The Impact of Poverty on Single Mothers and Their Children
Poverty encompasses more than a lack of resources; it has the potential to condemn individuals for a lifetime. The relentless pursuit of escaping poverty takes a toll on one's well-being and overall quality of life. It is especially insidious for children, as it establishes lifelong struggles that are nearly impossible to overcome. Having grown up in the shadow of poverty, in a single-parent household, I can personally attest to the harm it inflicts such as abuse and illnesses to homelessness and food scarcity. Regrettably, this is a familiar reality for millions living in the United States.
Many families teeter on the cliff of financial ruin while many more face homelessness. With vital resources shuttering or becoming overburdened, many women and children risk losing everything they have.
Unlivable conditions repeatedly accompany children into adulthood. The United Way (2022) states that there is a direct correlation between childhood and adult poverty. Greg Duncan, (Duncan,et. al, 2011)—a scientist who studies the results of poverty on children—indicates that even brief periods of impoverishment during early childhood can have long-lasting and damaging outcomes on a child’s cognitive development; creating academic and social obstacles, oftentimes eliminating options for better-ranking jobs in the future.
Dedicated to policy changes to combat societal oversights and systemic failures, The Century Foundation (Kashen, et al., 2023)– one of the country’s oldest research institutions– highlights that the recent cessation of programs on September 30th, 2023 (Popli, 2023) will push women out of the workforce as access to daycare assistance becomes non-existent. The detrimental outcome of closures like these impacts the trajectory for families who rely on these vital initiatives, causing school and work to take the back burner as women scramble to provide for their children in other ways. An influx of children living in destitution is likely to happen within months, as daycares buckle under the weight of their financial stress from losing such valuable support. Daycare costs are predicted to go up, spawning adverse side effects as this could lead to job loss and even homelessness (Carrazana, 2023).
Children are subjected to severe consequences such as lack of food, education, and other vital needs. This causes many children to potentially end up in perilous situations for an array of issues stemming directly from these cuts. This raises the question as to why essential programs would be closed when the domino effect could have a massive impact on families, disproportionately affecting children the most.
The rate of indigent children increased drastically to 12% in 2022 more than doubling the rate from 5% in 2021. In recent years, roughly 15 million children have experienced or are currently living in such conditions. The map in Fig 1 illustrates the statistics of poverty by state, with the darker color representing states experiencing more poverty rates than the lighter-colored states (Annie E Casey Foundation, 2023).
Figure 1: Children In Poverty According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure in the United States
In America, welfare investigations occur to one in three children before they are 18 (Naveed, 2023), and children living in distress have a higher chance of being removed from their parent’s care –disproportionately affecting POC and Indigenous people (Butts, 2022) – than children that do not live in these perilous conditions. Unjustifiably, the rate of women living in poverty is much higher than men across all races and ethnicities. (Deparle, 2020)
Figure 2: Children In Poverty According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure in the United States
Early childhood development is directly impacted by poverty causing susceptibility for children to suffer irreparable harm. By the age of five or six, a child’s brain is already developed to 90% of its ultimate capacity, and during this formative period, children can develop what is known as “Toxic Stress” (Lucine et al., 2018), placing its victim on perpetual guard while critically impacting the areas of the brain dedicated to learning and reasoning.(Lucine et al., 2018) When left unchecked, toxic stress becomes permanent later on in life, creating a slew of threats as children venture into adulthood.
A variety of social and environmental conditions referred to as social determinants of health (SDOH) heavily impact our health and well-being. This ranges from safe housing and employment opportunities to healthcare and non-toxic air and water. SDOH notably causes the most harm to impoverished families, creating a cesspool of brutal circumstances for children to swim in. (Francis, et al, 2018).
The manifestation of repercussions on parents can become deleterious, with single mothers falling into poverty more than two-parent households or single-father homes. “The Double Standards of Single Moms vs. Single Dads” (Brown, 2023), suggests that archaic perceptions of mothers as traditional caretakers bear a lot of responsibility for why single mothers are treated vastly differently than single fathers. Mothers with multiple children are likely to be asked questions like, “Are they both from the same father?” by those they meet, and single fathers are most likely to be praised and called “courageous” by those they encounter when out with their children. (Brown, 2023) Assistant professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of “Making Motherhood Work”, Caitlyn Collins, Ph.D., blames this on the societal notion that, “We consider childrearing to be largely women’s domain in the U.S.” (Brown, 2023) and further discuss how this perception can cause women to be judged more than men when things ``fall through the cracks' ' such as homework being late and tardiness with picking their children up from school and other activities. Imbalances of parental standards and responsibilities in society even impact custodial cases, as favor often goes to the mother more so than to the father. In 2011, 32 percent of custodial mothers experienced living in poverty as opposed to 16 percent of custodial fathers. (Custodial Parents Living in Poverty, 2014)
When we consider poverty, we need to view it through a lens that encompasses the full scope of how incredibly damaging it can be to all who live it. The road to poverty is paved with the dreams and aspirations of those inflicted by it; with women and children becoming its main casualties. Poverty’s incessant grasp is an ever-growing concern in the United States that is nearly impossible to break free from. With initiatives being discarded, many children and mothers will find themselves struggling to make ends meet, and unfortunately for those who lack support, they will end up homeless, incarcerated, or worse. As a society, it is our responsibility to combat these hurdles to help those afflicted by promoting social changes that will lift these families out of poverty and into a fulfilling life that will span across generations.
Works Cited
Bonitatibus, S. (2021, December 3). The basic facts about women in poverty. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/basic-facts-women-poverty/
Carrazana, C., & Carrazana, C. (2023). The death of a day care: When a child care center closes, an entire community is affected. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2023/08/child-care-centers-closing-pandemic-era-funding-communities/
Children in poverty according to the supplemental poverty measure | KIDS COUNT Data Center. (n.d.). https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/map/11230-children-in-poverty-according-to-the-supplemental-poverty-measure?loc=1&loct=2#2/any/true/false/2479/any/21624/Orange/
Custodial Parents Living in Poverty. (2014). Retrieved October 17, 2023, from https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6ecc9243-8137-39c7-addb-b37262e99a24
DeParle, J. (2020). A gloomy prediction on how much poverty could rise. Children’s HealthWatch. https://childrenshealthwatch.org/a-gloomy-prediction-on-how-much-poverty-could-rise
Lucine, F. L., PhD, RN, DePriest, K. D., BSN, Wilson, M. W., PhD, & Gross, D. G., DNSc, RN FAAN. (2018). Child Poverty, Toxic Stress, and Social Determinants of Health: Screening and Care Coordination. National Library of Medicine.
Naveed, H. (2023). “If I wasn’t poor, I wouldn’t be unfit.” In Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/11/17/if-i-wasnt-poor-i-wouldnt-be-unfit/family-separation-crisis-us-child-welfare
United Way of the National Capital Area. (2023, April 19). Child poverty in America - Facts, Statistics | United Way NCA. United Way NCA. https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/child-poverty-in-america/#:~:text=Children%20who%20live%20in%20poverty,success%20and%20overall%20well%2Dbeing.
