Examining Child Poverty in the United States

Examining Child Poverty in the United States

        With 45.3 million Americans living in households with income below the poverty level and 14.7 million of those being children under the age of 18 (DeNavas 20, 22), childhood poverty in the United States is a social issue that needs urgent attention. However, in order to address workable solutions, one must understand the root causes of poverty in America and the negative effects it has on the individual and society, including: (1) stress, psychological damage and despair; (2) physical and health-related decline; (3) alcohol/substance abuse which can lead to physical abuse; (4) crime and other antisocial behavior; and (5) homelessness. This is a convoluted problem with many factors that contribute to this bane on society and it is easy to blame individuals for their circumstances. Besides individual choices, there are societal forces that also work against the poor. The two major causes of child poverty in America are unwed childbearing, leading to single parent families, and low levels of parental work/suppressed wages, which can be linked to secondary causes, including lack of education, limited opportunities and access to capital markets, and immigration, yielding disastrous outcomes for the poor and society.

        Children born out of wedlock or living in single-mother  households are the major cause of child poverty in America. According to Jay Richards, visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation:

Since 1965, the rate of unwed births has soared from 7 percent to 39 percent (and among blacks, to 69 percent). Children born and raised outside of marriage are nearly seven times more likely to live in poverty than children born to and raised by a married couple. Moreover, unwed childbearing is concentrated among low-income, less educated women in their early 20's–those who have the least ability to support a family by themselves. (6)

Furthermore, according to Annie Lowrey, an economic reporter for The New York Times Magazine, “Nobody doubts that where marriage is, poverty tends not to be; the statistics are stark” (16). Lowrey goes on to state, “Almost no marriages in which both parents work full time fall below the poverty line; about one-third of households headed by a single mother are poor” (16). Nearly one-half of children who live with a single mother live in poverty (Lowrey 16). These startling statistics about single parenting can help in forming good policies and educational reforms to solve this one aspect of childhood poverty.

        The second largest contributor to child poverty is lower levels of work and suppressed wages for poor parents. In examining low levels of work rates in their 2003 article “Role of Parental Work in Child Poverty,” authors Rea Hederman and Robert Rector note:

                Among poor families with children, one-quarter to one-third have zero employment throughout the year. Over one-fourth have full-time employment through the year (2,000 or more hours of paid labor) but remain poor. The rest have some employment but less than full-time/full year. Overall, among all poor families with children, the median hours of adult employment are between 650 and 1,000 hours per year. (1)