The lack of education leads to further development of barriers such as a financial barrier and poor lifestyle that makes them unable to provide for themselves and their child. Most jobs that do not require a high school diploma only offer a minimum wage and do not offer adequate benefits to meet all medical needs. “key indicators of health, infant mortality rates and low-birth weight rates, were elevated when infants were born to mothers who were less educated” (Flores et al,1998). Considering that statement I believe that the biggest barrier affecting this vulnerable population’s health is education. Vulnerable mothers that do not finish getting their education become discouraged and loose the motivation and drive to tackle the oncoming challenges that life brings, creating for them another barrier on the micro level; it being a financial barrier.
If at any point they failed, they would see this as a big mistake and give up and have a lack of motivation. It can also be argued that working class children do not get the support of their parents, this is because many of the parents believe that they survived without an education, so believe that there children can do the same. Working class families can also lack in support in terms of if the child fails a particular exam, they would not give them positive feed back on how they could improve they would improve. Whereas, it can be argued that higher class families have more motivation and the parents also give the support to the children that is needed. This would have a positive influence on the child’s education as it would give them hope and not give them an opportunity of giving up.
Not every child has been fortunate enough to grow up in a loving family, and the majority of us who have had this privilege, take it for granted. Imagine the life of a foster child; these children suffer not only trauma from their unfit homes but from constantly being placed in a new foster home, relative’s home, group home or an emergency facility. These children are rarely lucky enough to have the comfort of a stable and consistent home, and many are taken from one abusive environment to another. When the government removes children from parents it claims are abusive, neglectful or unfit the government must place the children in a safer environment than the one they left. In many cases, this does not happen.
Particularly vulnerable groups were the old, who had no means of acquiring money. The young, were dependant on their parents’ financial status and good will, if they were not orphans. Seasonal workers were vulnerable due to the cyclical nature of their employment. Anyone who suffered from illness either long or short term fell into poverty because there were no sickness benefits. Women were another vulnerable group because they were always paid at a lower rate than men.
Welfare Reforms The dream of most women is to have the traditional family, which includes a husband and their children. There are more single mothers in this day and age that face more challenges on the way to achieving the American Dream. They find it hard to provide financially even working a full-time job because the pay is normally minimum wage and most still rely on public assistance to make ends meet. Some single mothers lack education and work experience, which prevents them from obtaining a decent paying job. Budget cuts to welfare programs are making it that much harder for the single mother to provide the necessities for their children because these supplemental programs are necessary to the day to day workings of a family.
Funding from local tax revenues and community resources to generate additional income from poor families is smaller than that of affluent neighborhoods. Second, parental participation is lower due time constraints and lack of information which is often interpreted as disinterest. Third, parents often feel powerless to create change which often influenced by the fourth factor, lack of “individual and collective efficacy” (p. 85). Educational success is further impacted by student arriving with additional needs. Unlike their affluent counterparts, students with in the Oakland system arrived to school with unprepared: academically, often lacked dental and health insurance, came to school hungry, moved frequently or were affected by domestic violence.
Many of these women are not only forced to support themselves, but they are also now forced to be the sole caretakers of the children from the marriage. As divorce rates continue to rise, combined with today’s economy, many of these women are forced to take care of these children on their own as their ex-husbands are not able to, or do not want to pay child support. “The United States has one of the highest percentages of children living in poverty among, because the majority of them are living in mother-headed households” (DiNitto and McNeece). Although the children are both the mother’s and father’s responsibility, many times the mothers are left alone as the fathers figure out ways to avoid their financial responsibilities. As such, many of these formerly unskilled women are now forced to learn a trade and join the workforce.
Throughout history men are seen as the “strong/tough ones”; the belief is that they should be paid more than women in order to support their families (Loney, 2005). Women often take time off from work to raise their children, which can interfere with their career path. Also, married women with children are more likely to leave their jobs, rather than women who are single and/or without
It is the hardest job in the world and the easiest job to get. I think people should have a license to become parents because many people are poorly prepared to be parents and many children who are victims of abuse or unnecessary deaths caused by irresponsible parenting. According to websites that I researched, more than half (61%) of the children (771,700) were victims of neglect, meaning a parent or guardian failed to provide for the child's basic needs. Forms of neglect include
‘The Cause and Effect of Poverty in the UK’ Poverty People don’t always understand the causes and effects of this so called ‘poverty’ so that’s why I’m going to explain it. A simple definition of poverty would be; “The state of being extremely poor/ the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount.” Poverty is often highlighted as humans not been able to obtain compulsory features of life such health care, education and in some cases, the essential needs such as water, warmth and shelter. Millions and millions of people, as well as children, face these problems on a daily basis in the UK. Just to get an exact number of these ‘millions’, a study said 2.2 million children and two million working age adults were living in absolute poverty in 2009-10! Causes and effects of Poverty A starting point for causing poverty can be as simple as early age pregnancies.