Poverty Related Disadvantages: The Factors Affecting Life Chances - Coursework Example

Poverty Related Disadvantages: The Factors Affecting life chances Introduction Poverty is the one of the major evils of the society.‘Poverty’ is not just a problem of poor people but is a problem for the whole society as it affects every person in the society (Ditch, 1999, p.12). A person can be called as poor when he is unable to earn enough money to fulfill his basic needs of nutrition, shelter and clothing (Ditch, 1999, p.12). Poverty is associated with other important problems of society (Ditch, 1999, p.12) like crime, teenage pregnancy, school dropout and unemployment. However, the important thing is to understand that these problems are created because the poor people are deprived of the social, emotional and psychological opportunities that well to do people get. The lack of financial resources to afford education, home and healthy food affects the future prospects of poor children. To solve the problem of poverty, it is important to know the magnitude of the effect of poverty on the life of poor children. The intention of this research is to understand to what extend the poverty affects the life chances of a child. The study also aims to understand what other factors, related to poverty, are responsible for affecting the life chances of poor people. Life chances and poverty The word ‘chance’ means opportunity. ‘Life chances’ can be defined as the opportunities a child should get to become whatever he wants to, when he is born. However, the systematic study of the social situations in the eighteenth and nineteenth century revealed that society has regular displayed a certain trend in the lives of people regarding crime rates, trade, birth rate and mortality rates. (Daston, 2008, para 9). The social trend has revealed that people born in the family with certain social background lead a certain life. The regularity of the trend is so astonishing (Daston,2008, para 12) that now, it is possible to tell if a child will enjoy the luxury of life chances or not, simply by knowing the financial status of the family he is born in. This shows that life chances, i.e. the chance a child will get to grow and become a successful human being in the society, depends not on his innate abilities but on the financial and social position of family he is born in. The poverty affects their chances of getting good education, good food, good shelter and good upbringing. This is how the poverty impacts the life chances of a child. The studies have showed that parental income plays a major role in the life chances of a child (Myaer, 1997, p.1). Some social scientists believe that the single most aspect that influences the child’s life chances is the income level of the family (Myaer, 1997, p.1). However, most of the social scientists believe that even though income is not the only factor that affects the child’s future chances, it is one of the most important factors (Myaer, 1997, p.1). This fact shows that poverty affects the life chances of a child to great extent. Poverty There is no single definition for poverty. Different countries define poverty in different ways. The two types of typical thresholds used to define poverty are ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ (Vleminckx & Smeeding, 2001, p.13). Rowntree (1901) developed a poverty standard based on the expenditure required by human being to fulfill his basic needs like diet, house, clothes and fuel (Ditch, 1999, p.13). However, later on, his further studies of poverty (Rowntree 1926, 1950) made him realize that it is impossible to understand the plight of the poor people just by considering their physical needs ,(Ditch, 1999, p.13) as just meeting the physical needs does not end the poverty. Townsend et al. (1987), advocated that the relative deprivation resulting from poverty affects the lives of the poor people (Ditch, 1999, p.13). According to him, poor people’s “resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average family or individual that they are in effect excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities” (Ditch, 1999, p.13). Due to this deprivation, the life chances of the children belonging to the poor families who come under the category of relative poverty, is impacted to great extend. The disappointing thing is that when the trend of the poverty is studied, it was seen that there is an increasing trend in the relative poverty which shows that the inequality in the society is growing (Vleminckx & Smeeding, 2001, p.21). This means that children belonging to the threshold of relative poverty will experience prejudice and discrimination from the society in different aspects of their life like, education, job, marriage etc. This is how poverty affects the life chances of a child. However, it is not right to say that all poor children get affected by the poverty. There are other factors like parents, neighbourhood and social resources, that play important roles in their future life chances. For example, it was found that poor children being raised by a lone mother has greater poverty risk than poor children being raised by two parents (Vleminckx & Smeeding, 2001, p.22). This shows that poor income in the family is not the only factor that affects the life chances of poor children. What also affect their life chances are the values, good health, emotional support, honesty and the harmony in the family (Myaer, 1997, p.2). So, it can be said that a poor child raised by happy parents in healthy neighborhood has greater life chances than a poor child raised by unhappy parent in violent neighbourhood. So, poor children living in poor environment suffer from poorer life chances. Environmental factors affecting child’s life chances: According to ‘Save the children’ report (2007), one in three children in Britain live in poverty and 1.3 million children live in families with annual income of seven thousand pounds, which is not even half of the average family income in Britain (Alderson, 2008, p.34). This