Working for social change in early childhood as child poverty rises

Poverty

A recent study on demographics found that white Americans, currently about 63% of the U.S. population, will peak in 2024 and drop below 50% of the U.S. population by 2043. In fact, since the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, about 650,000 new immigrants a year come from Latin America and Asia, which outnumbers the mass European Immigration from 1920-1920 (Lee, 2013). African-Americans, as of the 2012 census update, comprise about 44 million, up almost 2% from 2010. In fact, America's African-American population (Black) has steadily been increasing in participation in American politics, with a 65% turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election, higher than any other minority in the country (U.S.Census Bureau News, 2013). One of the changes in American economic and policy debate occurring in the 21st century has been the growing concerns about the inequality of wealth and the expanding racial wealth gap between Whites and minority groups, including Blacks and Hispanics. Studies show that wealth inequality not only hurts the foundation of the family, but also hampers the economic health of the entire country. In the United States today, the richest 1% of households own 37% of all wealth; and has been perpetuated by decades of tax preferences and policy issues that have favored the affluent, especially during the Republic Administrations of Regan, and the two Bush's'. What is alarming is that this has resulted in a wealth gap between White households and Minority households showing that in 2009, a representative study shows that the median wealth of White families was $113,149 compared with $6,325 for Hispanics and $5,677 for Blacks. This becomes even more alarming when graphed between 2005 and 2009, finding that both Hispanics and Blacks lost significantly between those four years (Kochhar, R., et al., 2011).

Professional Review - One must, therefore, understand that these economic inequities and standards of living, particularly for the urban poor, do not exist in isolation, but in fact impact every aspect of society -- particularly that of education. For example, although hundreds of studies have been done to prove the associations between poverty and children;'s health and achievement, one of the classic articles on the subject was written in 1997 by Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn who was director of the Center for Young Children and Families at Teacher's College, Columbia University and Dr. Greg Duncan, Professor of Education and Social Poolicy at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997).

The importance of this article was its focus on studies that explored the relationship between poverty and chil outcomes. The research supports the conclusion that family income has a substantial effect on child and adolescent well-being, making the statistics on wage and income gaps for miniorities even more important. Brooks-Gunn and Dunan also prove that the timing of poverty seems important for certain childhood outcomes. The earlier the child is subjected to poverty, the more severe the effects then to be, and the less likely the child is to complete school (Brooks-Gun and Duncan).

The issue of poverty and childhood outcomes is not really debated, but instead, recent scholarship tends to focus on interventions and appropriate levels of outcome. One policy focuses on early intervention to improve the health and development of young children, the other focuses on employment-based financial incentives for low income parents. Dr. Aletha Huston, Professor of Child Development at the University of Texas at Austin, argues that the U.S. too narrowly defines poverty and might be able to establish more effective policies if they were based on interactions assumptions regarding causality in a more aggressive manner (Huston, 2011).

Additionally, it is crucial to focus not simply on the physical needs of the child, but also their mental health issues. Harkening from the Ecolological Theories of Constructivism from Bronfenbrenner and Vygotsky, research now shows that an ecological model informed with public health and ogranizational themes helps schools refocus basic services alighed with improved learning outcomes for children (Cappella, e., et al., 2008).

Sadly, the physical and emotional interventions for poor children seem to remain drawn on racial lines. Data indicates that Hispanic and Black children are 2-3 more times likely to fall below the official U.S. poverty line, yet does not include all the attributes necessary to get a broader, more ecological, interpretation of the data. Drs. Drake and Rank of the School of Social Work at Washington University, St. Louis, posit that 20 years of census data shows that instead of 2-3 more times, the figure is closer to 10-14 times more likely to live in a poverty striken neighborhood, making the concept of culture and neighborhood intervention even more important in the 21st century -- particularly with the juxtaposition of global and local needs (Drake and Rank, 2009).