How Are Children in Poverty More Vulnerable than Adults?

UNICEF reports, “Children are more likely to live in poverty than adults. They’re also more vulnerable to its effects.”[1] Children in poverty are impactedly differently than adults. Why is this? There are several factors to consider:

• Poverty can stunt children’s growth and hinder their social and emotional development.[2] Physical challenges often accompany poverty, such as unhealthy nutrition, unsafe habits, low birthrate, tooth decay, unintentional injuries and poor general heath.[3]
• The threat of child labor and human trafficking increases among poor children. Sometimes the threat comes from the parents when there is no other way to feed their family.[4] For example, if a family can not afford to feed all their children, they are tempted by the idea of sending one of their children off to work. This means one less mouth to feed and sometimes a little income coming in from an additional source. Child traffickers often prey on street children, orphans or those in poverty.
• Children in poverty have educational challenges as well. Kids are often called away from school to work, which leaves them without literacy and numeracy skills.[5] With low income, families may not be able to afford tuition or supplies and instead resort to child labor.
• Children who grow up in poverty often suffer from a lack of hope and the ability to dream of the future.[6] It is not uncommon for children in poverty to not have an answer to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Until an outside force teaches a child how to dream and hope, they won’t know the possibility of life outside their current circumstances.