Introduction
It is believed that the determinant of social development is the economy, and the dominant is either politics or ideology. In current conditions, at the transition stage to the information society, such a dynamic and vibrant picture of the world is emerging that it is pretty tricky for a person to be aware of all events constantly. At the same time, in parallel, but with a particular influence, the processes of globalization are taking place, within the framework of which there is a standardization of trends in certain areas of human life. However, modern society is not without ailments that have a negative impact and a long history. These include poverty, which has the most significant economic and social consequences, depending on the prevalence scale. On the other hand, scaling the problems to each person in poverty makes it possible to classify the various factors that help and hinder the exit from poverty. A lot can depend on a person, but a society with its attitudes and power also plays an important role.
Poverty is the economic condition of a person or social group who cannot satisfy the minimum needs. There are concepts of absolute and relative poverty: absolute poverty is closely related to the concept of the poverty line – the income level below which a person is considered poor and cannot satisfy basic needs. Relative poverty is associated with an unequal distribution of income. It is the inability to lead a normal lifestyle for most of society. Resilience theory is the study of a stable trajectory of the healthy functioning of a person after various serious, usually adverse events (Masten, 2018). On the other hand, this theory can be described as adapting flexibility over a long distance. Intersectionality implies similarities between different forms of discrimination and oppression that tend to reinforce each other. In other words, this theory uses an integrated approach in studying the interactions between different forms of dominance, diversifying them but not differentiating them. This paper assesses the impact of poverty on adult life in interaction with the environment, looking at risk and protective factors and the impact of power and oppression on the experience of poverty.
Resilience Theory
Resilience theory in this context has more to do with protective factors affecting adults living in poverty. Poverty implies many deprivations and problems at different levels and scales, both within the individual and at the national level. The primary mechanism that turns poverty into a physiological problem is stress. Constant stress exhausts the human body, leading to other ailments, much more severe diseases from depression to heart disease. At the family level, poverty leads to starvation, lack of various amenities, information, and, most importantly, opportunities to get out of the vicious circle. Poverty has serious social and economic roots and consequences, which lead to a constant widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.
The problem of income inequality has a high social significance, having the ability to exacerbate the situation in society and hurt the country’s economy. The US has the highest level of income inequality among industrial nations (Telford, 2019). Even if the poor do not commit acts of violence against other people, the society in which they live still suffers losses. Poor people cannot fully participate in the life of society; their creative potential is not revealed and is wasted fruitlessly. Inherited poverty is incredibly tragic when the poor children with the same abilities have much less self-fulfillment than their peers born in families with average incomes. Poverty reflects the prevalence of low-paid jobs and labor processes, defined by low wages, low-income jobs, incomplete and precarious, often bordering on unemployment, which pushes people into unemployment and economic inactivity. The most vulnerable groups are often multi-racial due to structural racism, which exacerbates the situation for low-income families by limiting access to public services.
If the global consequences and causes are often discussed at the national level, then the problems of personal poverty are more subjective and varied. Due to various deprivations, the vision that others have the opportunity to earn more money, a person may develop psychological problems. At the same time, several protective factors can develop critical thinking by adulthood. All these factors have a dynamic development throughout a person’s life, and are reflected in this work through the demonstration of factors at three stages of life: young, middle and late adulthoods. Many of these stem from childhood and include social solid, language and physical development, a sense of mastery and control in late adolescence, and problem-solving skills (Hutchison, 2018). The foundations are laid during adolescence, against which an adult, to varying degrees of success, will act in conditions of poverty.
Family factors include the mother’s employment and community involvement. It is essential to consider that the adolescent’s involvement in the community should be supportive, not an entrapment nature (Hutchison, 2018). If the adolescents feel supported not only within their families but also beyond their borders, they are more likely to develop self-confidence, which is usually sorely lacking in poor people (Dou et al., 2020). However, this problem is projected onto a national problem with income inequality, which has the consequence of the inaccessibility of prestigious and higher education for children from low-income families, who then cannot get a well-paid job. A teenager may get the impression of not belonging to a prosperous society, which contributes to stratification, discrimination, and a host of other social ills. Lack of opportunities and constant stress leads to the only possible way out – crimes, including theft, deceit, and many other things that negatively affect society.
As a result, much is laid in the process of raising a child in a family, and much depends on the psychological state of the family itself. An equally important factor is the ability to plan and motivate further action to overcome poverty or level its consequences (Hutchison, 2018). It often requires resources of positive emotions. According to the sustainability theory, it is a positive psychological experience that is an opportunity to organize one’s behavior in the right direction, regardless of environmental factors (Masten, 2018). In order to avoid the appearance of various psychological problems, entire systems are being developed that must be applied at the stage of growing up a child in a family. In other conditions, the aforementioned protective factors are responsible for stability.
All protective factors have the peculiarity that they protect a person’s further existence, while risk factors describe the risk already in the present moment. In later life, middle adulthood, protective factors include experiences from young adulthood such as military service, romantic relationships, experiences of altruism, high literacy, and a sense of purpose (Hutchison, 2018). Here the influence of these factors on stability becomes more concrete, as the personality becomes more mature, based on certain principles formed under the influence of these factors. Their other dynamics will noticeably decrease every year, leaving only the most important of them. In interaction with the environment, these factors are more manifested as an experience that helps to avoid various mistakes. In conditions of poverty, various interactions with society are seen as an opportunity to get out of this state, or at least not aggravate it. In late adulthood, risk factors are more critical; protective factors include caring for one’s mental and physical health.
