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Robert Reynolds

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

February 14, 2018

Topic Proposal: Child Poverty: A cycle of Maltreatment

Introduction/Overview

For my topic, my research paper will examine the increased risk of child maltreatment as

it relates to poverty in America. I want to base my research on more than just the statement that

“child poverty is bad and causes maltreatment” and more on the questions like “why has child

poverty become such a major issue? Why is it not been given enough attention? What causes the

violent behavior that leads to child maltreatment? What effects does this have on children who

experience this?” I am very focused on the psychosocial effects of poverty and maltreatment and

how it can make cognitive functioning and development different from that of the typical middle

or upper-class child.

Now, I will not tell you that poverty leads to child abuse, mainly because child abuse

occurs in many levels of life. Not specifically just poverty-stricken families but also middle class

and upper-class families. In an exert form the academic Journal of Psychohistory, an article titled

“Village Abuse: It Takes a Village” Harriet Fraad reports that as of 2010, “approximately 1 in 5,

actually 21% of U.S. children live below the poverty line.” Fraad also claims that “children are

neglected by overwhelmed poor parents and single mothers who work to support families but

have no subsidized or free childcare.” This shows that poverty can cause stress on some families

and that stress can in turn be taken out on the children. Fraad also supports the claim that it is not

only poverty-stricken families when he states that “child abuse spikes during recessions,” and
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that “The cause most linked to child abuse is stress.” Though recessions do effect poverty-

stricken families in most cases, middle class families can be just as effected. In this journal it is

also shown that some reasons that stress occurs is due to the gender pay gap and how single

mothers tend to have to work more and that “40% of U.S. children are born out of marriage and

single mothers and their children are the poorest of all Americans.”

To gather my sufficient information for my preliminary research I found some supporting

research in our library on campus that will show that poverty is however directly linked to child

maltreatment in many cases in our nation. I will be looking mainly into different articles and

academic journals that are more recent such as the one mentioned earlier and more like this one

including another academic journal titled, “Community Poverty and Child Abuse Fatalities in the

United States,” written by Caitlin A. Farrell M.D. which focuses more on the severe effects of

poverty on families with children in the U.S., including the tragic deaths of children in the nation

due to child abuse and how it relates to poverty. Another source I will be using titled “The

emotional and behavioral problems of children exposed to poverty and/or collective violence in

communities at the Mexico-United States border: A comparative study” will help me focus on

the psychosocial effects of child abuse and poverty in the united states and how it relates to child

cognitive development.

It is not a big debate that child poverty is a bad thing or that child abuse is a bad thing.

However, there is much debate about things like, how we should handle such situations or how

serious is the situation. Whether or not some forms are abuse or just punishment is also a debate

going on. In this research paper I would like to focus more on what we should do about this

situation.
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Initial Inquiry Question(s)

The most intriguing question to me is: why is this becoming such an issue in our country?

Also, I am curious of the effects maltreatment and poverty have on our children in the U.S. I am

sure that at some point these questions will adapt and intensify as I do my research.

My Interest in this Topic

I am very interested and passionate about this topic. As you know, when I was younger I

was admitted into state custody and lived in and out of foster care growing up. In the home I

lived in I developed a family with all the other children around me and met some of the best

people. Sadly, I met children as young as the age of 2 with burn scars and cut scars on their

faces, children that dealt with abuse from their parents and family and grew up in poverty, I

could never fully understand why and that is why I decided to pursue a degree in social work and

child and family development. I am very passionate about the well-being of children. I feel this

issue should have more attention than it does. I think the first way of fixing a problem is

acknowledging it and educating yourself on it.

Next Steps

For the next steps in my research I will be using many articles and academic journals that

relate to social work, psychology, family dynamics, and politics. I will use the libraries databases

as well to find sufficient info to base my paper off. I am still getting used to the library and I plan

to check out books from the circulation desk as well as use any of the resources I may need to

conduct my research. As of right now, I plan to sort my paper in a problem solving, yet

informative type of way. I would like to start with and introduction that explains the topic, and
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all the issues involved with it. How is poverty defined? What percentage of American families

experience poverty at some point? What percentage of children in impoverished families

experience maltreatment and how does that affect them? Next, I will give some statistics of how

often the problems occur, and what effects this has. After I lay that base, I would like to explain

the reasons in which it occurs I will do this by answering the questions, is poverty linked to drug

abuse? How can poverty affect a person’s mental health? How does poverty influence a family

dynamic? What is causing so many families to live in poverty?

Finally, I would like to finish my paper talking about what has been done about the issue,

what is being done, and what can be done. This issue is a major problem to me and it is often not

paid enough attention by the public.