Poverty and African American Children Exam Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering social exclusion, poverty measures, structural racism, child development models, and adultification based on the lecture study guide.

Social exclusion

Where individuals or groups of individuals are fully or partially blocked from participating in the economic, social, political, or cultural life.

Boundary maintenance

Activities that groups engage in to control and limit access to resources by others, thereby preserving their power and status.

Emotion management

Shaping the public discourse around inequality in ways that make it more palatable.

Subordinate adaptation

The behaviors and strategies that the disadvantaged employ to cope with their diminished status, which often inadvertently perpetuate the existing social hierarchy.

Defensive othering

A process where less advantaged group members distance themselves from their own group and side with the dominant group to avoid stigma.

Oppressive othering

When a dominant group marginalizes the less advantaged by defining them as morally or intellectually deficient.

Implicit othering

The linking of advantaged status with other desirable traits and disadvantage status with undesirable traits.

Aggressive othering

When a disadvantaged group deflects stigma by distancing themselves from, or even disparaging, people who are similarly situated in the social hierarchy.

Social capital

Resources available through social networks.

Official Poverty Measure (OPM)

A measure that defines poverty by comparing pre-tax cash income against a set of dollar thresholds that vary by family size and composition, adjusted annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index.

Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)

A U.S. Census Bureau metric that includes noncash government benefits (like SNAP, housing subsidies) and subtracts necessary expenses (taxes, medical, childcare) to provide a more accurate picture of economic hardship.

Deserving Poor

Individuals who are poor for reasons not their fault and are trying to get out of poverty, including the working poor, children, elderly, disabled, and sick.

Undeserving Poor

Individuals who are poor due to their own bad choices and behaviors, and are considered happy living on the margins, such as the able-bodied unemployed.

Behavioral Explanation of Poverty

The perspective that the poor need to change their behavior and require intensive intervention before they can benefit from improvements in opportunities.

Structural & Political Explanations of Poverty

The perspective that looks at government and other macro-level policies as tools to combat poverty.

U.S. Child Poverty Rate

$$14.3\%$$

American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) child poverty rate

$$25.7\%$$

Black child poverty rate

$$25.4\%$$

Hispanic (any race) child poverty rate

$$20.2\%$$

White, non-Hispanic child poverty rate

$$8.2\%$$

Asian child poverty rate

$$6.4\%$$

Structural racism

A system which confers differential access to societal goods, services, and opportunities by race.

Redlining

A state-sanctioned system of segregation that financed white access to the suburbs while Black Americans paid more for inferior housing.

De facto segregation

Segregation that exists without legal backing, often stemming from private actions, housing discrimination, economic disparities, or "white flight".

De jure segregation

Segregation imposed by government laws, local ordinances, or public policy.

Investment Model

The model where income enables the purchase of resources that support child development.

Family Stress Model

The model where economic stress affects parenting behaviors and subsequent child outcomes.

Wealth

Assets minus debts.

ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)

Circumstances or events, such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, that pose a serious threat to a child’s physical or psychological well-being.

Stress Process Model

The theory that higher risks of mental health problems among socially disadvantaged groups are explained by greater exposure to stressors and lesser access to coping resources.

Adultification

Contextual, social, and developmental processes in which youth are prematurely and inappropriately exposed to adult knowledge and assume extensive adult roles within family networks.

Precocious knowledge

A type of adultification where a child is exposed to situations or conversations that children their age normally would not witness.

Mentored adultification

A situation where a child is in an adult role and expected to carry out tasks with little supervision, though the parent still maintains authority.

Peerification/Spousification

Adultification where a child is expected to act as a peer, confidante, spouse, or partner for their parents.

Parentification

A form of adultification where children serve as full-time parents to their siblings and their own parents.

Intergenerational poverty (Black middle class)

The pattern where middle-class African Americans are more likely than their white counterparts to have poor parents and siblings.

Racial pride (cultural socialization)

The communication of positive feelings toward one's racial group, emphasizing group unity and African American heritage.

Preparation for bias

Parents’ efforts to educate their children about racism and how to cope with it.

Colorblind racial socialization

Parents' strategy of minimizing or distorting the reality and importance of race and racism.

Egalitarian messages

Communication that emphasizes equality and shared humanity.

Collective efficacy

Community supervision, mutual trust, shared values, and readiness to intervene for the common good.