Intersectionality Theory
In the theory of intersectionality, the risk factors that affect a person in poverty should be considered. Problems with health, wealth, and development in childhood are significant risk factors for youth, which as a result, is reflected in adulthood. Based on prosperity and development, a young person may develop conflicts in educational institutions or the places of his first job. An aggressive response to such conflicts is also a risk factor: if people do not overcome the poverty line, aggression against the background of stress will accompany them all their lives, causing various diseases. Against the background of such conflicts, social injustice, cases of hooliganism, and other offenses, including substance abuse, may become more frequent (Hutchison, 2018). The death of relatives conflicts in the family does not contribute to forming a mature and stable personality by adulthood. According to the theory of intersectionality, such a person will contain both the causes and manifestations of the consequences of discrimination.
This fact is reflected in the fact that aggressive young people in conflicts themselves contribute to the violence that underlies oppression. Poverty issues are often historically linked to different races, which add to the intersection in the field of racism. The stereotypical predisposition, which is the basis of the study of intersectionality, is detrimental to victims of violence. The bad attitude of society towards adults from low-income families is the fault of society and the historical order, but at the same time, the reaction of people to such an attitude leads to the multiplication of evil. In middle adulthood, risk factors echo those in youth: leftover bad habits, health problems, early marriage, loneliness, and poor nutrition (Hutchison, 2018). Problems with work can result from an unhealthy lifestyle and poor performance at school. Poverty contributes to most of these factors, making a person dependent on the labor market’s economic situation. It is possible that conflicts, racism, discrimination may have a different ground from the social position, but according to the theory of intersectionality; as a result, it will also play a role.
A poor situation rarely appears in a person during his life; as a rule, people begin to live in poverty and either get out of it or stay in it. Consequently, risk factors have an extended structure that changes shape throughout adulthood. Often there is a tendency to project negative behavior, which is a consequence of poverty and the reason for the impossibility of getting out of it, laid down from childhood into adulthood. If the family had a parent’s alcohol problem, the person is more likely to be addicted to alcohol later in life due to a combination of other factors (Sattler & Gershoff, 2019). The absence of positive emotions in the family model not only fails to guide the development of resilience but also develops the foundations on which discrimination and oppression are based. Due to poverty, a person cannot take care of himself sufficiently, and without having any idea of the feeling of altruism, love, and mutual assistance instilled in the family, a person will also not be able to build a healthy interaction with society.
Diversity, Power, Oppression
Diversity inclusiveness is the current trend in social responsibility around the world. Discrimination based on income, poverty, or social status is also unacceptable in almost all organizations and countries. Large enterprises even draw up their codes of conduct in the workplace. However, smaller enterprises, which are less well known to the general public, do not often follow these trends. It is due to the fact that in small companies, there is practically no control over working conditions and wages. Diversity in such workplaces creates a specific ground for discrimination, which, if not controlled, can have highly negative consequences.
In this case, the authorities should stop these events. In addition, it is essential to eradicate the root cause of historical stereotypes that prevent poor people from adapting to a healthy social life and society. However, cases of structural racism, which in the case of poverty increase the degree of intersections of discrimination, are still prevalent even now (Bailey et al., 2021). State structures in a state where such stereotypes are suppressed hinder the healing of society, causing more mistrust of authority and the possibility of conflict. Consequently, the most vulnerable groups represented by representatives of different races and genders are subjected to attacks and self-will by local authorities and state structures, which, against the backdrop of poverty, increases cravings for psychoactive substances and crime. Oppression continues to multiply at various levels and scales, hindering the healing of society in a global, national sense.
An adult is an already formed personality, mature in its principles laid down from childhood. Poverty contributes to the development of many risk factors, while protective factors depend on family and community organizations such as school and individual abilities and personality traits. If the problem lies on the basis of state structures and families that are unable to adapt to the conditions of poverty, then a person brought up on such values will not be open to dialogue with society and the authorities. Moreover, the government should initiate this dialogue; however, according to research, the income gap is increasing every year; therefore, the programs do not work (Telford, 2019). An adult, in this case, if he starts a family, continues to broadcast negative values the need for aggression and set his example for children, continuing to move in a vicious circle. By summing up all the factors that, according to the theory of intersectionality, can reach tremendous quantitative values, only influential people in a given situation, with a successful combination of other circumstances, can get out of poverty and develop resistance to such oppression.
Conclusion
In modern society, many problems lead to intersectionality, including poor people. The maturation of a person and the formation of personality is a critical process, depending on many factors that positively and negatively impact resistance to problems. Poverty implies many problems, which are a consequence of various economic, political, and historical backgrounds. Resilience can only develop if there is a positive psychological experience, which is often absent in a person brought up in a low-income family and faced with rejection and discrimination in society. As a result, a person is formed by adulthood, brought up on negative values, aggression, and conflicts, who will use this model of behavior when interacting with society. As a result, a comprehensive solution is needed to combat poverty, requiring the participation of both the authorities and the society with poor people.
References
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