How Poverty Affects Adolescents’ Development

How Poverty Affects Adolescents’ Development
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How Poverty Affects Adolescents’ Development
Poverty is a significant global problem. Indeed, it refers to lacking enough money to meet life necessities, such as shelter, food, and clothing. According to the World Bank, poverty entails much more than the lack of basic needs. What is more, it involves hunger, the lack of shelter or homelessness, inaccessible healthcare services, illiteracy, joblessness, and increased life challenges. Adolescence is an essential stage of life that prepares children for their adulthood. Children in this phase of life undergo emotional, physical, psychological, and mental transformations and need proper support from their families and friends. In particular, adolescence starts at the age of 10 years and ends at 19 years. During puberty, children’s body changes in various ways. Boys become more masculine, some grow beards, and their voices break. In contrast, girls’ bodies increase in size, breasts start to develop, and menstruation starts. Poverty significantly influences adolescents’ physical, mental, and psychological development.
Psychological studies show that living in poverty has numerous adverse effects on the mental and physical development and well-being of adolescents. The United States of America (USA) Census data depicts that poverty among children below 18 years increased from 2009 to 2010 from 15.5 million to 16.4 million (American Psychological Association, 2009). Between 2011 and 2012, the USA had approximately 16.7 million adolescents living in poverty. Based on the 2010 report by the Population Reference Bureau, about 24% of the 75 million young people below 18 years reside in a single-mother household. The poverty rate for children in single-mother families was around 42.2% in 2010, meaning that 7 out of 10 young individuals were poor (American Psychological Association, 2009). These statistics showing adolescence living in poverty are shocking. Some of the challenges that adolescents living in poverty encounter include homelessness, substandard housing, food insecurity, inadequate nutrition, and unsafe neighborhoods. Instead of these children undergoing puberty without straining, some fail to develop well physically since they do not have enough food to facilitate their bodies’ growth and development. A significant proportion of adolescents living in poverty have malnutrition since the little food they get do not enhance optimal physical and mental development. As a result, adolescents living in poverty are likely to face physical health issues, body developmental delays, and socio-emotional and behavioral problems.
Gary Evans and Pilyoung Kim affirm that poverty is a significant factor that alters the lifetime developmental trajectories in physical, cognitive, and socioemotional health outcomes (Evans & Kim, 2013). Disadvantaged adolescents have a high likelihood of experiencing numerous psychosocial and physical stressors, such as chaotic environments, family turmoil, and substandard housing, compared to their wealthier counterparts. Childhood poverty has detrimental effects on adol...