The Effects Of Raising Children On An Urban Environment

This may result in overcrowding, for example being housed in a bedsit or home with insufficient bedrooms. This means the child has no privacy, or personal space. They may struggle with homework and course work because of the lack of a quiet space in which to complete it. The housing provided may be of a poor quality – suffering damp or be in disrepair. This could have a detrimental effect on the child’s health – causing asthma or frequent colds and coughs. It will probably be in a less desirable area or could be in an area with social disorder problems. This may result in the children becoming isolated, as their parents may be fearful of letting them out to play or they may themselves become involved in anti-social behaviour and criminal activities

Strains on power availability, transportation, construction, waste disposal, and harm to the environment all come at costs to the Government and residents alike. As to the economy, a rapidly striking effect of urbanisation is an increase in rent, often pricing the working class out of the market; this could cause businesses such as supermarkets to either close or relocate due to the same financial pressure. Huge increases in land value would also price home buyers out of the market. Urban living also has effects on mentality and life style as the increased concentration and diversity of people and ongoing activities in a city environment puts those who live in an urban environment under more stress. This is known as urban mentality - detachment from others, self-centeredness, and a rational, calculating mind. Urban activities can also generate large quantities of city waste including biodegradable materials and many non – biodegradable materials, these waste materials can cause clogging of drains, a barrier to the movement of water, foul smell and increased microbial activities. Unemployment also runs rampant in urban areas with massive amounts of internal migration from rural areas; jobs in urban areas might not be created fast enough to meet the needs. While it is true that opportunities exist in cities, it’s also true that competition for jobs is fierce as there are more demands for jobs that are available. This is then made even more difficult for internally migrating job seekers as these migrants are often farmers, non – skilled and illiterate rural people. An extremely small amount of people “make their fortunes” as some end up as illegal street vendors, cleaners, waste collectors or labourers. The environment is also impacted heavily by urbanisation with the air, water and natural ecosystems taking the largest blows. The air quality in rural areas is of a significant difference. Factories and automobiles are a part of air

Some believe it is better to grow up in a big city. However it is more beneficial to grow up in a small town. Rural communities have a lot to offer. It offers numerous benefits to living in a bigger community. For example, they have several job opportunities offered to the residents. There is less conflict between each other because half of the people don’t even know eachother. Therefore, everyone is minding their business and keeping to themselves. The bigger the community you live in the more money the city probably makes, for example, they offer a better education and provide more options as what a student wants to pursue in after graduating high school. In my opinion there are more sights to see when there are more places to experience and explore, therefore stating why a big city is better to live in.

There are many reason why city kids are more at risk in committing a crime than kids who live in the country. One of the reason is that the city environment contains many bad influences and negative people who can easily ruin the innocence of a kid’s life in the city. At a young age, kids are more influenced by the things around them, especially in the city where many gangs, sexual offenders, and violences lurk the city. Even at school where many kids from many different background can easily put a kid a risk in doing something illegal. For an example, if a bad kid that came from a violent family, he or she could influence other kids to be violent as well because many young kids in that age often wants to fit into some things in society. Which

As this period is considered to be the most integral developmental stage of life, the impact of social, environmental, and economic determinants can have long lasting, if not permanent effects (World Health Organization (WHO), 2015) . Children who in early life are subjected to adversities, such as poverty, inappropriate care, maltreatment, inadequate health care, or substandard education, are more likely to suffer difficulties later in life (Hertzman, 2013).

​The first concept I mentioned was about access, those who live in the city have many options for food and entertainment. These people do not have to go by nearby cities for what they need, because nearly everything is downtown. Not to mention far less cases of food deserts. Which is when there are scarce markets to get fresh produce and so forth. These problems are highly true in the cases of those living outside cities. It is very difficult for those who don’t drive to have a bountiful store to shop in. This type of access adds convivence to the busy lifestyles of those working and living in these big cities. Big cities eliminate boredom, there is always something to see or do. Access is a major benefit to those living in the city, this luxury is not present in each geographic location.