also means that one in three children in Britain will face inequality at some point or other in life as according to Bradshaw and Mayhem (2005), poverty leads to being a victim of bias treatment from the society (Alderson, 2008, p.34). People who are poor are isolated, are denied the rights of the society, denied the opportunity to express themselves and are not considered able enough to be respected or involved in social matters (Alderson, 2008, p.34). This treatment of poor people affect the life chances of their children as they are not able to gather enough confidence in their abilities and hence, keep away from education. Poverty hampers their life chances by lowering their confidence and self esteem. Half of the children population in inner London live in poverty and one in seven children live in houses which are inadequate for healthy and strong development of a child (Alderson, 2008, p.34). The neighborhoods these children live in are with no gardens around, have unclean and dangerous play spaces, have noisy and cramped surrounding and is hunting ground for adults with violent and criminal tendencies (Alderson, 2008, p.34). The negative influence of the social surrounding affects the behavior pattern of the children. The negative environmental factors forces the children to stay at home. The violent and disorderly social environment hampers their chances of getting exposed to positive things in life. Their creative energies are suppressed, they cannot develop healthy social contacts, make less friends and end up feeling emotionally congested (Alderson, 2008, p.34). This leads them to develop low self-esteem, lose hope in the future prospects and engage in anti-social behavior to take out their frustration and anger at the society. Children coming from poor families lack opportunities for good education, lack nourishing environment and do not get proper resources to develop life supporting skills. This is how their life chances of becoming a successful, responsible and respectable person in the society are strongly affected. Parental factors affecting life chances. For a child, parents are the window to the world. A child can develop faith and trust in the social system only if he sees his parents getting a fair and equal treatment in the society. Studies have revealed that a healthy social development of a child is possible when his bonding with his mother is harmonious, positive and sensitive ( Slee, 2002, p.165). Not only that, but a study by Macoby (1999) has revealed that strong emotional ties between a mother and a child affects the future relationship patterns of a child ( Slee, 2002, p.165). However, a single mother with poor income is not capable of giving enough emotional support to her child as she herself lacks the emotional stability. Hence, a child experiencing poverty as well as lack of emotional support from mother is at greater risk of suffering from poor life prospects. The situation of a poor child with two parents is also not different. Parents with lower income have to spend long hors at work to earn enough to support their family (Alderson, 2008, p.35). This makes it impossible for them to spend time with their children, which in turn affects the development of positive relationship between them and hampers the social and mental development of children (Alderson, 2008, p.35). Also, because of a lack of positive role model in the family, poor children become incapable of successfully fulfilling the role of a spouse or a parent in the future ( Murray, 1996,p.32). The lack of emotional nurturing affects the development of the future personal relationship. According to Baldwin et al (1990) the ‘disadvantages’ related to being poor like social exclusion, racism, inadequate housing and living in neghbourhood with high crime rate etc. hampers the development of poor children (Kehiley, 2004, p.141). Conclusion: Poverty affects child’s life chances to such an extend that he feels suffocated, hopeless and miserable regarding the life situations. The impact of the poverty on the life chances of the poor children is so strong that most of the poor children are resorting to drugs, crime and sex to find an outlet to their misery (Ditch, 1999, p.29). People commit suicide only when the misery of the life becomes unbearable to live with. The fact that there was a 75% increase in the suicide rate among the young men suffering from poverty, during 1983 and 1990, shows how badly and how seriously poverty impacts the life chances of children (Ditch, 1999, p.29). Poverty not only affects the happiness of childhood but also destroys the future life chances of a child. References: Alderson, P. (2008). Young Children’s Rights: Exploring Beliefs, Principles and Practice. London : Jessica Kingsley Publication. Print. Berryman, J., Smythe, P., Taylor, A., Lamont, A. & Joiner, R. (2002). Development Psychology and You. Oxford : BPS Blackwell. Print. Daston, L. (2008). Life, Chance & Life Chances. Daedalus, 137(1), 5+. Retrieved November 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5026560989 Ditch, J. (Ed.) (1999). Introduction to Social Security: Policies, Benefits and Poverty. London: Routledge. Print. Kehiley, M. J. (2004). An Introduction to Childhood Studies. England : Open University Press. Print. Mayer, S. (1997). What Money can’t buy : family income and children’s life Chances. USA: President and Fellows Of Harvard College. Print. Murray, C. (1996) “The  Emerging  British  Underclass” The  IEA  Health  and  Welfare        Unit. (  pp 17-53). Retrieved   November 15, 2009  from              http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cw33.pdf Ridge, T, (2004). Childhood, Poverty and Social Exclusion : From a child’s perspective. UK: The Policy Press. Print. Slee, P. (2002). Child, Adolescent and Family Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Print. Vleminckx, K., & Smeeding, T. (2001). Child Well-Being, Child Poverty and Child Policy in Modern Nations: What do we know?. Bristol : The Policy Press. Print. Read More