What is the Price of Poverty?

Launched today (5^th March, 2019), a report entitled Working, Parenting and Struggling? An analysis of the employment and living conditions of one parent families in Ireland contains some alarming findings.

Based primarily on data from the European Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), the report states:

Lone parents in Ireland have the second highest rate of income poverty, persistent poverty, and severe deprivation among all EU-15 countries. (p.4)

On average across Europe, one parent families are three times more likely than two parent families to experience deprivation. However, in Ireland, this risk is higher as lone parents are five times more likely to experience deprivation. (p.4)

62% of homeless families are headed by one parent. (p.5)

Society of St. Vincent de Paul (2019) Working, Parenting and Struggling? An analysis of the employment and living conditions of one parent families in Ireland .

What are the Consequences of Growing up in Poverty?

Children growing up in impoverished circumstances frequently face chaos, challenge, and uncertainty.  This may stem from:

• Troubled family relationships – parental depression (more common among impoverished parents) and separation can influence attachment;
• Exposure to substance abuse;
• Lack of access to housing / substandard housing / frequent moves or homelessness;
• Fear arising from living in a dangerous neighbourhoods with increased exposure to violence, criminality, and gangs;
• Health issues stemming from poorer nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, and environmental issues such as living in damp housing.
• Struggles with schoolwork and a widening attainment gap with their peers;
• Health issues related to inadequate nutrition and healthcare.

Such uncertainties can create a lot of stress, with stress categorised as positive, tolerable, or toxic.  The impact of stress is mediated by the presence of supportive adults.  Absence of such a buffer, in the face of serious ongoing adversity, creates “toxic” stress, so termed because it arises from prolonged exposure to stress hormones (corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline), and these affect brain development, rendering children prone to impairments in learning, behaviour, and physical and mental well-being. 

Chronic early childhood stress can affect the functioning of:

• The amygdala – heightening fear and anxiety.  Significantly, anxiety and depression exist along a continuum;
• The hippocampus – affecting memory and mood;
• The prefrontal cortex (PFR) – affecting responses to stress.  This region controls executive functions (decision-making, working memory, behavioral self-regulation, and mood and impulse control).

Thus, the impact of stress is two-fold, affecting a child’s long-term health and their learning potential. Changing the trajectory caused by this early damage to the hard-wiring of the brain is extremely difficult.

Yes, but Poor Parents aren’t Necessarily Unsupportive.

Undoubtedly, this is true.  However, poverty is linked with increased rates of depression and this may affect a parent’s ability to be emotionally available to their child.  Lower socio-economic status (SES) is a particular risk factor for maternal depression.   

Faced with constant concerns over money, substandard housing (often in areas that are unsafe and lacking in infrastructure), poorer nutrition, poorer health and healthcare, and lack of social and community supports, it is little wonder depression is more prevalent amongst mothers of lower SES. 

When poverty and maternal depression are combined, the outcomes for children are much worse.

Poverty and Health

Poverty and inadequate nutrition are interlinked and can be seen to manifest in low birth weight and stunted growth.  Epigenetics demonstrates, even for those who overcome poverty, long-term implications can persist and be passed not just to the next generation but beyond.  Poverty has been linked to increased rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and mental health problems. 

Compounding this propensity towards poorer health is lack of access to healthcare and circumstances that contrive to make leading a healthy lifestyle more challenging. Children growing up in poverty face long waits for access to dental and specialist medical care.

Today’s report highlights this is one of the key aspects of poverty in Ireland.  Other countries may provide less in terms of Child Benefit payments but their good quality services combine to reduce rates of deprivation.

Information on key trends in Irish healthcare is available here.  In October 2018 there were 2,860 children waiting 6 months or more for elective procedures, whilst 15,523 adults were waiting 9 months or more for an elective procedure, and the number of those waiting 52 weeks or more has risen 16% since October 2017.

Poverty and Educational Attainment

Children growing up in poverty face numerous barriers to education. 

Such children are less likely to experience a language-rich and cognitively-stimulating early childhood.  Their homes contain few, if any, books.  As such, they are less likely to be ‘school ready’ and start off on the back foot from the outset.  Their parents have less to invest in resources for them. Frequent house and school moves impact continuity of provision, further influencing attainment. Poverty in the early years is linked with an increased likelihood of dropping out of school. This in turn is related to teen pregnancy and involvement in crime.  

Figures from the Irish Penal Reform Trust (accessed here 5^th March 2019) make for stark reading:

• There are 3,976 people in prison custody in Ireland (01 February 2019).
• The majority of Irish prisoners have never sat a State exam and over half left school before the age of 15.
• Four in ten children (under 16 years) on custodial remand have a learning disability. (Anderson & Graham 2007)
• In 2015, the annual cost per child in child detention schools was €340,983 (This statistic relates specifically to Oberstown Children Detention Campus)
• Prisoners are 23 times more likely to come from (and return to) a seriously deprived area, compared to the least deprived areas. (O’Donnell et al., 2007)
• In 2008, of the 520 prisoners who enrolled in the school at Mountjoy Prison, 20% could not read or write and 30% could only sign their names.
• In 2011, over 70%of prisoners were unemployed on committal and a similar percentage self-report as not having any particular trade or occupation.

The Price of Poverty

Early poverty is a significant risk factor for inter-generational poverty, and this is a difficult cycle to break.  Impoverished parents are less likely to have a good standard of education and this tends to be repeated in future generations. Today’s report highlights the problem lone parents have in accessing anything other than low-paid employment because of their low level of educational attainment.  Those lone parents who have 3^rd level education are three times more likely to be employed.  High costs impede return to education, illustrating the difficulties those trapped in poverty face in trying to break the cycle.

A culture of blame exists around poverty.  Pointing to the supports available, many criticise those who fail to lift themselves out of poverty.  The reality is far less clear-cut.

The societal challenges we face begin early, are deep-rooted and costly.  Clearly, economic and policy decisions influence poverty, and for every year a child spends in poverty, their outcomes are markedly poorer. 

Poverty costs.

The poor pay for it with poorer life outcomes.

Society pays through increased curative healthcare and prison budgets, but these do nothing to treat the cause. 

Paying for poverty through housing, education, and preventive medicine may in time reduce costs. 

Let’s hope this report prompts us to discuss the price of poverty and our payment options.