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Minh-Chau “Jenny” Le
Dr. Warren Jones
Communications I/06T
MLA Research Paper
22 April 2014
The Social Exchange Theory on Child Poverty
In the past ten years, many researchers have conducted multiple experiments to
understand the stories around the cause of child poverty, the effect of child poverty, and the
possible approaches in lessening the pain of child poverty. Many non-profit organizations take
form as the need to solve this problem in society grows. One of those organizations includes the
North Brevard Charities Sharing Center that has served the underprivileged families in Brevard
County for many years. Within this organization, social exchanges constantly take place as
families need help in providing their children with housing, food, clothing, books, and toys. As
child poverty in Brevard becomes more serious, the social exchange theory tie the families and
the organization together as the families need the aids to survive and the organization need the
families to fulfill its mission. To begin, I will first discuss the background to child poverty in
modern America.
Poverty rates have risen in America in the past fifty years. Unfortunately, anti-poverty
efforts made by the government have exerted little positive effects. Even though national
statistics show declines in poverty percentage, the reality poses a contrasting picture. Today,
many underprivileged families live a life uncertain of where to stay and what to eat. However,
the problem with poverty does not stop there. Attention directed to the children of these
households started to reveal the negative effect poverty has on their development. Over time,
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studies have shown that children living poverty not only show problems in their educational
development, but also psychological development considering mental health and interpersonal
skills.
Luckily, non-profit organizations have taken in the responsibility to give aids to these
families with children. Examples of aids include affordable housing, affordable healthcare, food
supply, and clothes donation. Currently, organizations formed either serve their communities,
serve globally, or both. Non-profit organization such as North Brevard Charities Sharing Center
centers its goal on giving aid to local families of North Brevard. They believe that by
constructing affordable houses for low-income families, providing help to low-income families
with emergency needs, and supplying clothing for the family members, they can indirectly take
the burden of raising children off of the parents’ shoulders. To fuel its mission, the organization
accepts non-perishable food from donors and run a thrift shop that directs its profits to helping
those families. As the number of children living in poverty rises through the years, researchers
join in their efforts in studying the lasting impacts of child poverty and present their knowledge
to the general audience through various mediums.
In many works published by researchers, the most general finding concludes that
persistent poverty leads to negative impact in children’s overall behavior. In “The Effect of
Poverty on Child Development and Educational Outcomes,” Maureen Black and Patrice Engle
described the term “poor” as lacking not only health and materials, but also cultural identity,
social belonging, self-confidence, and self-respect. In 2007, in an issue of Social Science
Quarterly, Sylvia R. Epps and Aletha C. Huston explored further into the child poverty by
incorporating parenting practices to explain development in children’s behaviors. In 2010, in a
work published in International Journal of Academic Research, Yasemin Ozkan, Eda
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Purutcuoglu, and Sengul Hablemitoglu criticized society for not providing the children with
appropriate childhood, leading to interpersonal effects in the health, cognitive development, and
socio-emotional development. As more researchers involve their studies in child poverty, some
has dug further into causes that included family structures and racial backgrounds.
In “Child Poverty Among Racial Minorities and Immigrants: Explaining Trends and
Differentials,” Martha Crowley, Daniel Richter, and Zhenchao Quian linked the two factors of
family structure and maternal employment to the change in child poverty within populations of
minorities and immigrants. In the article, “Poverty, Parenting, and Children’s Mental Health,”
Jane D. McLeod and Michael J. Shanahan suggested that persistent poverty leads to poor selfesteem, self-concept, and self-efficacy among black children. Evidently, children at a young age
can often feel the stress that poverty puts on them as they face their peers. Problems develop in
the children’s social world force them to negatively cope with the economic distress in order to
become a part of society, which simultaneously encourage social exchanges to happen.
The social exchange theory reflects why some people motivate themselves to perform
tasks that they do. A student trying his or her best to excel in a musical instrument not only to
achieve some personal enjoyment, but also recognition from the audience and incentives offered
by the teacher. Very few people ever make a decision without thinking about the rewards at the
end. In Social Works with Volunteers, Michael E. Sherr mentioned how social exchange revolves
around the central concept of individuals satisfying their needs through doing work: “Social
exchange theory evolved from psychology, sociology, and economics to explain human behavior
based on self-interest and choices made to accomplish personal goals” (42). Social exchange
occurs among people regardless of age group. Examples below portray the presence of the social
exchange in the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center’s path to helping with child poverty.
