youth’s development. For example, the parents’ level of education or their race/ethnicity are factors that will affect the development of children.
Tama Levanthal’s and Jeanne Brooks-Dunn’s research was a non-experimental study of neighborhood effects. Non-experimental study has been criticized because it does not take into account selection bias. Families have a choice of what neighborhood they want to live in. In experimental studies of neighborhoods, the selection bias is accounted for because families are randomly assigned to a certain neighborhood. The Gautreux Pr...

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...sources does not solve all the problems in a poor socioeconomic neighborhood; however, outside resources provide opportunities for children to live a life not stricken by poverty.
As stated before, a neighborhood plays an important factor in the upbringing of children and youths. Living in a poverty stricken neighborhood has negative consequences such as a lower educational achievement and a higher chance of committing crimes. The wealth concentrated in affluent neighborhoods stays in the neighborhood and are rarely spreaded to areas in poverty. Children growing up in poorer neighborhoods are not given the same opportunities as children growing up in well-of neighborthoods to gain a higher education because of the resources that are offered. As a result, poor socioeconomic areas remain the same over time because of the lack of resources introduced into the area.

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