Types of Poverty

With the amount of stress and anxiety that poverty

There are six main types of poverty according to Eric

places on a person, it shouldnt be too shocking that

Jensens study from Teaching with Poverty in

poverty can cause a great multitude of issues. This can

Mind (2009). He lists these six types as situational,

include challenges with emotions or in social

generational, absolute, relative, urban, and rural.

interactions, and it can also cause health problems and

Heres a brief description of each type of poverty:

safety concerns. Often, a person suffering from poverty

Situational: This particular type of poverty is

usually temporary as it involves a crisis or loss
occurring. Events connected with situational
poverty include environmental disasters,
divorce, or severe health problems. A good
example of situational poverty caused by an
environmental disaster would be the
destruction of New Orleans after Hurricane
Katrina. Many people were homeless, lost their
jobs, and had nothing to their name. The fall of
the economy can also be considered an event
that could cause situational poverty. Learn
economics to have a better
understanding of how the economy
affects everyone.
Generational: This type of poverty involves the
birth of two generations into poverty. Because
they were born into this situation, they usually
dont have the tools to help get themselves out
of it.
Absolute: This particular type of poverty is
actually rare in the United States. People in
absolute poverty dont even have basic
necessities like a roof over their head, food, and
water. Their only focus is on surviving each day
as it comes.
Relative: This type of poverty is known as
relative because it is relative to the average
standard of living in that persons society. What
is considered high income in one country could
be considered middle or low income in another.
If a familys income isnt enough to meet the
average standard of living, they are considered
to be in relative poverty.

will be struck with one bad thing that will only

compound as that bad event causes another event and
that other bad event causes yet another bad event.
A good example of this would be credit cards. Families
living from paycheck to paycheck might turn to credit
cards to help them through tough financial spots.
Unfortunately, with high interest rates and fees
involved, a small tough spot like running out of toilet
paper soon turns into a massive bill as other needs are
put before paying that credit card.
Many families in poverty have both parents working
multiple jobs, and this can leave the children to fend for
themselves. They end up finding ways to survive in
their world instead of spending time learning about it.
These children will often have high tardiness and
absences, poor grades, and lack the focus and
concentration to pay attention in class.
Because both parents are working, children growing up
in low income areas tend to feel unloved and lonely.

Urban: This particular type of poverty is only

for metropolitan areas with populations over
50,000. Overcrowding, violence, noise, and
poor community help programs make it even
more difficult for people suffering of this type
of poverty to get out of it.
Rural: Like urban poverty above, rural poverty
occurs only in specific area types. These areas
are nonmetropolitan with populations below
50,000. The low population limits services
available for people struggling financially, and a
lack of job opportunities only compounds the
problem.

Povertys Effect on a Person

This low self-esteem and longing for attention and love

will have them turning to all the wrong places. Many of
these children perform poorly in school, have
behavioral problems (bad attention is better than no
attention), drop out of school, and begin abusing drugs
and alcohol far earlier than their higher-income peers.
A lack of transportation or health care can lead to
frequent tardiness or absences for children in low
income areas. Poor grades can be attributed to the
parents attitudes toward school too. Many of the

parents that make up low income areas had to drop out

only reaches from zero to eight by the third grade. Each

of school early themselves to find a job and help their

child should be expected to achieve the same, no matter

parents support the younger children. Because of this,

their family life or attitude about school.Consider

they might discourage their children to do well in

positive psychology to reach children from low

school and instead suggest that the child get a job to

income households and show them that they

help support the family.

can succeed too.

How Schools Can Help

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Types of Poverty
In the past, teachers have not been very understanding
of children from low income areas. They simply see
them as an issue in their class that needs to be
addressed. A child will recognize this in their teacher
and give up on academics. When raised in poverty,
these children are looking for someone that will care
and be dependable. If a teacher shows dislike or talks to
them as if they are less important than their peers, this

Absolute Poverty
It is the extreme kind of poverty involving
the chronic lack of basic food, clean water,
health and housing. Poeple in absolute
poverty tend to struggle to live and
experience a lot of child deaths from
preventable diseases like malaria, cholera
and water-contamination related diseases.
This type is usually long term in nature, and
often handed to them by generations before
them. This kind of poverty is usually not
common in the developed world.

can teach them to resent school.

