Dr. John Cook, Children’s HealthWatch Co-Principal Investigator, and Allison Bovell, Children’s HealthWatch Site Coordinator, wrote a post for Massachusetts KidsCount on new Census Bureau poverty data.
Persistent High Child Poverty Threatens our Economic Prosperity
Higher poverty thresholds matter because higher thresholds mean more people have incomes below poverty. And that matters because poverty is a really bad condition for human development. Poverty is not an abstract state; it is very concrete, but harder than concrete. Children’s HealthWatch research shows that poverty leads to three kinds of family hardships; food insecurity, energy insecurity, and housing insecurity – not being able to afford enough healthful food, household electricity, gas or heating oil, and decent housing. Our research also shows that each of these hardships, which often occur together, is very harmful to children’s health, growth, and development.
