Chronic Poverty: The Implications of Bullying, Trauma, and the Education of the Poverty-Stricken Population

Chronic poverty is a worldwide epidemic, and communities must take a proactive approach to assist the poor by extending a hand to lift them up and not hold them down. Tribulations are part of life, but are some afflictions selfimposed, escalated, or reinforced by living in deprived contextual environments. Poverty-stricken people experience more trauma throughout their lifetime; they are less educated than their counterpart, causing them to become targets in school, increasing their chances of being bullied and demoralized. Bullying is not a rite of passage, and it has lifelong effects that reveal itself in adulthood by strengthening generational curses, oppressing families and communities, expanding the educational gap, and reinforcing the cycle of chronic poverty. The research depicted in this article explores the correlation between poverty, human development, trauma, pedagogical implications, and bullying, characterizing the detrimental ramifications in adulthood. The paper analyzes bully symptomology, the etiology of traumatic experiences, and how the consequences of chronic poverty affect human development that expands the educational gap between minorities and white students. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective empirically-based treatment modality to combat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress. School systems must do a better job of educating traumatized children living in poverty. The research ventures to explain chronic poverty's role in human development, traumatology, and education, taking an inclusive approach to providing solutions to create a cultural shift that will change the contextual environment and propel people to become selfsufficient, more educated, and equipped to break the generational curse of chronic poverty.