Serious long-term poverty in the United States is more likely to burden those who come from non-Western, collectivist cultures that socialize people modify behavior accordance with demands made by outside group. People these cultural backgrounds conform less easily individualist, inner-directed, and enterprising culture of States.

In this paper we briefly review relevant research on the culture of poverty and set our findings within the general context of culture of poverty arguments. Data from a community survey in a Southwestern city are analyzed using Oscar Lewis’ four major culture of poverty dimensions: 1) the individual, 2) the family, 3) the slum community, and 4) the community’s relation to society. In our study ...

To debunk existing myths about the • cultural orientations of the poor. Developing a complete understanding of the conditions that produce and sustain poverty requires analyzing empirically how the poor make sense of and explain their current situations, options, and decisions, and what they do to improve their own prospects and those of their children. The authors emphasize that the poor share...