Conflict theory is one of the main sociological theories. According to this theory, society is in a state of constant conflict because the elite try to maintain power and their share of resources by oppressing those without resources. This theory explains the existence of childhood poverty because the wealthy in society take far more resources, leaving little for the poor and the children of the poor. For example, the wealthy live in areas with better schools or send their children to private schools, and the society invests little money in improving education for poor children. In addition, the children of the poor cannot generally access high-quality medical care and other resources that improve their chances, and this situation perpetuates poverty. The elite class is not invested in changing this situation, as they hope to maintain a hold on the society's resources to help their own children.
Conflict Theory is a term coined by Karl Marx to explain that society is always in conflict over a small number of resources. For example, in the former Soviet Union, while everything was centralized and socialized, there was a limited amount of food to go around, and so people needed to line up in the streets outside of food distributors to ensure they received food.
Child poverty is related to this theory in that resources are being distributed unfairly, and the children are not able to successfully compete in order to attain adequate resources. Children are unable to provide income or contribute to competition for resources, and so in low economic areas, people with children tend to struggle more due to the lack of resources and natural competition for what is available. This disparity in resources and the inability of children to contribute means that those families with children suffer more and have less money, food, and other resources to go around. All of this contributes further to child poverty.
Conflict theory is one of the three main sociological perspectives. It holds that all conditions and institutions in society come about through conflict between two or more groups within society. Groups with different interests come into conflict with one another and whoever prevails in that conflict gets to make the rules for that particular aspect of society.
If every aspect of society comes about because of conflict, then child poverty must be caused by conflict. In the United States, at least, we can identify at least two types of conflict that cause child poverty. First, we can say that child poverty arises from conflict between the poor and others. People who are not poor want to keep the poor in poverty. This ensures a cheap source of labor, allowing others in society to, for example, enjoy relatively cheap restaurant food and yard maintenance services. The non-poor also set up rules that keep poor children from getting ahead so that those children will not be able to compete with their own children later in life. In the United States, child poverty could also be linked to racial or ethnic conflict. We know that disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic children are poor. Conflict theorists would say that these non-white children are poor because their race/ethnicity has lost out in conflict with whites (and perhaps with Asians). In this view, racial and ethnic prejudice has caused conflict between these groups. Whites have won this conflict and have set up a society that helps them prosper while making it harder for African Americans and Hispanics to do so. This causes children from the two non-white groups to suffer from poverty more often.
In these ways, it is possible to link child poverty to the ideas of the conflict perspective.
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