Constructed Fear of Poverty: The Power of Identity and the Identity of Power Among Youths

Abstract

While discussing youth, less attention is paid to their fear towards the issue of poverty and how this fear could affect their identity formation. This paper aims to outline how urban youth construct their fear of poverty and how this issue is affecting their identity formation. The research was conducted using both the quantitative and qualitative designs. 720 respondents were involved in the survey. 30 of these respondents were chosen to be involved in three Focus Group Discussion sessions. This study demonstrated that youth’s idea of fear is based on real situations and the ‘possible fear’ is to avoid this threat in the first place. The results identified that economic situation is the main contributing factor for one to be in poverty followed by the lack of education, lack of governmental support and lack of societal support. Finally, this study shows that by identifying this fear, it is hoped that the youths will have stronger confidence in their identity and self in relation to the current world context.