Children's Defense Fund: The Effects Of Poverty On Children

Children are limited to what their caregivers can provide to them. They are limited as a child due to the need to rely on someone else to provide basic needs to them such as food, clothing, and shelter. Income poverty is when a family does not have enough income to meet these basic needs. When those who provide for children cannot give them a stable environment due to income poverty society begins to see these effects on the children involved. This distribution on income falls into the conflict perspective. Conflict perspective originated with Karl Marx who saw society as groups who competed against one another for resources. Social order was maintained by domination over other groups and those resources. This domination over other groups

Their goal is to end child poverty buy investing in proper education and childcare services for every child not just those that are not affected by poverty. Poverty starts with the parents so including livable wages and offering nutrition and housing programs, adding child credits to taxes, and offering better healthcare coverage are all ways that the Children’s Defense Fund sees as ways of helping those who are already suffering from poverty as well as long term how to prevent it from happening. What the Children’s Defense Fund and other group’s goals are to end poverty by getting the government and society involved and making it a priority to end poverty in children. Without this intervention evidence shows that poverty is a lifelong burden not only for the individual families but also the community as a whole. This trend is hard to reverse so helping children and their families receive help and encouragement can make an impact for

Childhood poverty is something that children are dealing with long term psychologically. In one study it has been shown that “childhood poverty has been linked to emotion dysregulation, which is further associated with negative physical and psychological health in adulthood” (Children’s Defense Fund 2012). Children who were living in poverty by the age of nine according to the study showed a reduced prefrontal cortex activity. The lack of prefrontal cortex activity was directly linked to exposure to a lower income family life before the age of nine. Childhood poverty has also been linked to chronic stress in adulthood, and more common physical illness. These ailments go back to lack of recourses available. Poverty stricken families having little or no access to proper medical treatment, lack of adequate nutrition, and lack of good education making them more prone to long term complications from poverty. Children born into poverty begin life with a lower birth weight and an increased risk of infant mortality. It has also been proven that children living in poverty are 1.3 times more likely to experience learning disabilities and developmental