Welfare babies: poor children's experiences informing healthy peer relationships in Canada

Abstract

Positive peer relationships among children living in poverty are important for their well-being, resiliency and mental and physical health. This paper explicates the 'felt experience' of children living in poverty, and the implications of these experiences for healthy peer relationships, from a re-analysis of two qualitative research studies in Canada examining children living in food insecure circumstances. Poor children feel deprived, part of the 'poor group', embarrassed, hurt, picked on, inadequate and responsible. Poor children internalize their own lack of social resources in feelings of deprivation. They experience negative feelings relative to their peers-inadequacy, embarrassment and hurt. Children do identify group membership but it is not used as a social resource, as it could be, but rather as a symbol of social segregation. Children also feel responsible for ameliorating some of the effects of their poverty and this seems to strengthen their relationship with their mothers. This could equally be translated into peer-related support, such as standing up to poor bashing, or engaging constructively with higher social class peers. Health promotion strategies that seek to foster positive peer relationships and enhance children's sense of belonging should offer novel social environments in which poor children can engage a variety of peers.

Peer Relationships Across the Preschool to School Transition

“…However, research by Vaughn et al (2000) and Vaughn, Colvin, Azria, Caya, and Krzysik (2001) suggested that patterns of friendship in preschool children from low-income ethnic minority backgrounds are similar to patterns reported in more economically advantaged groups from majority ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, Robinson, McIntyre, and Officer (2005) highlighted the importance of positive peer relationships for the well-being, resiliency, and mental and physical health of children living in poverty. Less research has been done on peer relationships in groups of children who are immigrants, and the authors could find no studies that included a sample of preschool children.…”

“…Moreover, given the sample employed in this study, this practical implication may be especially important for government preschool initiatives tackling social disadvantage (such as Early Start, Head Start, and Sure Start). The facilitation of friendship maintenance across this transition may be particularly beneficial for this sample considering the hypothesized protective influence of positive peer relationships for the well-being, resiliency, and mental and physical health of children living in poverty (Robinson et al, 2005).…”

The Moral Experiences of Children Living in Poverty: A Focused Ethnography

“…This focus on moral experiences can also help advance our understanding of these children as active moral agents. One study documented the impact of poverty on children's social status, which is linked to feeling deprived, feeling excluded from peers (e.g., receiving labels such as "welfare babies"), having low self-esteem, or feeling responsible for improving their financial situation (Robinson et al, 2005). Very little information related to their experience is available.…”

Health inequalities among students of lower secondary schools in Bytom, Poland

“…The basic factors responsible for the occurrence of health inequalities are of a social and economic nature and include: level of education, income and employment. Poverty, being one of the main causes of inequalities, has an impact on reducing the chances of personal, social and emotional development, as well as quality of young people's future lives [4]. According to statistical data, in 2010, approximately 12% of children and teenagers lived below the relative poverty threshold and over 8% lived below the absolute poverty threshold [5].…”