Understanding the Nature of Poverty in Urban America

Urban poverty occurs in metropolitan areas with populations of at least 50, (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future [NCTAF], ).
Table of contents

It is especially timely and critical for current anti-poverty debates and will quickly become a valuable resource for researchers, policy makers, and others who want a thorough understanding of a serious problem. Perez, National Council of La Raza. An invaluable distillation of what is known about urban poverty in the U. The best single overview on this topic, Professor Jennings' book is an essential text for college faculty and a basic reference for practitioners.

Its organization around key issues makes the volume ideal for teaching and public decision-making.

What Is Poverty?

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Urban poverty occurs in metropolitan areas with populations of at least 50, people. The urban poor deal with a complex aggregate of chronic and acute stressors including crowding, violence, and noise and are dependent on often-inadequate large-city services. Rural poverty occurs in nonmetropolitan areas with populations below 50, In rural areas, there are more single-guardian households, and families often have less access to services, support for disabilities, and quality education opportunities.

The rural poverty rate is growing and has exceeded the urban rate every year since data collection began in the s. The difference between the two poverty rates has averaged about 5 percent for the last 30 years, with urban rates near 10—15 percent and rural rates near 15—20 percent Jolliffe, Poverty involves a complex array of risk factors that adversely affect the population in a multitude of ways. The four primary risk factors afflicting families living in poverty are Emotional and social challenges. Acute and chronic stressors. Health and safety issues.

Graber and Brooks-Gunn estimated that in , 35 percent of poor families experienced six or more risk factors such as divorce, sickness, or eviction ; only 2 percent experienced no risk factors.

In contrast, only 5 percent of well-off families experienced six or more risk factors, and 19 percent experienced none. In other words, one problem created by poverty begets another, which in turn contributes to another, leading to a seemingly endless cascade of deleterious consequences.

A head injury, for example, is a potentially dire event for a child living in poverty. Data from the Infant Health and Development Program show that 40 percent of children living in chronic poverty had deficiencies in at least two areas of functioning such as language and emotional responsiveness at age 3 Bradley et al. The following two sections examine how inferior provisions both at home and at school place poor children at risk for low academic performance and failure to complete school.

Compared with well-off children, poor children are disproportionately exposed to adverse social and physical environments. Low-income neighborhoods are likely to have lower-quality social, municipal, and local services. Because of greater traffic volume, higher crime rates, and less playground safety—to name but a few factors—poor neighborhoods are more hazardous and less likely to contain green space than well-off neighborhoods are. Poor children often breathe contaminated air and drink impure water.

A New Introduction to Poverty

Their households are more crowded, noisy, and physically deteriorated, and they contain a greater number of safety hazards National Commission on Teaching and America's Future [NCTAF], Although childhood is generally considered to be a time of joyful, carefree exploration, children living in poverty tend to spend less time finding out about the world around them and more time struggling to survive within it.

Poor children have fewer and less-supportive networks than their more affluent counterparts do; live in neighborhoods that are lower in social capital; and, as adolescents, are more likely to rely on peers than on adults for social and emotional support. Low-SES children also have fewer cognitive-enrichment opportunities. Often, poor children live in chaotic, unstable households. They are more likely to come from single-guardian homes, and their parents or caregivers tend to be less emotionally responsive Blair et al.

Contrast these children with their peers living in stable two-parent families, who have more access to financial resources and parental time, receive more supervision, participate in more extracurricular activities, and do better in school Evans, Young children are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of change, disruption, and uncertainty.

Developing children need reliable caregivers who offer high predictability, or their brains will typically develop adverse adaptive responses.

Chronic socioeconomic deprivation can create environments that undermine the development of self and the capacity for self-determination and self-efficacy. Compared with their more affluent peers, low-SES children form more stress-ridden attachments with parents, teachers, and adult caregivers and have difficulty establishing rewarding friendships with children their own age.


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Common issues in low-income families include depression, chemical dependence, and hectic work schedules—all factors that interfere with the healthy attachments that foster children's self-esteem, sense of mastery of their environment, and optimistic attitudes. Instead, poor children often feel isolated and unloved, feelings that kick off a downward spiral of unhappy life events, including poor academic performance, behavioral problems, dropping out of school, and drug abuse.

Understanding the Nature of Poverty

These events tend to rule out college as an option and perpetuate the cycle of poverty. Adverse Childhood Experiences Model. Adapted from "Environmental Toxicants and Developmental Disabilities: Weiss, , American Psychologist, 60 3 , pp. Due to issues of transportation, health care, and family care, high tardy rates and absenteeism are common problems among poor students. Unfortunately, absenteeism is the factor most closely correlated with dropout rates.

School can help turn children's lives around, but only if the children show up. Attendance problems often indicate negative parent attitudes toward school. Poor children are also more likely than well-off children are to attend poorly maintained schools with less-qualified teachers, and their day-care facilities—if available at all—are less adequate NCTAF, In addition, in many cases, low-achieving high school students report a sense of alienation from their schools. Kids raised in poverty are more likely to lack—and need—a caring, dependable adult in their lives, and often it's teachers to whom children look for that support.

It's crucial for educators to keep in mind the many factors, some of them invisible, that play a role in students' classroom actions.

The Effects of Poverty

Many nonminority or middle-class teachers cannot understand why children from poor backgrounds act the way they do at school. Teachers don't need to come from their students' cultures to be able to teach them, but empathy and cultural knowledge are essential. Therefore, an introduction to how students are affected by poverty is highly useful.

Consider summarizing information from this chapter or other sources and sharing it with staff. Hold discussions at staff meetings that inform and inspire. Form study groups to explore the brain-based physiological effects of chronic poverty. Debunk the myths among staff members who grew up in middle-class or upper-middle-class households. In the classroom, this translates into blurting, acting before asking permission, and forgetting what to do next.