Childhood adversity and poverty in adult life
John Frederick
Department of Social Work, Monash University
Contact Email:   johnfrederickoptusnet.com.au

A recent study of people experiencing poverty, involving in-depth interviews, suggests that a complex process leading to poverty in adult life can stem from abusive experiences in childhood. It is considered that these experiences of abuse began a process of 'negative chain effects' (Rutter, 2000) which adversely affected the ability of the interviewees to participate successfully in many areas of life, especially the education system and the labour market. The development and maintenance of human capital, defined as the sum of a person’s physical, psychological and economic capabilities, is strongly influenced by the extent of adversity experienced over a person’s life course, particularly experiences of adversity in early childhood (Seth-Purdie, 2000). In this paper, the experiences of childhood adversity reported by the interviewees will be outlined and discussed in the light of theory and research related to development during childhood and adolescence, particularly in relation to risks to adaptive developmental outcomes.

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