Should you discuss childhood economic hardships in SOP? I am currently filling out a few PhD applications for computer science, and I have noticed a strong pattern in Statement of Purpose (SOP) guidelines that try to incentivise you to discuss your economic background, and how that shaped your life. To be clear, I am not against this, I understand how overcoming poverty can be a huge part of someone's identity.
I grew up in a third world country, where my family was below the poverty line for a few years during the recession. My family's financial situation has since improved tremendously after my father immigrated to another country for work.
However, I can't help but be overwhelmed with extreme sadness when I think of that period of my life. I go to a therapist every week and I haven'd even had the ability to talk about that period  without having an emotional breakdown. There was simply too many stressful and pitiful memories during that period.
So I am left in a dilemma, should I discuss this in my SOP? I've really only discussed this with my long term girlfriend, and no one else knows about it. I feel it can provide a better &quot;context&quot; about my achievements, but to be frank, I believe my application is already competitive given my research and publication background without that context.
To begin with, I think it is silly that application processes even ask about these things, but that seems to be the way of the world now.  If the guidelines recommend that you discuss your economic background (in the case where it is seen as a desirable &quot;diversity&quot; requirement) you could do this in a fairly short and sweet manner, which communicates the basic situation, without becoming too emotive.  I think this is likely to be the best way to do it, and it also jibes nicely with your desire to avoid dredging up issues that are upsetting to you.
I would think it would be sufficient to give a one or two sentence explanation similar to what you have already given in this post; i.e., that you lived in country X and lived below the poverty line during years Y-Z, but your family has since become better off.  This will give the desired context you want, without having to delve into deeply personal territory.  If it were me, I would even preface this by noting that the guidelines ask for this information, and then giving the basic information you have given here.  You could then follow this up with some simple aspirational statement --- e.g., that you would like to build a successful career to ensure that your own children do not have to endure the financial hardships you experienced growing up.
I don't think you need to worry too much about this, since your own desire dovetails nicely with what will work well anyway.  Most academics are interested in objective qualities of students more than background issues.  Even those academics who are particularly interested in diversity requirements, and positively predisposed to &quot;under-represented&quot; candidates, will tend to expect a light touch here.  They are usually going to be more impressed by getting all the relevant information in a way that lets them know there was some hardship/obstacle to overcome, but not laid on too thick.  Your goal should be to show that you are strong enough to have achieved high quality outcomes under circumstances where you faced hardship (while being careful not to sound like you are bragging).