Introduction
Fundamentally, poverty defines the low socioeconomic status that deprives people of the ability to access vital resources such as food, clean water, clothing, and accommodation. However, the modern context of poverty also includes the deprivation of proper health care, education, and social security (Okalow, 2021). While poverty remains a significant issue in any social and age group, the issue is particularly detrimental to children, as they are at a greater risk of facing poverty and poor social and health outcomes in adulthood (Pac et al., 2020). The aim of the present paper is to investigate how Bullying, as a factor associated with poverty, affects child development.
Issue Description
Bullying is considered a severe social issue among youth worldwide. According to the national initiative Stop Bullying (2021b), Bullying can be defined as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance” (para. 1). Bullying can manifest in a variety of ways, including physical abuse, verbal assaults, threats, spreading misinformation, and leaving the victim out of the group, and make them feel marginalized and unwanted. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2017) report, nearly 20% of the youth population aged 12-18 reported being victims of Bullying in the preceding twelve months (p. 6). The severity of the issue concerns the fact that bullying behaviors do not exclusively affect the victims, causing some irrational behavior in bullies and bystanders as well. Thus, according to Stop Bullying (2021a), the victims of Bullying develop the risks of psychological traumas, health issues, and a decrease in academic performance, whereas bullies and bystanders are at risk of early engagement in self-destructive behavior such as drinking, using illicit drugs, various misdemeanors, and mental health issues.
When speaking of the correlation between Bullying and poverty, the national statistics do not reveal supportive data. The National Center for Education Statistics (2017) claims physical appearance and gender to be more significant precursors of Bullying. However, various studies conducted worldwide demonstrate the interrelation between socioeconomic adversities and victimization. The most important factor in the context is the fact that bullying behaviors embraced by children with socioeconomic issues include both bullying and being bullied.
For the past years, scholars found interest in defining what type of bullying behavior was more popular with children coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus, for example, the study by Knaappila et al. (2018) demonstrates that children with socioeconomic adversities are significantly more likely to become engaged in corresponding behaviors. Similar findings were presented by Pervanidou et al. (2019), claiming a low socioeconomic status contributes to children’s victimization by peers. The overall family background is also a significant variable in victimization. As demonstrated in research by Schmiedeberg and Schumann (2019) and Jiang (2020), poverty should not be directly considered as a cause of complicated child development. Instead, poverty should be seen as a trigger for mediating peer victimization, which leads to mental health problems and poor outcomes in adulthood. Hence, it may be concluded that the severe issue of Bullying triggered by poverty in children’s families has a drastic impact on child development and social adaptation in the long term.
Child Development
In order to understand the specifics of child development, it is necessary to address the extent to which the environment impacts one’s perception of self and reality. The most efficient theoretical framework, in this case, would be the theory of bioecological systems presented by Bronfenbrenner (Hayes et al., 2017). According to this concept, a child’s cognitive and emotional development is predetermined by the interaction of different ecosystems, namely, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. In other words, children’s cognition develops through direct interaction with family, peers, educational establishments, and wider society. In this scenario, poverty within the family acquires various considerations from state legislation, social perception, peer pressure, and the family’s struggle to combine proper childcare and labor.
Social and Cultural Significance of Poverty
For many years, the concept of poverty has been surrounded by prejudice and stigmatization both within family units and wider society. The studies indicate a significant correlation between one’s ethnic affiliation and a predisposition to poverty (Churchill & Smyth, 2017). Such a phenomenon may be explained by the fact that poverty is frequently regarded as a generational and even genetic issue, and the years of stigmatization and marginalization of ethnic minorities in terms of social acceptance and employment result in hereditary poverty fueled by bullying at a young age. As far as the US context is concerned, it is reasonable to assume that increasing social polarization and capitalistic model predomination empower the bias of poor people being unwilling to work and fight for economic independence. With 1 in 7 Americans being considered poor, nearly half of the poor population accounts for Native American and Black populations, empowering ethnic prejudice and income gap (Poverty USA, n.d.). As a result, income polarization, prejudice, and the culture of poverty become the factors that promote the marginalization of poverty and economic adversity.
Resilience and Systems Theories
The resilience theory is a concept of rapid recovery and individual development after experiencing traumatizing or challenging situations such as family issues, health disparities, or low socioeconomic status. The primary assumption of this theory is that people suffering from a challenging environment are motivated and determined to break the circle of misfortune and prove social biases wrong. The strength of this theory concerns its explicit support of human abilities to develop coping mechanisms to overcome adversity. However, the line between resilience and denial or psychological trauma is rather blurry and requires social workers’ intervention.
As far as the systems theory is concerned, its primary assumption tackles the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Thus, in the context of social work practice, the systems theory demonstrates how a certain characteristic of an individual may be traced back to the early stages of their development and environment. While it is beneficial in terms of the psychoanalytical approach to social work, it may slow down the process of present social work. While the systems theory may rationalize and traceback poverty and oppression as a whole in terms of its impact on a specific family and individual, resilience theory accounts for the reasons for either conformity or avoidance of the issue within the society.
Risk and Protective Factors
Having adjusted the framework of Bronfenbrenner, one may assume that the major categories of risk and protective factors should include family, school, and wider society. In this framework, the primary risk factors would include peer pressure caused by low socioeconomic status, lack of parental supervision and communication, low self-esteem caused by marginalization from social groups and stigmatization of poverty in society, Bullying, and poor health status. The protective factors, on the other hand, might be effective communication with parents and the presence of social support and bullying prevention programs at school.
Concluding Remarks
Children raised in poverty are extremely vulnerable in terms of their interaction with the environment, as they usually lack both parental and peer support. Thus, the primary task of a social worker is to promote the functioning of social justice programs aimed at preventing inequality, prejudice, and Bullying on school premises. Moreover, it is recommended to develop a framework of holistic support for families living in poverty in order to promote economic equality within the state, as income polarization and social injustice remain the root problems of child development challenges and Bullying.
References
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