Poverty in terms of socioeconomic wealth, status and opportunity is a complex and multifaceted concept. Poverty is more than not having enough money; it is a lack of food, a lack of shelter, and a lack of security. As of 2016, more than 40 million Americans are living below the poverty line and of that number, a little more than 13 million of them are children (Poverty Facts). Poverty has not only financial and economic effects that are felt immediately, but also effects that change people cognitively and in children, effects that negatively impact their development as they become adults. The effects of poverty are long-lasting, and they are intricately connected, especially in children.

As children grow up to become adults, it is their well-being that is the most important. When they become adults, it is understood that they are products of their environments, their parents’ teachings, etc. However, this is not a critique on parents who live in poverty; poverty is a negative experience and certainly not a lifestyle choice. The truth is that poverty damages childhood, life changes and it damages society overall when it continues to allow children to remain in poverty. Children born into poverty are, unfortunately, more likely to grow up to be adults in poverty as well, which increases with the number of years spent in poverty in their childhood.

The longer that children grow up in poverty, the more that they lag in school because of a lack of access to good schools, parents without the tie and resources to help, and even the quality and availability of school breakfast and lunches. This puts children at a significant disadvantage when it comes to matriculating out of high school and into college, where the gap widens. The troubling effects of poverty are long-term and, as described, are linked with one another from the home to school to adult life. Children who grow up in poverty feel a mixed bag of emotions and feelings including frustration, worry, anxiety, unhappiness, embarrassment, hopelessness, but also feeling significantly less of the natural childhood wonder that each child is entitled to.

Growing up in poverty also has significant long-term health implications physically, emotionally, mentally and cognitively. Poverty itself is a dangerous thing. Children who grow up in poverty are likely residing in homes without functional smoke detectors, unprotected windows and unsafe roofs or stairs, putting them at increased risk for accident and/or injury. Children in poorer neighborhoods are not only susceptible to accidents, falls, poisonings and burns, but chronic disease like obesity and asthma.

The two lead to further health problems that plague adults in the form of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, etc. Cognitively speaking, the continued toxic stress of poverty has inevitable effects on a child’s brain. All children experience stress, yet the constant stress of living in poverty that affects themselves and their parents creates a toxic stress response as well (Boghani). Those high levels of stress affect children’s brains development in the first and very crucial years of their life, creating consistent anxiety, impaired memory and mood control, each of which affect them in school and throughout life. Poverty causes a constant “wear and tear” effect on a child’s body in totality, from their brain on down.

Poverty contributes to long-term ill health on children and as those children become adults, the impact is realized even more. Pathways out of poverty and efforts to reduce it should be aimed at parents and children via economic assistance, mental health counseling and more, yet the pathways are just as complex and risky as living in poverty itself because of its damaging effect on the mind and body.
Works Cited
Boghani, Priyanka. “How Poverty Can Follow Children Into Adulthood.” Frontline, PBS, 22 Nov. 2017, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-poverty-can-follow-children-into-adulthood/.
“Poverty Facts.” Poverty Solutions at The University of Michigan, poverty.umich.edu/about/poverty-facts/.