Poverty and Child Health in the US and the UK Report (Assessment)

Introduction

Poverty remains one of the major social challenges affecting many people across the globe. Extreme poverty has been observed to affect children disproportionately. The number of underage persons living in poverty continues to rise despite the initiatives implemented in different countries to deal with the problem. Statistics also indicate that over 387 million children are affected by this challenge. Poverty is known to disorient every child’s development stages. Individuals who grow up in poor families or backgrounds will record undesirable social, health, emotional, and cognitive development. These challenges make it hard for the affected children to achieve their potential.

This background information explains why the problem of poverty in child development should be examined from a critical perspective. The selected topic sits in different fields. These include sociology, health, and psychology. This analysis means that children who are affected by poverty during their early years of life will record poor social, psychological, and health outcomes. The reason why I am interested in this topic is that many social workers and human services professionals have been unable to link childhood poverty to development. The study will, therefore, present meaningful insights that can empower more professionals to meet the needs of every underserved child.

Discussion

Article 1

The article “Poverty and Child Health in the United States” by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers meaningful insights that can help the reader understand the selected topic much better. The article outlines a number of issues that many children face living in poverty. One interesting observation is that the author acknowledges that almost half of children in the United States live in near-poverty conditions (American Academy of Pediatrics 2016). This situation is also a reflection of the challenges encountered in the developed world. Poverty results in numerous social conditions that might have adverse impacts on every child. Such impacts include poor health outcomes and inappropriate educational attainment. After conducting the intended study, the author (AAP) realized that poverty affected children across the course of their lives. Consequently, the agency has been advocating for appropriate policies and programs that can support the needs of more children living in poverty (American Academy of Pediatrics 2016).

If this predicament is to be addressed, pediatricians and practitioners must focus on the financial positions of families inhabited by children and offer adequate support through the use of powerful collaborations. Such initiatives can create sustainable communities whose members work together to deal with the challenge of poverty. This move, according to the AAP, can empower more parents and guardians to meet the needs of their children and eventually support their developmental goals. The most important thing about this research is that it resonates with the topic being investigated. The author examines the nature of poverty in children and why it is a major risk factor for poor health and emotional outcomes (American Academy of Pediatrics 2016). The insights gained from the article can be used to propose and implement powerful campaigns to support the emerging needs of more children living in poverty.

Article 2

The second article is “Poverty Dynamics and Academic Trajectories of Children of Immigrants” by Liwei Zhang and Wen-Jui Han. The researchers indicate that poverty is a major problem that makes it impossible for children to achieve their developmental goals efficiently. In an attempt to understand the complexity of this problem, the researchers designed a longitudinal study to analyze the relationship between academic trajectories and poverty for immigrant children in the United States. The scholars used the socioeconomic status (SES) model to complete the research. The major dimensions of poverty targeted during the study included stability, duration, and depth. The scholars observed that volatile changes and deep poverty in SES could affect the academic performance of many immigrant children throughout their schooling years. These observations were also recorded in children within the first nine years after birth (Zhang & Han 2017).

This period is crucial since it is capable of affecting a child’s future academic performance. The position of the authors is that superior models and policies should be implemented to support the educational needs of more children. The main focus should be on the demands of immigrant children living in poverty. In terms of reflection, this article offers meaningful insights and information that relate to the targeted topic. For instance, the research supports the use of the SES tool whenever analyzing the level of poverty in a given society or family. This knowledge can be used to monitor the outcomes of different children and academic performance. The ideas can be considered to come up with appropriate policies that have the potential to meet the educational needs of many immigrant children in different parts of the world (Zhang & Han 2017). Additionally, the concepts can be replicated in every family or community to ensure that more children have access to adequate resources.

Article 3

In the article “Poverty and Child Health in the UK: Using Evidence for Action”, the authors acknowledge that poverty is a major issue that disorients every child’s developmental aims. For instance, young persons living in poverty will record poor health and psychological outcomes. Their developmental stages will also be limited. Children who have poor health during their early years of life will have negative life chances even after becoming adults. The scholars used a qualitative approach to analyze the impacts of poverty on the health outcomes of many children in the United Kingdom. They observed that most of the affected children had social and behavioral challenges. They also revealed that the number of children living in absolute poverty was rising steadily in the country (Wickham et al. 2016).

