This means higher infant mortality and health problems for children. Poor children score lower on reading and math tests, suffer more mental and physical disabilities, and earn 25 percent lower wages as young adults. Poor children are twice as likely as nonpoor children to be born weighing too little, to suffer stunted growth, or to repeat a year of school. A baby born to a poor mother in America is more likely to die before its first birthday than a baby born to a high school dropout, an unwed mother, or a mother who smoked during pregnancy. Poverty is a greater risk to children's overall health status than is living in a single parent family.
Poverty makes children hungry, sick, and less able to learn.
Studies have found that hungry children are more likely to be hyperactive and to have serious behavior problems, and are four times more likely to have difficulty concentrating in school. Recent changes in welfare policy may make hunger worse for families with children. Among 411 families who recently lost cash assistance in one Southern state, a 1997 government survey found that 27 percent had been unable to buy food at some point in the past, usually since losing benefits. A later survey had similar findings. From the CDF report, The High Price of Poverty for Children of the South, May 1998.