Maskin Asserts: 2,000

Children In Poverty

– 'And That's High'

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman's Journal

ONEONTA – Daniel Maskin, Opportunities for Otsego president, wants people to rethink poverty.

"Most people who are poor work," he said. "They're not sitting on their porch drinking beer. But where in this county can working class families get substantial jobs that support their families? There aren't a lot of those."

The annual poverty report, put together by the state's Community Action Association and released in the past few days, rated the county's poverty rate at 16.1 percent. "Poverty is defined as $24,000 for a family of four," he said. "That might be two parents with two kids, or a single parent with three kids," he said.

In case you were not already aware, a single parent is a person who lives with a child or children and who does not have a spouse or live-in partner. There are lots of complex reasons for becoming a single parent including divorce, break-ups, abandonment, death of the other parent, childbirth by a single person, or single-person adoption.

With this in mind, it is important to remember that there is plenty of research to suggest that marital status in itself has very little causal impact on child outcomes, with differences more likely to be explained by the so-called selection effect (or, the difference between the types of people who choose to get married and those that choose to cohabit).

Nonetheless, there is no denying that, for young children, witnessing their parents going through the divorce process can be a traumatic experience. Correspondingly, it is vital that parents that are considering divorcing take steps to protect their children from potential harm. One way to do this is by ensuring all divorce negotiations and proceedings are overseen by a legal professional.