POVERTY is "the insufficiency of means relative to human needs." More than half the world's population is poor and that one half to two thirds of the world's people are mostly hungry consuming less than 1500 calories per day. Most of these people live in developing countries, which represent two thirds of the nations of the world.
In richer nations, poverty is looked upon as a problem in the distribution of wealth. However, in the third world countries poverty is viewed to be the result of economic underdevelopment.
Below poverty line is considered if the family income is approximately three times below the income needed to meet the estimated minimal nutritional subsistence.
Through the years, as the number of poor people increased, the average income of the non-poor has more than doubled so that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" continue to widen.
Poverty to some means insufficiency of resources to satisfy basic human needs like nutrition, clothing, shelter, etc. Others believe that poverty is powerlessness, the poor being dominated by forces beyond their control.
Four-fifths of poor people live in poor families. More than forty percent of poor families have female as heads. Poverty is significantly higher if the head of the family is less than 25 years or over 65 years of age.
Families are twice as likely to be poor if the head of the family has less than six years of school attendance. It is estimated that 60 percent of poor families live in urban areas but the incidence of poverty is much higher in rural than urban. The most common cause of poverty is poverty itself.
Any one cause (nutritional problems, lack of education, crime, politics, and unemployment) may produce effects that maybe the cause of its persistence or perpetuation. Some call this the "vicious cycle" of poverty.
Poverty is detrimental to the physical, mental and emotional well being of children. Poverty places children at risk for a variety of adverse physical, psychological and emotional conditions. They are affected by family problems, violence, parental depression and separation from their parents.
They live in more troubled and unstable households where parents are prone to violence, non-caring and non-responsive to their children's needs. They have less social support, fewer learning opportunities and spend more time watching TV.
Poor children live in dangerous neighborhoods and reside in unhealthy environments. The households are usually crowded, noisy and hazardous. They are more exposed and prone to develop medical illnesses and suffer serious consequences from these illnesses.
During pregnancy poverty increases the risk of infections. Infants from poor families infected during pregnancy were noted to have lower IQ scores. Other insults during pregnancy include maternal drugs, medical illnesses, maternal malnutrition, etc.
People with low income experience more stress. The incidence of major stressors such as housing problems, financial difficulties, death in the family and school problems are two to four times greater in poor women especially those with children under 6 years of age.
Stress of long duration like unemployment has more negative impact than that in higher income families. Highly stressful environment has a higher incidence of developmental and behavioral problems in children like lower IQ scores, impaired language development, poor performance on developmental testing and an increase in emotional and school problems.
Maternal stress is often associated with adverse consequences. It interferes with the mother's ability to care for her baby. It impairs bonding between mother and child. In the same situation, children exposed to highly stressful environment are less likely to be closely attached to their parents increasing the risk of behavioral and emotional problems.
Families living in poverty are less likely to receive social support either material, emotional, community or others. Absence of social support is detrimental to families particularly the children. Children receiving low levels of social support are associated with lower IQ scores with difficulties of receptive language skills and increased incidence of child abuse.
Adequate social support is found to improve parental functioning. It reduces the incidence of maternal depression, anxiety and other psychological problems.
Mothers tend to use less punishment and increase her ability to care for her child. (To be continued)
