Research Paper on "Impact of Poverty"

Research Paper 5 pages (1726 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Adolescents growing up in poverty experience a different set of environment and conditions than those in a middle class school setting do. They experience classmates and colleagues -- sometimes-best friends -- who die from AIDS and all sorts of violence. They live in an environment where gang-violence and street abuse, as well as, no doubt, abuse from their own family, hunger and, often, homelessness is common. Their experiences are unnatural to those that a child their age should receive growing up. Although young, they experience instances that would be difficult for any adult triple their age. The stages of child development that psychologists such as Erickson have prescribed for them remain for 'normal' children. They either remain fixated in specific stages or collapse them leaping from the very fist stage of infant (if they have had this at all) to perhaps that of adolescent. Having 'messed up' their stages, one would expect their developmental passage to be askew and, consequently, their personality. And, indeed, study after study and real life itself shows that a significant amount of adolescents who come from such backgrounds end up in jail. Ayer's chapter itself implies as much with the class standing vigil for kids from Chicago's Southside who have been involved in crime and arrested.

Assessment of the typical offender (Martin et al., 2008) show many of them to be depressed as well as to have experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, and the range of abuses and mortification that come from growing up in an impoverished background. The kids in Ayer's chapter are lucky in that they seem to have caring teachers (particularly Mr. B), but poverty provides children with a hefty package of insufferable circumstances aside from depriving them from an effective education giving them a nil start to the resources that they should, ordinarily, receive in life.

Children born into poverty are not given the opportunity that wealthier children than they have. They are given poorer education, and sometimes often nil. They are brought up in ghetto-slums where drugs and gangsters are rife. Below poverty level doesn't only mean poor. It means being possessed with many disadvantages, and these disadvantages not only spell zero but also drag the person below the line from climbing up, reaching out, and stringing to help himself.

Childhood poverty affects the child in numerous ways. It stunts the child from the very first by putting out of his reach and disallowing him the very necessities that will allow him to acquire his basic needs in order to reach her full potential. The very basics of health are impacted, and these include adequate nutrition, a safe and protected environment, inadequate or nonexistent health coverage, as well as social and academic opportunities that will enable him or her to realize himself and thrive. Absence of this 'Social Safety net' often -- although not always - encourages crime and incarceration, which further decreases the chance for lucrative employment, transmits poverty to the individual's children, and so poverty is intensified and inherited.

It is well-known that success often breeds success: from confidence, from social skills, from social mannerisms, knowledge of how to interact with the world and with business people and so forth. As Nobe (1998) indicates, children from stunted backgrounds are often more vulnerable to racist and sexist discrimination -- aside from, of course, the discrimination that their economic state accords them.

It is no wonder then, that children growing up in poverty have far higher rates of academic failure and mental health problems, aside from the fact that they have limited exposure to developmental stimulation and greater exposure to stress in both the physical and psychosocial environments. These breed problems such as aggression and hyperactivity as well as chronic health problems and adversity that only serve to aggravate social-emotional problems and one's consequent self-esteem / confidence level and expectations of success, competence, or self-efficacy. Accordingly, children born in the cradle of poverty have nary a chance to climb out of their predicament.

Aggravating the situation is the fact that experiences shape the brain. Environment conditions -- in this case low socio-economic standards - have neurological impact. An impoverished and stressful childhood diminishes the health and the brain in countless ways, not least being one's ability for learning and for memory. Stress targets and eradicates neurons diminishing the power of the brain. Barren environments can withhold the necessary stimulation that is so needed for enhanced development. And, amongst other factors, poverty can withhold parental affection and presence that is so necessary for healthy growth (Stirtzinger et al., 2002). Adolescent girls from poor backgrounds not only are withheld the necessary nutrients of love but also, often, seem to lack the necessary empathy, sensitivity, and responsiveness with their own children that healthy mothering necessitates. Diminished background, therefore, spirals a process of ramifications. Psychological affects of adversity too can be seen from Lichter, Shannahan, and Gardner's (2002) study that show that children from impoverished backgrounds are far less likely to involve themselves in volunteer work than those from more privileged backgrounds. Centered in upon themselves, they show warped social concern and reinforce the ego-centered climate that is typical of contemporary America and detrimental -- as Tocqueville warned -- to the progress of our Nation.

And yet a study that was once done found that some of the greatest characters from history came from impoverished backgrounds. Take a Hume or an Emerson for instance. They were literally as poor as 'church mice' both originating from eccelestical homes. Sometimes, perhaps oftentimes, poverty gives the street smarts, the determination, and the grits to make it that those from a middle-class background lack. Battling great odds, products from an impoverished home live in life, know how to deal with it, and have a maturity and strength that is beyond their years. These children often have a more closer and real circle of friends than those from more sheltered backgrounds. They grew up in situations that cause them early on to survive. They know what life is all about and have something to work for. Seemingly, the problems of existentialism - the drabness, dreariness, meaninglessness that those who have all experience pass them by. And, therefore, they show a responsibility and resilience as well as depth of character that is less found -- it seems to me -- in academic bastions of middle class society. Reflections of this can be found in Ayer's excerpt as well as in that of Nobe's (1998). The characters in the latter are referred to as demonstrating 'every day courage' and they demonstrate a confidence and belief in themselves that products of middle-class backgrounds stereotypically lack. Not for them counselors or depression or low self-esteem. They know what they want from life, they believe that they will make it, and those who attempt to (in a ways that rejects crime) usually do. They live solidly in this world of theirs and whilst recognizing that discrimination and hardship exist accept it at face value, stick their tongue out at it and battle on. This is the stuff that promotes hardiness and success. In this way, I say: poverty although social construct may not be as unredeemable as social scientists and others paint it. True, the child starts out at minus, but, perhaps, this minus can be turned inside out and cause the child to grip onto the wall of life for all he or she is worth and scramble up there faster than peers who start out life half way there with the proverbial silver spoon between their teeth.

Poverty is an intractable social construct. It is created by social interpretation and sustained by the very systems that government -- or society -- has implemented to deal with it. Poverty may have a destructive impact on the brain, but I am not sure if growing up in a privileged background might not have a negative impact, too, in a different manner: via the superficiality, meaninglessness, and tedium that many experience. Drugs and crime originate from wealthy backgrounds too, sometimes from the upper crust of society. Ultimately, it depends on what one makes of circumstances that one was accorded. Lichter, Shannahan, and Gardner (2002) point to warped altruism from impoverished backgrounds, but aside from the fact that Ayer and Nobe indicate depth of friendship and close bonds amongst peers growing up in such environment, comparisons need to be conducted and the lens shifted to the extent of volunteerism emerging from peers who grow up in a privileged background. Self-centeredness may be the image of the age rather than a construct typical to poor individuals. And it may be too that by using their life experiences to help themselves (thereby, inadvertently sometimes transmitting their experiences to others) these poor individuals are contributing more of value to the world (due to the invaluable real-life lessons that they acquire and due to their grit) than others from polished and gleamed backgrounds.

Ultimately, therefore, there is a difference between 'resistance for survival' and ' 'resistance for liberation.' As Leadbetter… READ MORE

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