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“Poverty is the single best predictor of child abuse and neglect.”

“44 percent of American children — that’s nearly half of all children in the U.S. — live in families that face serious struggles to make ends meet.”

FROM:

Prevent Child Abuse New York Blog

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Almost Half of American Children Live in Families that Struggle to Make Ends Meet Posted: 10 Feb 2010 Basic Facts about Low-Income Children, a new fact sheet from the National Center for Children and Poverty (NCCP), tells a disturbing story.   44 percent of American children — that’s nearly half of all children in the U.S. — live in families that face serious struggles to make ends meet.   Parental employment, parental education, family structure and other variables each play an important role in predicting the likelihood that a child will endure economic hardship. The very youngest children— infants and toddlers under age three — are particularly vulnerable with 44 percent living in low-income and 22 percent living in poor families. Families are considered “poor” when they live below the federal poverty level, defined in 2009 as $22,050 for a family of four, $18,310 for a family of three, and $14,570 for a family of two.   Research suggests that, on average, families need an income equal to about two times the federal poverty level to meet their most basic needs.   Families with incomes below this level are referred to as low income: $44,100 for a family of four, $36,620 for a family of three, $29,140 for a family of two. The fact sheet breaks down facts and figures about children facing economic hardship into four additional age groups: under 6, ages 6-11, ages 12-17, and under age 18.   It also describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents, highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts. A PDF of the fact sheet is available here

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America’s economic pain brings hunger pangs

By Amy Goldstein

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat.

The magnitude of the increase in food shortages — and, in some cases, outright hunger — identified in the report startled even the nation’s leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood hunger made by President Obama, who called the report “unsettling.”

The data show that dependable access to adequate food has especially deteriorated among families with children. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce — 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

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AMERICAN HUMANE WEBSITE — Protecting Children and Animals Since 1877

Reports:

“Every day in America, approximately 2,463 children are determined to be victims of abuse or neglect (USDHHS, 2007).”

“An estimated 3.3 to 10 million children a year are at risk of witnessing domestic violence, which can produce a range of emotional, psychological or behavioral problems for children. Children who are exposed to domestic violence are at a greater risk of being abused or neglected themselves (CDF, 2005).”

Poverty and Homelessness are Pervasive Problems Among America’s Children

• Poverty is the single best predictor of child abuse and neglect. Children who live in families with an annual income less than $15,000 are 22 times more likely to be abused or neglected than children living in families with an annual income of $30,000 or more. Abused and neglected children are 1.5 to 6 times as likely to be delinquent and 1.25 to 3 times as likely to be arrested as an adult (CDF, 2005).
• After falling for seven consecutive years during the 1990s, the number of children living in poverty rose for four years in a row to 13 million in 2004; in all, 37 million Americans live below the poverty line. Child poverty has increased by over 1.4 million children since 2000, accounting for more than a quarter of the 5.4 million people overall who have fallen into poverty. More than one out of every six American children were poor in 2004 (CDF, 2005).
• For every five children who have fallen into poverty since 2000, more than three fell into “extreme poverty,” a term describing families living at less than one-half of the poverty level. This means that these families had to get by on less than $7,412 a year, or $20 a day (CDF, 2005).
• In 2004, 13.9 million children under age 18 (19 percent of all children) lived in “food-insecure” households (CHP, 2004).
• Children make up nearly 40 percent of all emergency food clients (CHP, 2004).
• Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, now accounting for 40 percent of the nation’s homeless (CDF, 2005).

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Poverty – Limits Options When Abuse Exists (and skews abuse statistics)

“While on the surface, it may appear that low levels of income go hand-in-hand with higher levels of domestic violence, one must keep in mind that available income has significant weight on the options available to victims. While a low-income mother with three small infants might appear on statistical reports when getting a restraining order, when entering a domestic violence shelter, or when applying for TANF services due to family violence, the white collar mother with two in college might flee to a hotel for a few weeks, file for divorce, and move back to the city where the bulk of her family resides. In these scenarios, the low-income victim shows up all over the place in various statistical reports (from the court, from the shelter, and from the social services agency) while the white collar victim only shows up on a hotel register, on a civil court docket for divorce, and in the records of the local moving business. In other words, violence against her and/or her children, while every bit as dangerous and abusive, simply doesn’t exist – on anyone’s official paper.”   READ MORE HERE

NOTE:  My mother (nor I as her victim) ever showed up on ‘anyone’s official paper’ either, nor was our family among the ranks of the official poor.

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