A Framework for Understanding Poverty (23 page)

"Children raised in low-income families score lower than children from more affluent families do on assessments of health, cognitive development, school achievement, and emotional well-being."

"Evidence from this study shows that family poverty affected the cognitive abilities of children in two very different samples, as measured at separate ages ... Effects of income were found at each age from two to eight years."

"Children who lived in persistently poor families scored 6-9 points lower on the various assessments than children who were never poor."

"Indeed, parents' education is always linked to young children's outcomes."

In the researchers' analyses, "[T]he home experience mediated the effects of the mother's education more strongly than family income. This finding fits with the belief that education is linked to specific ways of talking, playing, interacting, and reading with young children" (Bradley et al., 1989; Sugarland et al., 1995). "It also suggests that working on increasing the educational levels of mothers will affect children via their home experiences, a tenet upon which many early childhood intervention programs are based" (Chase-Lansdale and Brooks-Gunn, 1995; Clarke-Stewart and Fein, 1983).

Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Duncan, Greg J., and Maritato, Nancy. Poor Families, Poor Outcomes: The Well-being of Children and Youth. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. I.

Smith, Judith R., BrooksGunn, Jeanne, and Klebanov, Pamela K. Consequences of Living in Poverty for Young Children's Cognitive and Verbal Ability and Early School Achievement. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. p. 164.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 166.

Ibid. pp. 166-167.

"In sum, income and tax benefits aimed at increasing the family income of poor families, as well as early intervention programs aimed at improving the home learning environment, for parents and children, would improve the school readiness and cognitive ability of the nations' youngest citizens."

"From a reanalysis of Glueck and Glueck's (1950) retrospective data on the prediction of juvenile delinquency, Sampson and Laub (1994) conclude that `poverty appears to inhibit the capacity of families to achieve informal social control, which in turn increases the likelihood of adolescent delinquency.'"

"The duration of poverty mattered for cognitive development, but timing did not influence children's outcomes" (from Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, and Klebanov, 1994; data analyses from the Infant Health and Development Program).

.. [T]he number of years adolescents lived in poor families was an important predictor of school attainment and early career achievements" (from Corcoran et al., 1992).

"Some evidence suggests that duration of poverty may influence mediating factors. Garrett, Ng'andu, and Ferron (1994) observed that the longer children reside in poverty, the lower the quality of their family environment. However, a competing argument maintains that parents' social adjustment and cognitive competence prior to parenthood could explain the relationship between the persistence of poverty and cognitive outcomes" (Benson et al., 1993; Serbin et al., 1991).

"A child's family income appears to significantly affect changes in cognitive performance between ages 3 and 12 but not changes in internalizing and externalizing behaviors."

Ibid. p. 167.

Pagani, Linda, Boulerice, Bernard, and Tremblay, Richard E. The Influence of Poverty on Children's Classroom Placement and Behavior Problems. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 311.

Ibid. P. 334.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid. P. 337.

"The amount of parental time available while growing up (including the presence of two parents in the home) and having fewer siblings is positively related to educational attainment. Both the educational level of the mother and the economic resources available to the family (proxied by both total family income and the number of years that the family is in poverty) are related to educational success. In particular, the number of years in poverty appears to be an important determinant of the probability of graduating I from] high school. Other things being equal, children who grow up in poor families are far less likely than other children to complete high school. When these children also grow up with only a single parent, the probability that they will complete high school is further reduced."

"The research literature is also beginning to suggest that the emotional and supportive quality of the parental home rather than its structure or composition most strongly influences a child's sense of self-worth" (Demo and Acock, 1988; Raschke, 1987).

"Whitbeck et al. (1991) found that family economic hardship, as reported by parents, affected self-esteem indirectly 'by decreasing parental support and involvement' (1991). They found, however, that reported economic hardship had only weak direct effects on children's self-esteem, which appears consistent with the work of other researchers, who have found parental behavior toward children to be an important determinant of children's self-esteem" (Gecas and Schwalbe, 1986; Demo, Small, and Savin-Williams, 1987).

"Family income has large effects on some measures of the children's ability and achievement, but not on the behavior, mental health, or physical health measures represented by the developmental studies in chapters 5, 7, 11, 14, 16, and 17."

Haveman, Robert, Wolfe, Barbara, and Wilson, Kathryn. Childhood Poverty and Adolescent Schooling and Fertility Outcomes: Reduced-form and Structural Estimates. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. PP. 441-442.

Axinn, William, Duncan, Greg J., and Thornton, Arland. The Effects of Parents' Income, Wealth, and Attitudes on Children's Completed Schooling and Self-esteem. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 521.

Ibid.

Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne. Income Effects Across the Life Span: Integration and Interpretation. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors.

"Family economic conditions in early and middle childhood appear to be far more important for shaping ability and achievement than they do during adolescence."

"Family income is usually a stronger predictor of ability and achievement outcomes than are measures of parental schooling or family structure."

.. [T]he quality of the home environment-its opportunities for learning, the warmth of mother-child interactions, and the physical condition of the homeaccounts for a substantial portion of the powerful effects of family income on cognitive outcomes."

Family structure has effect on: test scores, gradepoint average, and years of school-modest effects. Behavioral-problem indicators like skipping school and early childbearing-more substantial effects.

