Essay Example on Vulnerable Children: Impact of Social, Emotional and Material Needs

Introduction

The term vulnerable can be considered as the state of violence, poverty discrimination, and social exclusion towards an individual. The impacts of vulnerability on children is multidimensional and it reflects on several issues such as the socials needs which deals with social network, support and mentoring, emotional needs focusing on love and care, and material need dealing with home, money, and shelter. Majority of vulnerable individuals are adversely affected by several challenges that trigger their social and emotional problems.

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The Impact of Income on the Vulnerability of Women and Children

Majority of the single mothers' families are at greater risk of financial constrained which has a greater impact on the well being of the family. Most of the single mother's experience what is known as food and fuel poverty; therefore, they have to sacrifice so as to ensure they provide the basic needs to their children's. In most cases, they are forced to go to work without food and end up struggling to pay bills.

Most of the single parents live in stigmatized situations and they end up being given some characteristics that results to devaluing them in the society (Stack & Meredith, 2017). There is a great link between financial hardship and poor health service. Majority of single mothers are considered to be having poor health and that of their children's too due to low income hence they are subjected to very low levels of psychological and mental health that determine their well being as compared to married individuals, who can access better health care.

The Impact of Gender on the Vulnerability of Women and Children

There is a great sentiment about gender in our society framework and how it affects our expectation and views in many areas. It's well documented that women are the one who perform most of the health-related issues at home and there is a great division in the type of care giving work. There is great evidence on how gender affect the way parent adjust in coping with various diagnosis of childhood illness that are chronic. Mothers' care giving is affected by child sex which may help to clarify how caregivers manage, define and perform work. It's difficult to distinguish between the two are of labor that is the interrelation between care giving and socialization, therefore much of the work performed by the caregivers are taken for granted (Hill & Zimmerman, 1995).

The Intersection of Social, Political, and Economical Factors Affecting Vulnerability

Parents have greater responsibility to take care for their children against various challenges in the environment. Economic wise, some of the parents who live in poverty usually struggle in terms of balancing their basic financial necessities such as food cost, clothing, and accommodation, education needs for their kids, transport and special-needs healthcare. As a result of these factors, it may lead to a combined risk of factors to families living in poverty. Also, it leads to the creation of socioeconomic vulnerabilities that cause reunification and functioning of families. Based on political aspects it is based on how some families are unable to access government structures and support services that mainly contributes to vulnerability in household's level. Furthermore, while looking at social aspect of life, the vulnerable mothers may be subjected to violence, mental and physical abuse, neglect and exploitation that may make her to leave her children's in a risky society where he cannot access parental protection.

Social Protection Model Program

Social protection for vulnerable mothers and children entails risk reduction and prevention techniques that aim to create an environment which reduces the probability of a risk from occurring. The prevention strategies for children is aimed at limiting risk factors concerning child neglect and abuse. It is designed to improve families or individuals' outcomes from exposure to risk factors. More so, the program enhances protective and compensatory factors that protect the child from the influences of victimization.

Mothers and children face several issues and risk factors. Mothers are under represented in the formal labor market since household responsibilities and child rearing limit their labor force. Furthermore, the societal norms contribute to a large extent on the discrimination to labor market. Pregnancy and motherhood cause higher job insecurity because the employers avoid hiring women of child bearing age. It is because of the costs related to maternity and probability of work disruption for child rearing and child birth. Children are exposed to abusive family environment leading to traumatic brain injury, obesity causes chronic health problems including diabetes and heart diseases, genetic family disposition (Genetic Alliance & Family Voices, 2013).

The model program will entail a training program which minimizes the chances of income loss or unemployment. In addition, there will be a child care service that will enable women to join the formal labor market and get access to a higher earning opportunity. The program will contain a support program for new parents to limit abusive family environment. Also, the program offers routine counseling to children on healthy eating and games to promote physical exercise.

References

Genetic Alliance, & Family Voices. (2013, February). Who is at risk? - Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs in Healthy People 2020 - NCBI Bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK132166/

Hill, S. A., & Zimmerman, M. K. (1995). Valiant Girls and Vulnerable Boys: The Impact of Gender and Race on Mothers' Caregiving for Chronically Ill Children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.2307/353815

Stack, R. J., & Meredith, A. (2017). The Impact of Financial Hardship on Single Parents: An Exploration of the Journey From Social Distress to Seeking Help. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 39(2), 233-242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9551-6