The Effects of Growing up in Urban High-Poverty Areas on Youth

The Effects of Growing Up In Urban High-Poverty Areas on Youth

With the rising poverty levels in today's society, the amount of youth that has been affected by poverty has increased substantially, rising more than fifty percent in the last twenty years. Studies show that there are at least nine million kids living in high-poverty areas of the United States. Children raised in poverty have no choice, but are forced to view the American dream in a very grim manner. For children and young kids growing up in high poverty areas drugs, violence, and hunger are usually viewed on an everyday basis and become their only reality. Numerous aspects of poverty all come together to lead to a change in prospect and a difference in the futures of many youth born into a cycle with no choice. There are many negative effects of growing up in a high poverty area.

Violence is a reality for youth that grow up in inner-city poverty. New studies have shown that children growing up in these areas are actually experiencing psychological changes due to violence and other effects of poverty due to the over stimulation of their frontal lobe. The frontal lobe controls instincts, reactions to emotional stimulus, and is the primary instrument in child processing. As the brain is overstimulated by excess violence there is proof that it begins to adapt and change. This change causes children in these areas to become more violent and see violent behavior as something that is common to them. Studies show that they begin to become

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indifferent and numb to witnessing violent acts overtime. In children, this biological adaptation to violence is the balance that enables a child to survive and is a big cause for concern. A mindset prone to violence extends poverty and delays rational mature thought processes. This helps us to understand why these youth are less likely to succeed in school, jobs, or other important aspects of growing up, working themselves out of poverty, and becoming self-sustaining adults.

As poverty increases it directly affects the increase in crime, as it is often seen as only option to obtain money. Money legally obtained is usually reinvested in illegal activities such as drug dealing in these areas which furthers the chronic joblessness. This increases the risk of crime even more because most of these activities are controlled by gang and crime organizations fueling drug habits these groups thrive by capitalizing on the suffering and poverty of the surrounding areas. With these gang members and drug dealers usually the only role models for the youth in these areas to look up to many of them end up basing their lives and trying to live up to the standard of very unsavory street figures. This causes youth to believe that the only way to obtain quick financial gain is through dangerous illegal activities.

Poverty threatens a wide range of child development;