Data & Trends
Reduce Child Poverty
What are the Forces and Influence at Work?
- Costs of living further burden low-income families: Paying for basics, such as housing, transportation, health care and child care can pose major barriers for parents seeking to gain and maintain employment and is a significant factor contributing to the number of children in poverty. Compared to children in above low-income families, children living in low-income families are twice as likely to have moved residences in the past year and three times as likely to live with a family that rents a home.[1] Income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and other taxes can significantly reduce the resources available to poor and low-income families.
- Lack of equitable access to educational opportunities: Beginning with infant and toddler care and learning programs, and continuing up to college access and continuing education, the opportunity gap between children who can access quality education and those who cannot has a huge impact on outcomes for children’s’ futures. Research shows that quality child care and preschool experiences can have a significant positive impact on children’s educational attainment in later school years. Families who can afford high-quality early learning opportunities for their children can access these benefits, while families with lower incomes need to rely on the options they can afford, which are often of significantly lower quality. This opportunity gap makes it more difficult for parents to help their children get ready for kindergarten and sets children up for lower likelihood of academic and career success.
- Families with young children cannot access needed supports: Families with young children need access to supports such as paid family and medical leave, quality child care, access to reliable transportation and other resources, such as a stronger federal safety net and tax credits that help build economically stable families by providing supplemental income that can be used to offset the price of food, housing or other high living costs.
- Low-income families often live in unsafe neighborhoods with high crime rates, poor physical infrastructure and services and environmental hazards: Poverty makes it much more difficult for families to find quality housing within their means. In many areas, the most affordable housing is in poor condition and located in areas of concentrated poverty with poor public services, higher crime rates and environmental hazards. These conditions have serious consequences for the children and families who live in these communities. Moving from a high poverty area to a low poverty area is associated with a 50 percent increase in the overall availability of outdoor places to play. There are also significant related race equity issues; communities with higher percentages of African American residents have fewer available parks and green spaces, places to play sports, public pools and beaches. Additionally, there are serious health issues associated with the lack of safe places to be outside.[2]
- Families are victimized by wealth-stripping practices: Each year, families lose millions of dollars to financial service providers using unscrupulous practices in the areas of predatory mortgage lending, payday lending, auto title lending, refund anticipation lending and high-fee check-cashing and tax preparation services.
- Children of color do not have equal access to opportunities and supports: Children of color are much more likely to grow up in persistent poverty and to live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.[3] Parents of color still experience discrimination[4] in many aspects of daily life, including housing and employment[5] that create additional challenges in promoting their children’s well-being. These gaps in the opportunities and resources available to minority children systematically disadvantage children of color and can negatively impact their future outcomes.
- Children from immigrant families are often marginalized: Linguistic and cultural differences are often significant barriers for parents in accessing the information, services and opportunities available to other families that can help in reducing poverty. Children in immigrant families are more likely to be living in poverty,[6] less likely to benefit from work supports and have limited access to public assistance and health services, while undocumented immigrant populations and mixed-status families additionally face the constant threat of deportation, which is detrimental positive child outcomes. Children with immigrant parents are also less likely to be enrolled in a prekindergarten program. [7]
[1] National Center for Children in Poverty. (2012). Basic Facts about Low-Income Children, 2010. Available online.
[2] Powell LM, Slater S, Chaloupka FJ. The relationship between physical activity setting and race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Evidence-Based Preventative Medicine 2004; 1[2]: (135-44).
[3] Ratcliffe, C., & McKernan, S.-M. (2010). Childhood poverty persistence: Facts and Consequences Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. Available online.
[4] US Department of Housing and Urban Development (2013). Housing discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities 2012. Washington, DC: Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research. Available online.
[5] Pager, D., Western, B. & Bonikowski, B. (2009). Discrimination in a low-wage labor market: A field experiment. American Sociological Review 74, 777-99.
[6] Wight, V. R., Thampi, K. & Chau, M. (2011). Poor children by parents’ nativity: What do we know? New York City: National Center for Children in Poverty. April 2011. Available online.
[7] Hernandez, D.J., & Napierala, J.S. (2013). Diverse children: Race, ethnicity and immigration in
America's new non-majority generation. New York City: Foundation for Child Development. Available online.