Poverty and Neglect

There is a strong correlation between poverty and physical and emotional neglect in low-income families. However, when working with students we must remember that emotional neglect can occur at all levels of society. Poverty is relative, depending on the area in which you live, those with whom you associate, your values, and so forth.

The following are some statistics on poverty that are worth noting:

  1. Although the United States had an economic boom in the 1990s, the poverty rate for children rose from 18% in 1990 to 30% in 1999.
  2. America’s children are more likely to live in poverty than any other group of Americans.
  3. The United States' child poverty rate is two to three times higher than that of most other Western industrialized nations.
  4. Eight to ten percent of our children live in extreme poverty as measured by an income of less than 50% of the federal poverty line. Research has indicated that living in extreme poverty during the first five years of life has severe detrimental effects on a child’s potential.
  5. Many of our families and 40% of our children live in or near poverty levels, having incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line. Many of these children are from working poor families. These are families who work at low-income jobs. They do not rely on government assistance, but do not have benefits such as affordable medical insurance, childcare, or adequate pay to support their families. They exist from paycheck to paycheck, trying to provide for the needs of their families. The incidence of neglect and abuse is not as high in working poor families as in nonworking families of generational poverty.


Poverty can be generational (spanning two or more generations) or situational (due to job loss, change in family status that occurs through divorce or death of the breadwinner, etc). Poverty occurs in all races (although there is a higher percentage of people of color in poverty) and is worldwide.

Schools and businesses still operate using middle-class norms and values, so in order to succeed in society, students must be taught these norms. In order to successfully teach students from all socioeconomic groups, teachers need to understand the hidden rules and values of the various socioeconomic groups.

Some of the hidden rules of various economic classes are as follows:


Members of the working class may temporarily encounter situational poverty, but usually have the skills necessary to eventually find work and recover. The vast majority of neglectful families come from generational poverty. As listed above, there are certain hidden rules and outlooks on life inherent in being from a family of generational poverty.

This family is focused on the present survival of the family. “Where are we going to sleep?” “Is there enough food for the next meal, and if not, where will I get some?” “How am I going to afford to get my child a pair of shoes?” These are all daily worries for these families. They tend to live in the moment in order to avoid the stress of thinking about tomorrow. They follow their current feelings and impulses without analyzing why they are feeling this way or what the result of following an impulse may be.

The fact that families of generational poverty tend to share everything, including their children, is another consideration. Children are viewed as possessions or property, which increases the risk of child neglect and abuse. Sharing a home, food, bed, and so on with relatives and friends can add stability to the family if the extended family is a good stable influence, or can add chaos, if the extended family is unstable. 

The crowded home conditions of generational-poverty families can promote neglect and abuse. In regard to physical neglect, having to share beds with extended family members or friends can lead to sexual abuse; the sheer number of children that need attending to can promote lack of supervision and neglect; the necessity of sharing food and clothes can cause an individual child’s needs to be overlooked; and so on. 

In regard to emotional neglect, a large, unstable family can cause a child’s social and emotional needs to be overlooked, and also allow a parent to feel that somebody else will care for her child. In these families, often the older children are expected to look out for the younger children, but are unable to give them the same love and support that a parent should. 

Frequent moves from one relative or friend's home to another creates disruption for the children who never know the stability of having a home, bed, or possessions of their own. Families from generational poverty tend to view life as an act of fate. They believe there is not much they can do to change their circumstances. This view, in addition to their focus on the present as opposed to the future, perpetuates generational poverty. 

Families who are unable to take steps to change their lives will remain stuck in their present situation. They will not seek out resources or opportunities, such as education or job training, that could improve their situation. Since they view life as an act of fate, they do not accept responsibility for their own actions and do not understand that their choices today result in consequences tomorrow.

When working with children from generational poverty, teachers must be very sensitive to these cultural differences and different sets of societal rules. Outside school, students from generational poverty have social rules that revolve around their physical and emotional survival. It is difficult for students to leave behind the concerns of enough food, proper shelter and adequate clothes to fit into the social styles of school and adapt to the school rules that revolve around choices and learning. In their home lives, these students do not have choices and are not focused on the future. They are focused on the here and now and survival needs. Teachers must remember this when setting expectations and a learning climate for their students.

In the lower class, relationships with others are highly valued, whereas in school achievement is highly valued. Students from generational poverty accept their cultural norm that all possessions are shared and that families share living situations and family members. It may be very difficult for them to adapt to the school norms of respecting individual possessions that they are not supposed to touch. Since students of generational poverty believe that one's situation in life is an act of fate, they may have difficulty understanding why achievement in school is expected and hard work is valued.

They value their relationships with their friends more highly than achievement. This may result in a problem with motivation if the teacher does not build time for relationships into the classroom.

The parents of students in poverty most likely have poor educational skills. Since they often have had bad experiences in school, they may not value education. Things teachers assume parents will supply, such as a quiet place to study, school supplies, and access to resources such as a computer or the library may not be available in these homes.

Therefore, students in poverty need role models to show them how to build the physical and mental resources necessary to learn to read, write and compute. We have to remember that sometimes a student’s failure in school is due to a lack of resources and a lack of family support.

A child living in poverty is seven times as likely to be abused or neglected as a child living in an economically secure home. This is so not only because the parents are under financial stress; it also has to do with their family structure. Often families in generational poverty share households, possessions and families.

The more mobile and unstable the household, the higher the incidence of abuse and neglect. Seventy to eighty percent of incidents of abuse are caused by nonrelatives, so as the frequency of nonrelatives sharing the household increases, so does the incidence of abuse. When a child's mother is moving from partner to partner in order to survive, the child does not know whose side the mother is on--the child’s or the partner’s.

They learn to look out for themselves and not to trust adult authority. Children in poverty learn to survive through manipulation, through deceiving adults and through being distrustful of adult authority. Because they value relationships highly, the best way to motivate a student in poverty and win that student's trust is through your relationship with him or her.

Later, we will look at ways to break the cycle of generational poverty and neglect. Fewer children in poverty would mean:

  1. More children entering school ready to learn.
  2. Fewer drop-outs and more students who are successful in school.
  3. Better child health and less strain on the national health care system.
  4. Less juvenile delinquency.
  5. Less child hunger and malnutrition.
  6. Less child abuse and neglect.

If we are to break the cycle of generational poverty and neglect, we must change the cycle of neglect by providing more support and services to the neglectful parents so that they and their children have more resources and skills.

Top