A social problem is any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed (Barkan 2012). In the United States, social problems include problems with the poverty environment, healthcare, transportation, segregation, housing and other issues. Social problems are valued as either personal troubles or public issues. Personal troubles are seen as the failure of the individual where as public issues are failures of society. People are quick to judge other people’s failures as consequences of mistakes they made. For example, if someone is unemployed, people assume that that person is lazy. However, people don’t consider that there are millions of unemployed people in the United States. So, this may be a social problem, not an individual issue.
Poverty is a social problem that many assume is a personal problem. However, in my Sociology 340 course, I had a group project on Severe Deprivation in America which revealed that poverty is multidimensional and includes acute, persistent, and compounded hardships. (severe_deprivation_in_america-2.pdf severe_deprivation_in_america.pdf)Acute hardships are the scarcity of critical resources and materials that should be available to everyone. Persistent hardships include generational poverty and early life traumas such as abuse, hunger, and violence. Persistent hardships look at the past to show that enduring disadvantages are impervious to change. Compounded hardships include psychological, social, material, work, family, and prison predicaments. It reveals that poverty isn’t just an economic issue. It is “the linked ecology of social maladies and broken institutions (Desmond 2015).”
Poverty is a social problem that many assume is a personal problem. However, in my Sociology 340 course, I had a group project on Severe Deprivation in America which revealed that poverty is multidimensional and includes acute, persistent, and compounded hardships. (severe_deprivation_in_america-2.pdf severe_deprivation_in_america.pdf)Acute hardships are the scarcity of critical resources and materials that should be available to everyone. Persistent hardships include generational poverty and early life traumas such as abuse, hunger, and violence. Persistent hardships look at the past to show that enduring disadvantages are impervious to change. Compounded hardships include psychological, social, material, work, family, and prison predicaments. It reveals that poverty isn’t just an economic issue. It is “the linked ecology of social maladies and broken institutions (Desmond 2015).”
I volunteer at an afterschool program at a transition homeless shelter which has shown me that homelessness is a social problem. It is shelter that provides a transition period for homeless families with children. They help these families break the poverty cycle. The afterschool program provides a snack, physical education, homework help, and dinner for the kids in the community. Their goal is to create a supportive environment that changes young lives. The program I volunteer through as a Day Director, Waverly Afterschool Program, put on a book drive. We noticed that they shelter did not have many books and many of the children were reading below their grade level. We raised 1,407 books for the afterschool programs. This allows these children to catch up academically and promotes the end of their deprivation.
One mom who had to move in there had separated from her husband and then lost her job so she couldn’t afford housing any longer. She now gained a college degree and is working to build her credit back up while living at the shelter with her four kids. Another mom struggled to stay off drugs when she got divorced. The community gave her a strong foundation and she grew into a better person and mother. She has a steady job and just sent her oldest son off to college. Volunteering here has shown me the hardships many have to face who are in severe poverty and how these hardships affect their children. |
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One of the little boys expressed to me multiple times that he didn’t understand why his mom put socks on him that were too small for his feet. He proceeded to show me the socks each time and they were always infant socks that he has outgrown by years. His mother could not afford an item that seems so basic in my life. Each afternoon, as the kids are getting picked up by their parents before dinner time, they discreetly get asked if they want a dinner plate to take home for that child and any other children that live with them. They always say yes. Many of these parents can’t afford food, which is something that so many of us take advantage of. At the Kindergarten table, a couple of girls pulled out flyers for a dance that was raising money for the school. When I asked if they were excited about it, both girls told me their moms said they couldn’t go this year. You never know, that ten dollars for the dance could be the difference between whether or not they can put food on the table.
Many people would look at these situations and say that the parents are not good parents and shouldn’t have had children. They would say they must have done something wrong to become homeless and how could they not do what’s best for their child by getting a better job. People don’t realize that it is not always the parents’ fault. Persistent hardships are real. Generational poverty is real. This makes it hard for people who are born into poverty to move out of poverty. As a result, they are stuck living a lifestyle they were raised in and that they know because there is minimal opportunity for advancement. Also, drastic life changes like divorce, a spouse’s death, or a loss of job could put people who were never in that predicament before into that predicament. You may think divorce is an individual problem, but divorce rate is about 40 to 50 percent in the United States (Marriage 2019). In my class, I learned that the family is an institution, so if half of this institution is breaking apart, there is a problem within the institution. A spouse’s death or loss of job for people who depend on two household incomes can also be considered more than just an individual problem. During my project, I learned that about 20.5 million people in the U.S. have incomes less than half of the federal poverty threshold and about 30% of people work for poverty wages (Desmond 2015). When statistics are like this in the richest country in the world, the institution of employment is flawed. People should not be completely blaming others for being in poverty and should start looking at the institution.
The sociological imagination is the ability to see the structural basis of individual problems. Americans need to embrace a sociological imagination to get rid of their blaming the victim mentality and change it to a blaming the system mentality. This would be a great advantage to the families who live in shelters like the one I volunteer at.
Many people would look at these situations and say that the parents are not good parents and shouldn’t have had children. They would say they must have done something wrong to become homeless and how could they not do what’s best for their child by getting a better job. People don’t realize that it is not always the parents’ fault. Persistent hardships are real. Generational poverty is real. This makes it hard for people who are born into poverty to move out of poverty. As a result, they are stuck living a lifestyle they were raised in and that they know because there is minimal opportunity for advancement. Also, drastic life changes like divorce, a spouse’s death, or a loss of job could put people who were never in that predicament before into that predicament. You may think divorce is an individual problem, but divorce rate is about 40 to 50 percent in the United States (Marriage 2019). In my class, I learned that the family is an institution, so if half of this institution is breaking apart, there is a problem within the institution. A spouse’s death or loss of job for people who depend on two household incomes can also be considered more than just an individual problem. During my project, I learned that about 20.5 million people in the U.S. have incomes less than half of the federal poverty threshold and about 30% of people work for poverty wages (Desmond 2015). When statistics are like this in the richest country in the world, the institution of employment is flawed. People should not be completely blaming others for being in poverty and should start looking at the institution.
The sociological imagination is the ability to see the structural basis of individual problems. Americans need to embrace a sociological imagination to get rid of their blaming the victim mentality and change it to a blaming the system mentality. This would be a great advantage to the families who live in shelters like the one I volunteer at.
Artifacts
Citations:
1. Barkan, S. (2012). Social Problems: Continuity and Change.Saylor Academy. Retrieved from https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_social-problems-continuity-and-change/s04-01-what-is-a-social-problem.html
2. Desmond, Matthew. (2015). Severe Deprivation in America: An Introduction. RSF The Russel Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 1(2), 1-11.
3. Marriage and Divorce. (2019). American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/
1. Barkan, S. (2012). Social Problems: Continuity and Change.Saylor Academy. Retrieved from https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_social-problems-continuity-and-change/s04-01-what-is-a-social-problem.html
2. Desmond, Matthew. (2015). Severe Deprivation in America: An Introduction. RSF The Russel Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 1(2), 1-11.
3. Marriage and Divorce. (2019). American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/