It is obvious that great socio – economic inequality in our society keeps growing up. Unemployment makes the daily life rather difficult for many people who are forced to receive smaller income, change their life regulations and rhythm as well as to experience psychological tenseness and lack of confidence in their future. Their socio – economical activities decline thus causing their social loneliness that contradicts to human social development. The problems of unemployment influence both jobless people and their families. The aim of the surwey is to evaluate the peculiarities of the institutional education of a child who is brought up in socio – cultural backgrounds of poverty. 402 children from different towns and villages of Lithuania participated in the surwey, 90 of them were from poor socio – cultural environment. The survey aimed to compare the peculiarities of communication competence, attitude towards healthy way of life, intelectual and cognitive skills, ethical development, nud for socio – cultural interests and experience between the children living in ordinary economic conditions and children living in rather poor economic conditions. The hypotheses of the survey proved that different socio – economic environment has great influence on the level of children`s competences as the experience of a child living in poor social environment can not be equal to the experience of a child living in traditional ordinary social environment. However, the institutional... [to full text]