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The first and broadest example of social exchange happens as the North Brevard
Charities Sharing Center achieves its mission and receives recognition by helping families fight
against poverty. Those families and their children, in return, would receive aids in forms of food,
clothing, and housing. According to “Who Are America’s Poor Children” by Sarah Fass and
Nancy Cauthen, family’s economic hardships directly affect the well-being of the children:
“Food insecurity, lack of affordable housing, and other economic hardships affect the children not just those who are officially poor.” The organization has targeted and solved most of the
families’ problems to efficiently encourage livelihood. In order for all of this exchange to
happen, however, the organization would have to have sufficient sources of funds. The next
section explains how social exchange also takes place as donors come to the organization to
make donations in helping with eliminating child poverty in the area.
When the organization takes in donated goods to sell for profit, the donors, in return, feel
good about giving away for a good cause. Thanks to the generous donations received from
supporters, the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center never stops exceeding its goal. A big part
of coping with social problems such as child poverty involves support from local residents. An
example of a community following this method appears in an article Keith McCord wrote for
United Way of Salt Lake, informing about a campaign called “Changing the Odds” that targets
local underprivileged kids: “But, in 2011, it decided it wanted to expand its reach and become a
community problem solver. They are starting with giving all children the same opportunities in
life.” In a similar fashion, the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center encourages local residents
to solve the problem of child poverty by donating used goods and clothing to the thrift shop. The
succeeding examples will show social exchange within the child poverty world that occurs inside
the thrift shop and among the shoppers.
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Today, underprivileged families living around Brevard regard the North Brevard
Charities Sharing Center’s thrift shop as the primary shopping center. These families meet their
ends by purchasing products for their children at reasonable prices while the thrift store also
earns profits from the products sold. They usually come to the thrift shop in search of affordable
children’s clothes, toys, books, and board games. According to the article “Interpersonal Impact
of the Poverty on Children” written by Yasemin Ozkan, Eda Purutcuoglu, and Sengul
Hablemitoglu, economic stress within the family can hinder cognitive development: “Because of
economic limitations, poor parents have more difficulty providing intellectually stimulating
facilities such as toys, books, adequate day-care, or preschool education that are essential for
children’s development.” Fortunately, by obtaining crucial resources from the thrift store, many
families can help better their children’s development. The last example of social exchange will
cover the relationship between the parent and the child under economic stress.
In the thrift shop, I have once witnessed a social exchange between the mother and her
child when she finally agrees to buy a board game for her child to be free of hearing him
nagging. As mentioned in “Poverty, Parenting, and Children’s Mental Health” written by Jane D.
McLeod and Michael J. Shanahan, the relationship between poverty and parenting behaviors
directly poses a negative impact on the children’s lives: “Currently poor mothers spank their
children significantly more often than do nonpoor mothers and they are significantly less
responsive to the needs of their children.” What I saw happening at the thrift shop represents
both the sad reality of parenting behavior under economic distress and a social exchange. When
the boy pleaded his mother to buy him the product, she appeared reluctant to spend her two
dollars. The mother only responded to the child’s need after the boy has started crying loudly.
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Now that understanding child poverty through the social exchange theory has become easier, I
will introduce other theories that will possibly suggest further researches on the same topic.
Today, even the most well-known non-profit organizations and researchers struggle to
find a definite solution to reverse the growth of child poverty. Through the lenses of the social
exchange theory, one can see that helping with child poverty requires the support and the
involvement of the whole community. The social learning, however, can make a researcher dig
into why children living in poverty tend to grow up living with the same status as their parents.
Another theory, the conflict theory, might take one back to figuring out why society constantly
have to deal with such complex problem as child poverty. The life-span theory, perhaps the most
direct path that connects one to the possible developmental stages of a child living in poverty,
will help a researcher understand why those children grow up with the set of personalities that
they have.
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Works Cited
Fass, Sarah and Nancy K. Cauthen. "Who Are America's Poor Children?" National Center for
Children in Poverty. National Center for Children in Poverty, 2006. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
McCord, Keith. "United Way 'Changing the Odds' for Underprivileged Kids." United Way of
Salt Lake. United Way of Salt Lake, 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
McLeod, Jane D. and Michael J. Shanahan. "Poverty, Parenting, and Children's Mental Health."
American Sociological Review 58.3 (1993): 351-366. ProQuest. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Özkan, Yasemin, Eda Purutçuoğlu, and Şengül Hablemitoğlu. "Interpersonal Impact of the
Poverty on Children." International Journal of Academic Research 2.6 (2010): 172-179.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Sherr, Michael E. Social Works with Volunteers. Chicago: Lyceum Books, 2008. Lyceum Books.
Web. 22 Apr. 2014.