The Negative Effects Of Poverty On Children

Mahatma Grandhi, leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India, stated “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread” (www.goodreads.com). Poverty is a problem which has always existed in many societies. It is a rampant problem from poor countries to affluent countries, so it will never be an out-of-date subject to discuss. The state of having low income has a devastating impact on adults. Similarly, the effects of poverty on children can last throughout their life. Although there are many distinct arguments about impacts of growing up in poverty on children, the three main effects are poor health, impaired development, and low-level of education achievement. Poverty is a dynamic

When children experience strong and frequent distress such as emotional abuse, neglect, exposure to violence from neighborhood, or the accumulated burdens of family poverty the stressful environment can become poisonous. If this “poisonous stress” continues and does not become less severe, it can literally alter children’s brains, disrupt their social ability, make them become unstable employment, and in some cases, it might lead children to become involved in the criminal justice system. Additionally, another crucial factor that affects the development of children with low socioeconomic status is time. In a study by Henninger and Luze, it was pointed out “…[T]he longer children lived in poverty, the more likely they were to exhibit more externalizing behaviours over the course of the measurement periods” (“Poverty, caregiver depression and stress as predictors of children’s externalizing behaviours in a low-income sample”). Children who have experienced a long-lasting poverty have a harder time getting along with others, they are more aggressive, and have more problem controlling their behaviors. They are also more tendentious to have anxiety, low self-confidence, and mental illness such as depression. These are the aspects that contribute to the result of impaired