ABSTRACT
Kids see their parents as being stuck, having no hope. So why should we even try? It’s really not that ‘I won’t’, it’s more like ‘I can’t even see it … ya know, what’s the point? (Interview excerpt)
The above quote is from a 13-year-old girl living in poverty and being interviewed about her own effi cacy, goals, and aspirations. This girl is not alone in her feelings of hopelessness; research has consistently found that youth living in low-income households may be at higher risk for a number of troubling outcomes, including low levels of effi cacy and academic underachievement, than other youth (Gennetian, Duncan, Knox, Vargas, Clark-Kauffman, & London, 2004). This fi nding is neither pejorative nor stereotypical of all low-income families. Having worked for the past 5 years with mothers and youth who live in poverty and having lived in poverty stricken neighborhoods during my young adulthood, I1 have seen fi rsthand how poverty can impact one’s sense of general effi cacy. Yet, poverty can also provide a powerful motivating force; a desire to move out of poverty into self suffi ciency to provide a better life for your children.