Teachers need to be retrained regarding their attitude
toward problem students. Joe Smith might crack
jokes during class and not have turned in a single
assignment, but that doesnt mean hes a hopeless case.
It may very well be that hes trying to get the attention
from his peers or even bad attention from the teacher
that he doesnt get at home. Each child should be
approached with empathy and understanding, no
matter how badly they might act. Teach a child that
its up to them to either stay in the low income
they grew up in or reach for higher standards
with information offered in this online course .
Again, children should be approached with
empathy, not pity. Approaching a child from a low
income home with pity instead of empathy can lead to
that teacher subconsciously lowering their standards.
While Jack Bennet from a high income family is
expected to learn his multiplication tables from zero to
twelve by third grade, a teacher approaching a child
with pity will simply nod understandingly if Joe Smith

Relative Poverty
This kind is usually in relation to other
members and families in the society. For
example, a family can be considered poor if
it cannot afford vacations, or cannot buy
presents for children at Christmas, or cannot
send its young to the university. Even though
they have access to government support for
food, water, medicine and free housing, they
are considered poor because the rest of the
community have access to superior services
and amenities.
Situational Poverty (Transitory)
People or families can be poor because of
some adversities like earthquakes, floods or
a serious illness. Sometimes, people can help
themselves out of this situation quickly if
they are given a bit of assistance, as the
cause of their situations was just one
unfortunate event.
Generational or Chronic Poverty
This is a more complicated type and we will
see a detailed example here. This is when
poverty is handed over to individuals and
families from generations before them. In
this type, there is usually no escape from it,
as people are trapped in its causes and have
no access to tools that will help them get out
of it.
Factors that cause poverty
1. Income inequality
Research shows that when a country grows

economically, overall poverty reduces. If the

national income is not equally distributed
among all communities in the country, there
is a risk that poorer communities will end up
poorer, and individuals will feel it most.
2. Conflicts and Unrests
About 33% of communities in absolute
poverty live in places of conflict. In the past,
countries like Rwanda and Sri-Lanka have
suffered poverty as a result of years of tribal
and civil wars. In recent years, Afghanistan,
Iraq and the like are all going through
difficult times and poverty is rife in these
areas. Unrests result in massive loss of
human live, diseases, hunger and violence,
destruction of property and infrastructure,
economic investments and quality labour. It
is also a put-off for foreign investments.
Wealth can never be created in such an
environment.
3. Location, adverse ecology and location
Location of countries, as well as communities
within the country can make people poor.
Geographic and ecological factors such as
mountains, swamps, deserts and the like
have also made life conditions unbearable in
many places. This is why some rural areas
are poorer than others, even in the same
country. For example, poverty in the Andes,
Peru is six times higher than communities in
the Amazonian region.
In other instances, some communities are
cut off from the main economic centers of
the country. They find themselves located so
far from roads, markets, health services,
schools and economic facilities. This makes it
just impossible for the locals to access
support and assistance, and also makes it
discouraging for economic investors to
consider investing there. In Bangladesh for
example, poverty is severe in areas of
physical remoteness, as indicated by the fact
that seven rural districts are home to half of
the countrys severely stunted children.
4. Natural disasters
Droughts, floods, hurricanes and other
unexpected natural events cause deaths,
illness and loss of income. In Ethiopia alone,
there were 15 droughts (and famines)
between 1978 and 1998 that led to the
displacement, injury, or death of more than 1
million people. In better connected
communities, families are able to come out
of poverty and get on with their lives, but
other remote and less accessible
communities suffer for longer periods.
5. Ill Health and Disability
Poverty can also get worse if communities

