May 12, 2009
Children who fall into poverty during a recession fare worse far into adulthood than their peers who avoided it altogether. Specifically, children who are forced into poverty earn less, achieve lower levels of education, and are less likely to be gainfully employed over their lifetimes than those who avoided poverty. In addition, these children are more likely to be in poor health as adults.
Turning Point: The Long Term Effects of Recession-Induced Child Poverty, follows children who lived through post-war recessions for up to 30 years, analyzing individuals’ income, employment, education, and health into adulthood. The report resoundingly concludes that those children who experience recession created poverty fare far worse along these variables than do children who do not become poor, even though both groups of children start off in the same place.