Income accounts for "about 50% of the difference in educational attainment of children raised in one- and twoparent families." The remaining differences for oneparent children are attributed to receiving less "parental supervision" (especially from fathers) and having less "social capital" because they move more frequently.

All of the research teams except one, Teachman et al., found that "a parent's absence had negative consequences for children's school achievement." The teams: (1) Hanson, McLanahan, and Thomson; (2) Conger, Conger, and Elder; (3) Lipman and Offord; (4) Pagani, Boulerice, and Tremblay (negative effects on school performance); (5) Peters and Mullis; (6) Haveman, Wolfe, and Wilson (less likely to graduate from high school if from nonintact family; (7) Peters and Mullis; and (8) Hauser and Sweeney (lower rates of college attendance and graduation).

Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 597.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 601.

McLanahan, Sara S. Parent Absence or Poverty: Which Matters More? Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 37.

Ibid.

Ibid. P. 41.

Ibid.

"The fact that family disruption has stronger and more consistent effects on educational attainment than on test scores suggests that something besides cognitive ability is responsible for the poorer school performance of children from nonintact families."

"These findings suggest the net effects of poverty on cognitive ability and school achievement are equal to or larger than the net effects of family disruption."

Regarding educational attainment, children in stepfamilies do better than those in single-parent families, but they do worse in the areas of behavioral and psychological problems.

"In practical terms, because children living in persistent poverty appear to be at greater risk for serious academic failure, their potential contribution to society remains limited."

"A variety of factors have been found to be consistently related to the schooling attainments of children; the parents' education, the family's income, the number of parents in the child's family, the parents' expectations, and characteristics of the child's school and teachers are among the more important" (Haveman and Wolfe, 1995).

"However, the importance of money in enabling parents to purchase better learning environments for their children is reinforced by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Child Care

Ibid. P. 47.

Ibid.

Pagani, Linda, Boulerice, Bernard, and Tremblay, Richard E. The Influence of Poverty on Children's Classroom Placement and Behavior Problems. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 338.

Haveman, Robert, Wolfe, Barbara, and Wilson, Kathryn. Childhood Poverty and Adolescent Schooling and Fertility Outcomes: Reduced-form and Structural Estimates. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 421.

Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne. Income Effects Across the Life Span: Integration and

Ibid.

Interpretation. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. p. 602.

Mayer, Susan E. What Money Can't Buy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. p. 10.

Ibid. P. 48.

Research Network's data on early child care (Chapter 6), which showed that family income was a significant determinant of the quality of nearly all of the child care environments observed, including center-based child care."

Children's scores on cognitive assessments are affected by the number of books a child has and the frequency of visits to a museum.

"Low income decreases the quality of nonmonetary investments, such as parents' interactions with their children."

Chapter Nine: Creating Relationships

When talking about his brother and a teacher he had, the author says, "Mrs. Snelling saw talent in Rano, a spark of actor during the school's thespian activities. She even had him play the lead in a class play. He also showed some facility with music. And he was good in sports ... So when I was at Garvey, he was in high school being the good kid, the Mexican exception, the barrio success story-my supposed model. Soon he stopped being Rano or even Jose. One day he became Joe."

The author writes: "I spent a lot of time in a lot of groups trying to get people to see each other as people. To relate to one another not as social worker to patient, not as psychiatrist to patient, but as people. Most of all, to learn to value what is good and decent about people, whatever their circumstances. It's sad that that's something we have to learn from and about people whose chief struggle, of all the struggles they have to fight, is for the right to contribute and to be seen as contributing members of the society that once rejected them."

Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993. P. 49.

Capponi, Pat. Dispatches from the Poverty Line. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Penguin Books, 1997. PP. 187-188.

Ibid.

"It seems to me sometimes that we take a person in poverty, an individual suffering the misery of poverty, and we subdivide that misery into sections. Then we build huge support systems based on our assumptions about those stand-alone bits of misery:

welfare

children's aid

corrections

addictions

shelters

food banks

psychiatry

drop-ins

"And while we successfully continue to employ all the helpers in the helping professions, and sometimes make great strides in treating one particular bit of misery, we continue to fail to see the individual and the source from which all the misery springs."

"The operation is a success, but the patient dies."

Conclusion

Her study also challenges the thought that "if pushed, the poor can become self-sufficient through work." It, in essence, supports "the existence of a permanent `culture of poverty,' an argument first advanced in the modern American context by political scientist Edward Banfield in a 1970 book."

Freedom is now defined by the amount of choice a person has and by "the development of human resources of men and women in a post scarcity society."

"Results from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggest that the majority of these children will not escape poverty throughout their childhood, making the intergenerational transmission of poverty more likely" (Duncan, 1984, 1991). ("These" children refers to those "living in chronic material hardship.")

Sennett, Richard, and Cobb, Jonathan. The Hidden Injuries of Class. London/Boston: Faber and Faber, 1993. First published in U.S.A. in 1972 by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY. P. 74.

Pagani, Linda, Boulerice, Bernard, and Tremblay, Richard E. The Influence of Poverty on Children's Classroom Placement and Behavior Problems. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 338.