are affected with diseases such as Malaria

and HIV aids. Diseases cause many deaths
and children are left with no parents or care
givers. Household wealth can also drain
quickly with disable members. In many
communities, disabled members are looked
down upon and not allowed to inherit assets.
They are considered a stigma and excluded
from public events and exposure. This
mentality can adversely affect the well-being
of families. For example, the incidence of
poverty is 15-44% higher in households with
a disabled head or adult.
6. Inheritance of Poverty
Families that have had a lifetime of poverty
tend to pass on the situation to their
children. They cannot afford education for
their children and children grow with no
skills. Children work on the same family
farms, and marry into families with similar
conditions as they turn adults. They in turn
pass on the tradition to their children.
7. Education, Training and skills
People who are educated or had some
training or skills are in a better position to
apply ideas and knowledge into fixing basic
problems and enhancing their livelihoods.
They are able to plan, follow instructions and
get reach out to access information, tools
and support that can improve their
livelihoods. In the absence of training, skills
or education, people cannot help
themselves. They cannot prevent diseases,
and cannot apply new ways of doing things.
The result is that their poverty situation is
worse of and are even more vulnerable than
before.
8. Gender discrimination
In many African communities, girls were not
allowed to be in school. Families preferred to
invest in boys education than in girls.
Women were also not allowed to do major
economic activity and had less ownership of
lands and assets. This idea negatively
impacts on the well-being of women, and the
development of their children is also
impacted negatively.
Impact of poverty
Poverty brings about a myriad of
complications. The effects usually depend on
the kind of poverty in question. Let us see
more below:
Hunger, Health and Deaths.
Absolute poverty results in extreme hunger,
starvation and malnutrition. People (and
children) become vulnerable to preventable
diseases such as cholera, dysentery and
tuberculosis, with no access to health

services and medications. Death rates rise.

Relative poverty on the other hand, forces
people to engage in behaviors that expose
them to diseases such as HIV Aids. Whiles
they may not starve to death, they may be
living on unhealthy foods, which ultimately
weaken their immunity and expose them to
diseases.
Infectious diseases continue to blight the
lives of the poor across the world. An
estimated 40 million people are living with
HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004.
Every year there are 350500 million cases
of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa
accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths
and African children account for over 80
percent of malaria victims worldwide.
Source: 2007 Human Development Report
(HDR), United Nations Development
Program, November 27, 2007, p.25.
Social and Political
Relative poverty may cause people to
indulge in social vices such as drugs,
prostitution and petty crimes as a means to
meet their immediate needs. In many
developing countries, political leaders and
rebel leaders take advantage and recruit
young people, (especially those in relative
poverty) to fight for their interests, in return
for food and basic needs. These young folks
feel vulnerable if they do not comply, as they
have no other way out of their situation.
Economic
People in absolute poverty simply cannot
afford food, water and shelter. They are not
healthy enough to undertake any economic
activity. They cannot send their young to
school and the youth cannot get any skills.
This results in economic breakdown of the
community, which directly affects the larger
region where they are. Further to that, those
in relative poverty, who have a bit of training
or education, are forced to move out
(migrate) in search of better lives in the
cities. This deprives the rural areas of the
man-power and makes their situation worse.
As they migrate into the cities, the end up in
slums, increase populations and put pressure
on amenities in the cities.
Methods used at reducing poverty
Poverty cannot be completely eradicated, as
it largely caused by human factors. Over the

past years there has been a lot of Poverty

Alleviation Programs designed to break the
cycle of poverty in many households and
communities in the world. The result is
remarkable, but there is still a lot to be done.
Poverty alleviation involves the strategic use
of tools such as education, economic
development, health and income
redistribution to improve the livelihoods of
the worlds poorest by governments and
internationally approved organizations. They
also aim at removing social and legal barriers
to income growth among the poor. Why are
these tools important?
1. Education
Quality education empowers people to take
advantage of opportunities around them. It
helps children get knowledge, information
and life skills they need to realize their
potential. Training teachers, building schools,
providing education materials and breaking
down that prevent children from accessing
education are important features of poverty
alleviation programmes.
2. Health, food and water
Many programs aim at feeding kids at school
and providing health services as well. This
encourages parents to send the children to
school and keep them there. If children have
food to eat, and are healthy, they can learn
and respond to the needs of the programme.
3. Provision of skills and Training
The youth and able-to-work in the
communities are provided skills to help with
farm work or other economic activity, which
helps them earn money to make a living and
take care of their families.
4. Income redistribution
It is important that the government extends
its development programs such as roads,
bridges, and other economic facilities to rural
areas, to make it easy for goods and services
and farm produce to move to and from the
farming communities.
With a bit of effort in the areas mentioned
above, it wont take long to see real
improvements in the living conditions of the
community
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