Beyond headcount: measures that reflect the breadth and components of child poverty

This paper offers evidence on the sensitivity of child poverty in South Africa to changes in the adult equivalence scale (AES) and updates the child poverty profile based on the Income and Expenditure Survey 2005/06. Setting the poverty line at the 40th percentile of households calculated with different AESs the scope and composition of child poverty are found to be relatively insensitive to the scale used. The rankings of children of different ages, girls versus boys, racial groupings and children living in rural versus urban areas are unaffected by choice of AES, although some provincial rankings on the poverty headcount measure are. The proportions of children and households ‘correctly’ identified as poor for the full range of scales is extremely high. These findings support the argument that it may be appropriate for profiling poverty in South Africa to use a poverty line based on a per capita welfare measure. For the construction of the child poverty profile, per capita income is used as the welfare indicator with the poverty line set at the 40th percentile of household. The profile suggests that poverty amongst children is more extensive than amongst the population or adults even after the massive injection of transfers into households with poor children through the child support grant. The child poverty headcount, depth and severity are all highest amongst children age 0–4 and lowest amongst those aged 15–17, who are not yet beneficiaries of the grants. They are also highest amongst African and Coloured children. Large variations across provinces remain. The analysis underlines the importance of prioritising children in the fight against poverty, particularly in their earliest years.

Child poverty occupies a special place in the fight against poverty of national governments and international organizations. Reducing child poverty and eradicating child extreme poverty should be a priority in the social and economic policy of any state. The aim of the study is to analyze child poverty in Russia, the United States and developing countries. Special attention is paid to the analysis of approaches to the study and tracking of child poverty by national systems and international organizations; the special significance of the negative impact of poverty in children on epigenetic, immunological, physiological, psychological types of adaptation at the age of 2-3 years was noted. This requires effective regulation to offset the negative impact of extreme poverty on children. it is substantiated that the policy of state aid to poor families with children in the Russian Federation should not be based on income poverty indicators. The influence of the depression of the Russian economy in 2014 on a sharp increase in the proportion of poor families with three or more children is shown. The special role of the experience of shame and threats to their dignity by poor children, which penetrate into all aspects of the life of poor children, negatively affects their future, is noted. The study of the role of the family, society, state, and international organizations in the elimination of child poverty in its extreme forms showed that the eradication of child poverty should be a top priority in any country.

Examining the Spatial Structural Determinants of Child Poverty in Nigeria

Child poverty, food insecurity, and respiratory health during the COVID-19 pandemic

This chapter examines the limitations and flaws of the welfare program, and suggests different approaches to solving child poverty that have been used in most of the other industrialized nations of Europe, Australia, and elsewhere. The two central approaches to reducing child poverty that have been used in most other industrialized nations are effective child support collection and a progressive children's allowance. The United States has among the worst record in the world in terms of assuring child support collection. This problem is particularly important for poor and low-income children. If the United States were to adopt child support collection approaches used in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, it could cut child poverty rates in half. Furthermore, if the United States were to adopt a progressive children's allowance as is found in most other countries, it could further substantially cut child poverty.

