The Negative Effects Of Poverty On Children's Mental Health

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, “ 21% of low-income children and youth ages 6-17 have mental health problems” and “57% of these low-income children come from households with incomes at or below the federal property level” (Masi and Cooper, “Children’s Mental Health”). Poverty provides a poor growing environment to children and increases their susceptibility to developing mental health problems. Often times, the families cannot afford early treatment, so the problems progressively worsen during childhood and leading into adult life. The negative effects poverty has on children's mental health are that it puts them at risk for acquiring many different behavioral, emotional, and developmental problems, limits their academic
Children are vulnerable to developing mental problems while living under the overwhelming, frightening, and debilitating conditions of poverty. They may develop behavioral problems, emotional disorders, and developmental delays. Some of the main behavioral problems are the inability to get along with peers, impulsiveness, aggression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (American Psychological Organization). Conduct disorder is a mental disorder characterized by having a limited understanding of personal violations and social norms, bullying, aggression, and deceitfulness/theft (Coleman). The main influencing factor on behavior is the environment in which the children are raised in, moreover, children raised in subpar conditions due to poverty are more likely to have behavioral problems. If a child is raised in a lower class community as opposed to a higher class community, they would have a higher probability of being exposed to violence, high stress, and drugs/alcohol abuse. The exposure to violence would place a greater risk of self-harm, mortality, and entry into the juvenile system, which has the potential to harm their futures. Similarly, youth have emotional problems due to poverty.
The last negative effect poverty has on children is that it affects their ability to succeed in their adult life. Adults who grew up in child welfare systems “experienced major mental health problems and drug and alcohol dependency at significantly higher rates than the general population”(NCCP). Due to the high stress and traumatic experiences during childhood, adults are very likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol, live on the streets, or become unemployed. The lack of proper education, crippling mental health, or crime involvement makes it extremely hard for people who had lived in poverty to get a job. Adults who grew up in poverty also are immediately dropped into the cycle of poverty. “Inadequate education contributes to The cycle of poverty by making it more difficult for low-income children to lift themselves and future generations out of poverty”(APA). This cycle guarantees that children born to parents in poverty will not become successful in their adult life. The adults may also take to the streets and commit crimes in order to salvage food or feed into their childhood vices. Because “lower class youth commit four times more violent crimes than middle-class youth”(Russel), adults are more likely to resort back to crime and become incarcerated in adulthood. Lastly, their mental health problems introduced during childhood could progressively worsen. According to the NCCP, Up to 75% to 80% of children and