Poverty has been defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as “lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts. According to the World Bank, improvised people are those living on less than $1.25 (£0.83) a day. The international community defines poverty as not only a lack of means to barely get by but also a lack of critical assets for human development, especially health and education (Alkire, 2007).
Having defined what poverty is, it is clear that improvised parents will be incapacitated to give their children quality life and education. There is a very high correlation between your income and the quality of life you will live. For this reason, it is important to look at some of the effects of poverty on a child.
The effects are discussed below.
Increase child mortality rate: Child mortality is most rampant among the improvised family. And the reason isn’t far from their inability to give their children nutritious food and good health care. Some children have gone to an early grave because of the poor finances of their parents.
Unhealthy children: Children living below the poverty threshold are unhealthier than nonpoor children due to less nutritious food supplies and access to good healthcare service.
A child develops better where there is a good family structure and quality parenting. The inability of parents to purchase resources and goods, schools, food, housing, and safe environments necessary for their child’s development may result into higher parent psychological distress, parenting stress, and reduced ability to provide effective caregiving. This may affect the child’s development. Every child needs caring and loving parents to develop in life.
A parent’s inability to provide a safe environment may also affect the development of a child. A safe and healthy environment hastens good developmental growth in children.
Most children from poor families attend low-performing schools and eat less nutritious food. There is a correlation between nutritious food and cognitive performance in children. Bourre observed that there is a relationship between cognitive performance and vitamins in children. For example, vitamins B12, B6, A, and E ensure better visuospatial memory and improve abstraction test results. This means a child not fed a balanced diet will lack the necessary vitamins to aid his/her cognitive performance.
Learning disabilities and developmental delays occur more in children living below the poverty threshold.
Education, as we all know, is expensive and to have a quality education one must live above the poverty threshold. It is a fact that most low-performing schools where poor children attend have more unprofessional teachers than schools where nonpoor children attend.
The financial capability of one’s parents can determine ones academic attainment and achievements in life.
