Poverty – well when I was growing up I remember my mother telling me when I was older that we were considered to be poor. But, I never thought that. We did not visit the grocery store often. This is how we coped with the stressor as a family my grandparents raised chickens, pigs and we had a garden of vegetables. During hunting season my uncles would hunt deer, rabbits, and squirrels. Even though we were not able to go to the store often we always had what we needed. As far as clothing there were a lot of cousins so we shared a lot of clothing and shoes. Going to the store on our bikes to buy candy was a treat. I remember going into pastures running from cows and picking black berries for my grandmother to make blackberry cobbler for dessert. We did not have candy or sweets in the house unless it was a special occasion i.e. Birthday, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving.
India is the country in the world that you would like to know more about and/or for which you have a special affinity.
“Several specific risk factors, and poverty is among the most commonly investigated of socio-demographic risk variables” (Gulati, 2008, p. 108). “Children experience poverty as an environment that is damaging to their physical, mental, emotional and moral development. Living in poverty has been connected to poor cognitive and behavioral outcomes” (Zill, Moore, Smith, Steif & Coiro 1990; Moore & Stief 1991).
In this study was done on the basis of the following risk factors: “Low maternal age at subject child’s birth, low maternal education, low paternal education, father’s low status occupation, large sibling size, chronic illness in the family, drug abuse in father, alcohol abuse in father (women of this region cannot take alcohol) and inter-parent discord” (Gulati, 2008, p. 110).
According to the article some of these children may experience behavioral problems and others do not. To minimize the harm of poverty is by “constructing a poverty line along the basic needs approach by using estimated shadow nutrient prices” (Coondoo, 2008, p. 20). If the poverty line were constructed based on nutrient prices more families would become affordable. While this would not alleviate poverty it would decrease the amount of families suffering from this stressor.
References
Coondoo, D., Majumder, A., Lancaster, G., Ray, R. (2008). Alternative approaches to measuring temporal changes in poverty with application to India. Contemporary Issues & Ideas in Social Sciences. Retrieved November 27, 2010 from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=111&sid=2da09a2a-83cb-4154-9f7a-6e8ec5af36de%40sessionmgr104
I didn't know we were poor until I grew and looked back. There are 7 children in our family,my dad worked and my mom stayed home. We were so happy when we use to Thanksgiving baskets or hand me down clothes. My parents had a way of giving a sense of security regardless of the lack that we as children didn't really recognize.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how many families in this world suffers from poverty. But the economy continues to raise in stead of meeting the needs of people and this causes people to suffer and to be left without food, clothing and shelter.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard on my parents raising three children when they where young parents. If both of them wasn't working it was difficult, but we made it and I think it made us stronger people and taught us to appreciate what we do have in life.
It sounds like you had a close knit family. You were able to share resources and make due with what you had. It also sounds like your mom did everything for you to make sure you had what you needed.
ReplyDeleteCarmen,
ReplyDeleteYour childhood sounds familar to my own childhood. I didn't realize that we were considered poor until I was older. We too lived off of what my father hunted. Our extended family helped out with clothing as well. It is amazing what all my parents did to make sure we had what we needed. I was so blessed to have wonderful parents.