The Effects of Poverty on a Person: Long Term Consequences and Obstacles for the Individual

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Schoon’s (2013) article, Diverging Pathways: Rethinking the Transition to Adulthood, was written to research the different pathways that a person can take when they transition to adulthood. The article looked at how poverty can affect those pathways and cause long-term consequences for that individual. The purpose of this paper was to show that focusing on contrasting experiences fails to show the variations in the transition experience (Schoon, 2013). This failure is big for the groups who fall between the lines of the contrasting experiences. Society expects young people to follow a certain pathway, but they do not consider the disadvantaged and the difficulties they face. Schoon suggests that the more we understand about the different types of pathways and the reasons behind them, the more likely we are to help the disadvantaged young people.
One of the key findings that Schoon made dealt with the multiple role combinations. The Big 5 transitions do not happen independently; they are linked one way or another. As a person is going through each transition they have to compromise and figure out their life roles in response to them. Schoon (2013) found that a lot of the research about transitions looked at one transition only. She believed that this was not a proper way to learn about transitions and that one would have to look at all the transitions that are taking place because they don’t happen by themselves. She discusses how transition can affect the outcome of another transition. For example, if one has full-time employment and make good money they will be able to move out and be independent. The transition of full-time employment helps the transition of living independently happen. Schoon (2013) believed that the transitio...

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...me adults and start living their life
When both of the papers are brought together, it can be see that they are similar in many ways. The both found that the disadvantaged (the low education group) have to deal with long-term consequences because of the situations they are in. McLanahan’s paper dealt more with single mothers and their children and Schoon’s paper focused more on the young adult group. Even though they don’t focus on the same target group they are similar because the subjects that McLanahan discusses will become the subjects that Schoon is investigating. They both examine the effects that poverty has on a person and how it can cause long-term consequences and obstacles for an individual.
So that question that remains is how to we help the disadvantaged group of people? Schoon and McLanahan make a few suggestions that can help. Schoon (2013) suggests

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