Essay Example on Poverty's Impact on Today's Issues of Violence

After reading "Nickel and Dimed," by Barbara Ehrenreich, one can say that today's issues regarding violence can be impacted by poverty. Since, "lower social status involves greater exposure to friction," (Park et al. 1122). Physical aggression in children from low social status is a significant public health concern (Tremblay et al. 3). The above notion helps to explain why children from poverty backgrounds normally have more trouble in school. In society today it has been shown that poverty can affect one's emotions, create offensive settings, and have an adverse result on one's childhood which adds to the incessant cycle of violence. This claim can be supported by research, statistic, and personal occurrences. The essay will analyze, and demonstrate how physical aggression increases the tendencies of children from low social status to have more trouble while in school.

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Physical aggression in children is not only a major physical, and mental health issue, but it also augments the tendencies of such children to take alcohol, drugs, suicide attempts, and violent crimes (Tremblay et al. 3). Socioeconomic status matters a lot in defining how children behave in school, and also their academic performance (Park et al. 1123). Children from poor backgrounds are often compelled to develop outbursts and physical aggression towards other kids in school by the difficulties they face on daily occasion (Tremblay et al. 3). They also perform dismally in their academics since they have been emotionally affected by challenges to the extent that their brains have been espoused to accepting suboptimal situations.

Research shows that children in poverty are more likely to develop anger issues something that leads to violence (Ehrenreich 74). In fact, poverty has an adverse effect on the early development of children. Its link to violence is obvious since, at many times, it harms the psychological development and well-being of children hence affecting their psychological being. What children do go through in their brains has a powerful effect on behavior. Therefore, poverty is likely to cause self-harm and violent behavior. However, various debates by scholars indicate that there are various conditions, which are important in demonstrating why and how poverty leads to violence. Conditions necessary for linking poverty and violence include; distressed neighborhood, disrupted family, poor housing, to mention but a few. Living conditions are defined as social structures, which result in consequences of poverty despite the fact that poverty is an independent variable whereas violence a dependent variable.

Based on social structures, children who are poor emanate from the lower class. The sad truth is poverty results in problems such as violence, mental disorders, and family stress. Basing the facts on the links of children in poverty with violence, things become more difficult making teenage women, for example, to drop out of school. Poverty makes children be violent thereby dropping out of school to be independent on welfare (Park et al. 1124). Children at the same time involve themselves in violent and criminal activities due to growing up in poverty. Moreover, children who grow in poverty go to poorer schools, live in disrupted families, conditions which are violent in early development. As they grow, they begin to feel the effects of poverty, which takes a toll of their learning capacities. Their parents at the same time have a hard time to supply food to their children. The low social status creates anger to these children a context that results in violence.

On the same hand, emotions provide a platform that links poverty and violence. As denoted earlier, children in poverty are more likely to be violent. The idea of behavior is largely influenced by emotions. Emotions from parents affect their social relations, and in response to poor living conditions, they even experience the violence. Appraisal theorists highlight that, to understand the emotions of children, it is important to fathom what they feel in response to their situations (Park et al. 1126). Some emotions develop as a result of poor living conditions. The emotions forward thrash children to situations where they develop anger since their goals are frustrated. In this perspective, a child displays sadness which can lead to resistance then violence.

Emotions can be learned through observations but it is attributed that people from higher social status positions express themselves differently as compared to people from low status. Therefore, despite the fact that emotions act as a link between poverty and violence, social status creates a behavior pattern (Park et al. 1123). Children in poverty are more likely to express their anger than those from higher social class positions. At the same time, children in poverty are more likely to be violent since they lack entirely everything. The poor living conditions create many frustrations in their life since they cannot accomplish their goals. They consider their conditions desirable in society due to the fact that they experience hard times for their educational and goals attainment.

Children from low social, and economic status grapple with emotional, and social uncertainty. As a result, their behaviors are unpredictable, hence it increases their tendencies to get in trouble more often in school than children from strong, and stable families (Jensen n.p). On academic performance, children from rich households normally enjoy supportive, and secure relationships. This helps to stabilize their behaviors, and also offers the necessary social skills vital for improving their academic performance (Jensen n.p). On the other hand, students from poor families fail to learn social skills, and this negatively impacts on their school performance. Several studies indicate that students from poor households are often punished for being rude or lacking respect towards their teachers

The challenge experienced by children from low social status propels physical aggression in America. One facet that fuels anger expression among children is when they lack school fees which are necessary for them to achieve their personal goals through academics. The method of parenting also determines how children will behave while in school. Children from poor households are often said to have parents who employ authoritative parenting styles hence impacting their behavior in school. The challenge of physical aggression impacting negatively the behavior, and academic performance of children from poor background can be solved by the following interventions; Teachers should insert social skills through adopting diverse classroom strategies. For example, reminding students to appreciate their classmates after finishing concerted activities (Jensen n.p). Teachers should also enhance inclusivity by using affiliative language in the classroom. For instance, appreciating children for making small achievements, it will help them develop the courage and boldness to improve better the next time (Jensen n.p). The final important aspect is to enhance respect among children in the classroom, by teaching them how to use polite words, and cautioning them against using belittling cynicism (Jensen n.p).

Conclusion

In conclusion, children from lower social status have been found to be more aggressive physically, and emotionally. Physical aggressions impact negatively on a child's behavior, and academic performance. Children from poor households often face difficult situations that make their behavior unpredictable hence explaining they have a higher tendency of getting in trouble while at school. On the other hand, children from rich families have a stable character since they came from secure relationships.

Works Cited

Park, Jiyoung, et al. "Social status and anger expression: the cultural moderation hypothesis." Emotion 13.6 (2013): 1122-1129. Retrieved from: https://web.stanford.edu/~hazelm/publications/2013%20Park,%20Kitayama,%20Markus%20et%20al.%20Social%20status%20and%20anger%20expression.pdf

Jensen, Eric. Teaching with poverty in mind: What being poor does to kids' brains and what schools can do about it. AScD, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects- psychiatry Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx

Tremblay, Richard E., et al. "Physical aggression during early childhood: trajectories and predictors." The Canadian child and adolescent review 14.1 (2005): 3. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3283570/

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and dimed: On (not) getting by in America. Metropolitan Books, 2010. pp. 1-16. Retrieved from: http://www.geocities.ws/nickelquest/nickel.pdf