Perceived Social Support and Opinions on Poverty: Is it Chronic or Transient?

Abstract

This article discusses the relation between perceptual component of social support and the beliefs about stability of poverty condition. To what extent individual’s perception about having back covered, resulting from opinion about family’s or friends’ resources or their moral support, influences his belief about poverty as a chronic or a transient condition? Analyses-Chi² test on bivariate crossings-have been carried out on a sample of 992 individuals resident in Lazio, an Italian region. They were asked to respond to a multidimensional semi-structured questionnaire on their social-economic status and beliefs about poverty. Outcomes emerged revealed a relation between the feeling safe thanks to personal supportive network and opinion on poverty: Respondents showing a greater feeling of back covered consider poverty a chronic condition more than others. On the contrary, the evaluation of poverty as a condition that is possible to escape from is more frequent among people who reported to feel morally supported or they can count on family’s or friends’ resources.