Children living in poverty often have negative long-term emotional, educational, health and mental issues.

There are billions of children living in poverty throughout the world. Living in poverty directly impacts a child’s education. A child living in poverty is most likely to perform poorly in school and drop out of school at an early age.

Living in poverty also has a social and emotional impact on children. Children develop behavioral and emotional problems often acting on impulse. They are more prone to disobey rules and their elders and may develop problems getting along with their peers. Living in poverty also makes it hard for children to develop normal emotions and creates low self-esteem, making them feel powerless and voiceless. Living in poverty often creates stressful situations for children, which children often do not know how to deal with. Since they do not know how to deal with these situations, children often are led to be more physically violent in stressful situations.

Children living in poverty often carry an antisocial character that is psychologically described as a protection mechanism against their hostile environment.

Children living in poverty are also more likely to have health issues. Newborns are more likely to be underweight which most of the time leads to them be malnourished. They often suffer from poor nutrition because their families and communities do not have the proper resources to get nutritional foods. A lot of times children in developing countries also do not have correct medical care. Children with poor health often end up missing school or drop out of school because they are too sick. There are higher death rates in children living in poverty because of health issues that are curable, which is not okay. One of the most common curable diseases that children die from each year is diarrhea.

It is important to address child poverty at its early stages to stop the poverty cycle and the negative impacts it has on children.

— Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: Poverties.org, CPAG, U.S. News, Livestrong
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