Social and Cultural Significance of Poverty

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.