Springer Poverty in the United States: Women’s Voices

This important text explores the deep relationships between poverty, health/mental health conditions, and widespread social problems as they affect the lives of low-income women. A robust source of both empirical findings and first-person descriptions by poor women of their living conditions, it exposes cyclical patterns of structural and environmental stressors contributing to impaired physical and mental health. Psychological conditions (notably depression and PTSD), substance use and abuse, domestic and gun-related violence, relationship instability, and hunger in low-income communities, especially among women of color, are discussed in detail. In terms of solutions, the book’s contributors identify areas for major policy reform and make potent recommendations for community outreach, wide-scale intervention, and sustained advocacy. Among the topics covered: • The intersection of women’s health and poverty. • Poverty, personal experiences of violence, and mental health. • The role of social support for women living in poverty. • The logic of exchange sex among women living in poverty. • Physical safety and neighborhood issues. • Exploring the complex intersections between housing environments and health behaviors among women living in poverty. A stark reminder that health should be considered a basic human right, Poverty in the United States: Women's Voices is a necessary reference for research professionals particularly interested in women’s studies, HIV/AIDS prevention, poverty, and social policy.  From the Back Cover This important text explores the deep relationships between poverty, health/mental health conditions, and widespread social problems as they affect the lives of low-income women. A robust source of both empirical findings and first-person descriptions by poor women of their living conditions, it exposes cyclical patterns of structural and environmental stressors contributing to impaired physical and mental health. Psychological conditions (notably depression and PTSD), substance use and abuse, domestic and gun-related violence, relationship instability, and hunger in low-income communities, especially among women of color, are discussed in detail. In terms of solutions, the book’s contributors identify areas for major policy reform and make potent recommendations for community outreach, wide-scale intervention, and sustained advocacy. Among the topics covered: • The intersection of women’s health and poverty. • Poverty, personal experiences of violence, and mental health. • The role of social support for women living in poverty. • The logic of exchange sex among women living in poverty. • Physical safety and neighborhood issues. • Exploring the complex intersections between housing environments and health behaviors among women living in poverty. A stark reminder that health should be considered a basic human right,  Poverty in the United States: Women's Voices is a necessary reference for research professionals particularly interested in women’s studies, HIV/AIDS prevention, poverty, and social policy.  About the Author Ann O’Leary is a psychologist living in Atlanta, Georgia.  She served as a Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for 16 years.  Her training included a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania; a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University, supported by a National Science Foundation fellowship; and one year of postdoctoral training in Health Psychology at the University of California at San Francisco.  She served on the faculty of the Psychology Department at Rutgers University from 1986 to 1999.   She has conducted research on HIV prevention for the past 26 years, and has also published many articles on other aspects of Health Psychology.  Dr. O’Leary has published more than 165 scien