That being the case, they suggested that appropriate measures and incentives were needed if the situation was to be reversed. They supported the use of powerful policies and initiatives to minimize the level of childhood poverty. They encouraged different agencies to come up with evidence-based strategies to empower every underserved population and community. The move could present numerous opportunities for many people and make it easier for them to support their children (Wickham et al. 2016). Since health outcomes are affected by poverty, the article supports the use of appropriate services that can reduce these outcomes and make it possible for more children to achieve their goals. The information presented in this article relates to the targeted topic. The research focuses on a key area that has been ignored for many years by researchers. The authors explore how childhood poverty affects the health attainment of children in the country. The presented information will be used to develop the topic and propose evidence-based action plans that can empower more children to lead quality lives.

Article 4

In the article “Poverty is Not Just an Indicator: The Relationship between Income, Poverty, and Child Well-Being”, the authors begin by appreciating the fact that childhood poverty has remained a major predicament in both the developing and the developed world (Chaudry & Wimer 2016). Consequently, the problem has catalyzed numerous child development challenges that make it impossible for individuals to succeed in life. Children living in low-income families tend to lack numerous resources and opportunities that can support their developmental needs and wellbeing. According to this research, poverty remains a critical indicator of both child and societal wellbeing (Chaudry & Wimer 2016). However, poverty is a critical factor since it has the potential to affect the developmental outcomes of different children. For instance, the authors indicate that poverty makes it impossible for children to record positive educational or cognitive-developmental outcomes.

After conducting their study, the authors managed to present powerful information that had not been captured by past scholars. They observed that poverty was linked to family stress, material hardship, and domestic violence. Children living in communities characterized by poverty will also be affected significantly. The problem worsens when the number of affected children in a given society increases. In terms of reflection, it is evident that this research will support the topic under investigation. This is true because the authors offer meaningful insights and ideas to describe the relationship between poverty and domestic violence or material hardship (Chaudry & Wimer 2016). The connection between social outcomes and educational gains are described in the article. These discussions will, therefore, inform the suggested topic and present meaningful arguments that can empower different stakeholders to analyze the nature of the problem. This approach will present evidence-based policies and initiatives to meet the needs of more underserved children and tackle the problem of poverty.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The above discussion shows that I have learned numerous lessons from investigating this topic. The first lesson is that childhood poverty is a complex issue that affects societies, families, and nations. Parents living in poverty are usually unable to provide basic needs to their children. Such children will be unable to achieve their developmental goals such as emotional competencies, cognitive skills, and psychological attributes. The affected children will also record poor health outcomes. I have understood that poverty in child development is a dilemma that has been ignored by many scholars and researchers. These aspects explain why the above articles offer meaningful recommendations to deal with the problem. The message gained from this discussion is that the use of desirable models can tackle the challenge of poverty. Consequently, such children will be in a position to pursue their dreams and have successful families. Future scholars can come up with powerful insights to guide governments to implement effective campaigns, initiatives, and policies that can transform the current situation. New studies can also examine how collaborative efforts among stakeholders can deliver meaningful results.

Reference List

American Academy of Pediatrics 2016, ‘Poverty and child health in the United States’, Pediatrics, vol. 137, no. 4, pp. 1-14.

Chaudry, A & Wimer, C 2016, ‘Poverty is not just an indicator: the relationship between income, poverty, and child well-being’, Academic Pediatrics, vol. 16, no. 3S, pp. s23-s29.

Wickham, S, Anwar, E, Barr, B, Law, C & Taylor-Robinson, D 2016, ‘Poverty and child health in the UK: using evidence for action’, Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-8.

Zhang, L & Han, W 2017, ‘Poverty dynamics and academic trajectories of children of immigrants’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 14, no. 1076, pp. 1-31.