Great Depression Effects On Society

The economic downturn caused by the Great Depression negatively impacted society. This devastating time period led to changes in family life, overcrowding and health issues. With many adults left unemployed, most families began to struggle. All of the sudden, money was gone which stressed everyone. Since no one in the family was making money, families had to make dramatic changes. First, women began to look for small jobs to support the family in any way they could. Next, the older children in the family began to leave home and look for jobs,“Without a job or meaningful work (or to escape parents stressed by their unemployment), many young men and women took to the road, sometime hoboing on freight trains but often on foot”(Campbell).

By being forced to live shoulder to shoulder with someone unfamiliar conjured many problems for many people. The living conditions harmed relationships, destroyed confidence and created more and more stress. For example, people in poverty struggled to socialize for they were embarrassed. As a result, on one ever socialized with one another. From living on the streets, most of the population began to develop mental and physical health issues. Without access to to health facilities and medicine, poorly nutritioned people were getting sick and were unable to fight off these diseases This usually resulted in death. The depression is often described as a huge psychological blow, especially for men, “The reaction to the crash was a series of suicides by men who could not handle their failure, shame, loss of prestige and loss of status in their community”(Alchin). The men’s reaction to the depression signifies how much they were affect. Before the Great Depression, men were viewed as the “breadwinners” of the family, they made the money and were the leaders. However when the depression hit and their jobs and entire life’s savings was taken out from under, them they were shocked. Men could not bear the fact that they had failed and as a