With more than one billion and counting people living in urban surroundings around the world, one could suggest urban areas offer many advantages for children’s advancement and growth. The majority of the world’s children today and in the future will grow up in cities and towns of urban areas where parents expect their children to succeed in stable and nurturing environments. Although an honest concept, children in many urban areas face instability that affects their development and security at some point in their lives. Many children may experience an individual change or with family circumstances. Any negative or positive experience a child has will shape who they are and affect their health, learning and life for a lifetime.

Impact of poverty has detrimental effect on parenting such as stress, culture of poverty and environment/ neighborhood.

Urban areas are the human settlement with high population and well-established infrastructure. People who live in urban areas are mostly involved in commerce and trading activities. However, urban areas are not confined to cities only, but also includes the suburbs areas. On the other side, rural areas are region situated on the outskirts. There are open space and natural vegetation. Residents practice agriculture and animal husbandry and use it as a source of income. Many people and families raise questions on the benefits that one acquires by choosing to live in either urban or rural settlement (Lucas 31). Quality of life is essential when comparing both urban and rural life. Even though both locations are best to live, it is crucial to evaluate the similarity and differences between two places. Various factors such as the diversity, employment opportunities, health, and capacity to make broad choices influence one decision while comparing urban and rural life. Even though life in both urban and rural areas offers great benefits, there are some drawbacks in both lives.

A social problem that families face in my community is low-income families in poverty not having enough income to provide for their families and providing shelter for them. Families do not have sufficient funds to afford the proper health care needed for medical, dental and all primary care visits. Poverty in my community is a leading cause of crime because most families cannot afford certain items required for their kids and decide to go out and commit a crime to provide for them such as theft, robbery or trespassing.

Socio-economic factors are widely acknowledged as important determinants of poverty. If an individual experiences adverse living conditions in childhood, majority of them will have inadequate income and result in low socio-economic status as adults (Carroll et al, 2011). Children born in poor households have difficulty in accessing the basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, and good living environment) and this can affect their learning ability at school, unable to focus. In other words, they have a higher chance of dropping out of school or lower education attainment, unable to provide appropriate qualifications when they move onto adulthood, seeking for job opportunities. These children are finding day-to-day life tough, they are living in cold, damp houses, do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry (Children's Commissioner, 2012). Often this has taken place over a long period of time, impacting on their development, behaviour and physical health furthermore limiting their potential as they grow into adults.

Although living in the city has many advantages there are some disadvantages too, the cost of the living is very high in the city, the city is always noisy, no fresh air and pure water. So it is hard to lead a healthy life. On other hand the village the undeveloped area for example, we cannot easily get many facilities the insufficient medical and education facilities, few opportunities to make money, little entertainment, no or little public transportation, also less facilities than a big city offers.

When we speak of the term urbanization – the outward expansion of human population from the city-centre, many feel the sense of triumph about the current living conditions, and are enlightened to do great works on the planet. Of course, it is not wrong if one feels this sense of triumph at first, but the ambiguity comes when the environmental aspect is placed in the talk. In this capitalistic world where money and status are worshiped, many negative effects associated with urbanization are being forgotten or dismissed.

This chapter in Section 2 in the book “Man and his urban environment” written by William Michelson (1970) discussed three categories of stage in the life cycle which are the child raisers, the old and young childless, and the elderly. And William also explored how these three stages have marked implications for the physical environment by citing some of the social problems. It can be said, the author tells the social facts about a family and its potential needs through this chapter.

The prospects of city living and country living are compared. The benefits city living has for country living, as well as country living’s benefits for the city play a huge role in societies counterparts. The individual is impacted by both lifestyles between a sociological complex as well as other factors. Importance between country and city living will be demonstrated as well as weighing the both. Environmental structures, agricultural factors, and the quality of life proving the influence the city/country has on the individual.