The Roots of Poverty, Poverty at the Root: The Relation between a Wartime Childhood and Material Hardship in Adulthood
The Roots of Poverty, Poverty at the Root: The Relation between a Wartime Childhood and Material Hardship in Adulthood

Summary/Abstract: The article traces-from life course perspective-relationships between material hardship in middle or late adulthood and early life experiences of people who were children during WWII. It is based on 27 biographical interviews with the participants of the Polish Panel Survey POLPAN and questionnaire data collected from the same respondents. The analysis revealed that all individuals who-according to questionnaire data-experienced prolonged or recurring material hardship in middle or late adulthood, had struggled with (post)war poverty, and often faced other traumatic consequences of WWII. Meanwhile, most of the respondents who did not experience material hardship in adulthood had enjoyed relatively good material conditions during WWII and had not been directly touched by the most traumatic wartime events. While the minority had experienced (post)war poverty, they managed to overcome the difficult past later in life. Social, cultural, and economic capital of their families of origin emerged as an important factor in this context.

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