Children born into homelessness are more likely to have low birth weights and are at greater risk of death. Homelessness also exposes infants to environmental factors that can endanger their health. Because homeless families often have little access to health care, many homeless infants lack essential immunizations. As of June 2008, there are more than 100,000 homeless children in Massachusetts. Out of these numbers 2,472 living in emergency shelter funded by the Ma Department of Transitional Assistance.
Recent studies have shown that 36% of all people in poverty are children. 42% of those children live in low income families and one in five of those young children live in poor families (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2010). The statistics provided by National Center for Children and Poverty are alarming. This study shows that 32% of the white infants and toddlers, 68% of the black and as high as 70% of American Indian infants and toddlers live in low income families. Many of those children are not provided with necessity nutrition for healthy development.
This was supported by the National Child Development Study which found that children from low income households were an average of 9 months behind in their education compared to others. It showed that material factors such as a poor diet, overcrowded housing and lack of resources have an impact on working class children’s education. Additionally, family socialisation also is believed to affect the social class differences in achievement. Parental interest is shown to have a big impact. JWB Douglas did a longitudinal study of 5’362 children in 1964 which continued until they were 16.
While 58% of families below the UK poverty line contained at least one working parent, benefits available still do not bring them above the 60% median household income. [4,7] Along with income inequality other inequalities such as: ethnicity, housing and the neighborhood in which the child lives; all contribute to poverty. People from ethnic minority groups in Britain are significantly more likely to be living in poverty. Around a third of all children are living in poverty; but disadvantage is deeper among children in ethnic minority groups as a whole. Homelessness; poor accommodation such as overcrowding, poor state of repair blights childhood.
As mentioned above there are many reasons why a child lives in poverty, and we will now look at these in more detail. The five main groups all have one thing in common, which is lack of resources. This can be due to the adults not having a job, being unable to work as they have a disability, or not being eligible to work in the country. A large amount of the information used has been taken from the Banardos website. Many people who are out of work rely on state benefits to survive, and if they have children these benefits often are not enough to keep the family above the poverty line, hence the children suffer by lacking basic essentials such as new school uniforms, schoolbooks, pens, pencils etc, and therefore their education suffers.
Each one of these is a serious issue in its own yet child neglect is often ignored in professional research because the indicators of this form of abuse are usually not clear at first and is harder to determine. Physical Neglect Physical neglect is typically when the caregiver is not providing the basic necessities for the child such as food, clothing, or shelter. Lack of proper nutrition is often easy to determine. The child is either way under or over weight. When we discuss clothing we’re not talking about your child not having the latest Nike’s, Ralph Lauren, or Calvin Klein clothes.
Every year, more than 200 million children under five years old fail to reach their full cognitive and social potential. Most of these children live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. As a result of poor development, many children are likely to under-achieve in school and subsequently to have low incomes as adults. As adults, they are also likely to have children at a very early age, and provide poor health care, nutrition and stimulation to their children, thus contributing to the intergenerational transmission of poverty and poor development. Despite the overwhelming evidence, the health sector has been slow to promote early child development and to support families with appropriate information and skills.
(Barnardos, 2013). There are a number of indications as to why child poverty exists, unemployment plays a big part. Unemployment is an indicator of educational disadvantage, which in turn, affects the rest of a child’s life. Lone parent families are also an indication as to why child poverty is on the rise. Single parents have a lack of funds to support their children’s needs.
I argue that children raised from single-parent homes are not only at a disadvantage, but also this lifestyle can be detrimental to child development. As a single parent, the financial stress of being the sole provider has a negative affect on the family. Single-parent homes with children are more likely to live in poverty than coupled families. According to Risman, “In 2000, 6 percent of married couple families with children lived in poverty, compared with 33 percent of female householders with children.” This statistic shows the shockingly high percentage of female householders with children living in poverty. The sole provider in a single parent home often does not have the ability to work a full time job or rather obtain a job with a high paying salary.
Despite very significant attempts to improve outcomes for looked after children, this social group remain vulnerable to social exclusion. Why are young people leaving care vulnerable to social exclusion and why do policy initiatives appear to falter? Critically Discuss. “It has long been apparent to those working with young people in and leaving care that many experience considerable difficulties related to poor physical, mental and general well-being, which without adequate support, can have a lasting impact on future progress” (Dixon, 2008:207). For young people leaving care, such ‘difficulties’ are highlighted in research which suggests in 2006, only 12% of children in care achieved 5 A* to C grades at GCSE, compared to 59% of all children, and 38% leave care prior to the age of 18.