Lack of access to a telephone, refrigerator or stove. Eviction in past year. Four times as likely to be teen parents. Suffer greatly increased chances of drug and alcohol abuse. Much more likely to score low on educational evaluations.
Suicide is much higher among poor children.
Studies show that as the income of parents improve, all the above factors improve. Risk factors and their impact on children Measuring Poverty Difference between absolute and relative poverty. Fixed dollars amounts. In 1999, 32.3 million Americans lived in poverty. Between 1935 and 1996 expenditures for welfare programs increased by 400 percent.