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Poor Kids in a Rich Country Timothy Smeeding Maxwell's Center for Policy Research Syracuse University Lee Rainwater Harvard University Luxembourg Income Study Citation: Smeeding, Timothy and Lee Rainwater. (2004). “Response to Review of Poor Kids in a Rich Country.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). We want to thank the reviewer for a cogent analysis and policy interpretation of our book. This brief response is to say that policy can indeed make a difference. Figure 1 compares child poverty in the UK and in the USA using similar poverty standards— the U.S. poverty line (about 43-45 percent of U.S. median income in 1997) with the UK poverty line (set at 60 percent of UK median income in 1997). In the United Sates we show both the official series (top line) and one that reflects the Luxembourg Income Study’s (LIS) income definition and the changes in poverty measurement recommended by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1995. Since the UK GDP per person was about 70 percent of the U.S. level in that year, these lines measure just about the same “real” level of living. 279 Figure 1. Trends in Absolute Child Poverty: UK vs. U.S., 19892002 Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Hills, John and Holly Sutherland (2004). "Child Poverty in the UK and the Blair Government: A Progress Report." Conference on the Support of Children, Princeton University, January. Revised April, 2004. Mimeo, CASE Center, London School of Economics. In 1997, Prime Minister Blair announced his policies against child poverty; in 1999 they began to be implemented; by 2001-2002, child poverty in the UK had fallen below that in the United States measured against the same “real” resource level. Note that child poverty in both nations began to fall without the help of policy in the late 1990s owing to the strong economic growth of the period. But as we entered the 21st century, when both economies turned sour, the UK showed that policy can make a difference. The U.S. poverty decline stopped; the UK’s continues. To our reviewer and the readers 280 of CYE, we close by saying there is hope. But, it may take some time to find a leader who reads all of our books and then decides to run for President, making child poverty a key priority. The Blair government experience in the UK may give her or him some hope indeed. Timothy M. Smeeding is the Maxwell Professor of Public Policy, and Director of Maxwell's Center for Policy Research. He is also the Director of the Luxembourg Income Study (www.lisproject.org), a nonprofit research organization which he co-founded with Lee Rainwater in 1983. Professor Smeeding's research is focused on national and cross-national aspects of economic inequality, poverty, and public policy toward vulnerable groups, such as children, the aged, and the disabled. Over the next eight months he will publish three books: The Economics of an Aging Society (with Richard V. Burkhauser, Robert L. Clark, Marilyn Moon, and Joseph F. Quinn; Blackwell Publishers); Poor Kids in a Rich Nation (with Lee Rainwater; Russell Sage Foundation Press); and Public Policy and the Future of the Family, proceedings of a conference held at The Maxwell School in October 2002 (edited with Lee Rainwater, and Professor Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Russell Sage Foundation Press). Additional unpublished papers and a complete curriculum vitae may be found on his website at http://www-cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/faculty/smeeding/ Lee Rainwater is professor of sociology emeritus and research director of the Luxembourg Income Study. His books include Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America's Children in Comparative Perspective, with Timothy M. Smeeding, Russell Sage Foundation, 2003; Income Distribution in OECD Countries, with Anthony B. Atkinson and Timothy M. Smeeding, OECD, 1995 ; Public/Private Interplay in Social Protection with Martin Rein, (eds.), M.E. Sharpe and Co., 1986; What Money Buys: Inequality and the Social Meaning of Income, New York: Basic Books, 1974; Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Families in a Federal Slum, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970; and And the...

The harmful effects of Covid 19 on children living in poverty have refocused attention on the complex nature of child poverty and the vexed question of its relationship to education. The paper examines a tension at the heart of much discussion of child poverty and education. On the one hand, education is often regarded as essential for children’s flourishing and a means by which children can “escape” poverty; yet on the other hand, education systems, institutions, and practices, often reflect and entrench the disadvantages associated with poverty. Narratives concerning education as an escape from poverty tend not to deal in any depth with the injustices associated with poverty, stressing instead the transformative potential of education. By contrast, largely sociological analyses of the ways in which schooling reproduces inequalities tend to stop short of developing a normative account of how education can contribute to transforming the structural injustices related to poverty and its effects on children’s lives. In working to move beyond this analytic impasse, the paper shows how the cluster of concepts, which Robeyns (2018) locates as central to the capability approach, give insights which help to address these two different lacunae. The notion of conversion factors highlights the significance of taking account of existing relationships in education, while the distinction between capabilities and functionings helps guide practices regarding the education of children living in poverty. Drawing on literature on the heightened inequalities associated with poor children’s experience of lack of schooling during the COVID pandemic, the paper sketches some of the ways in which sociological analysis and normative evaluation can be linked in taking forward an “ethically engaged political philosophy” (Wolff, 2018) to discuss child poverty and education in real schools.

The need to deal with poverty and child poverty in particular cannot be overemphasised. Children around the world are among the most helpless victims of poverty, more especially in sub-Saharan Africa where the number of children under 18 years of age is a bigger percentage of the population. The need to deal with child poverty becomes an even urgent issue when considering the consequences of poverty in children, both during the childhood days and even when they are in their adulthood. This paper analyses the perceptions of the consequences of child poverty among the households in Boipatong Township. The objective was to analyse the difference in perception, between different groups of people. The results indicate that there are significant differences between females and males in what they perceive to be the consequences of child poverty. A total share of 50% Males and 50% females vastly disagreed on the perception that poor children are likely to get involved in drugs and they also disagreed (that these children are likely to have poor academic outcomes among other things. The study also found differences in the perceptions of the poor vis avis the non-poor. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n21p239

Star Teachers of Children in Poverty, by Martin Haberman. West Lafayette, IN: Kappa Delta Pi,1995. 100 pp. $15.00, paper. Reviewed by Frances Y. Lowden, Indiana State University. Throughout this book, Martin Haberman, himself renowned scholar, teacher, and policymaker, unabashedly supports concept he calls Haberman states that 5% to So/a of teachers in the U.S. meet the following criteria: (a) their students score higher on standardized tests; (b) parents, children, and school principals rate them highly; (c) other teachers regard them as outstanding; (d) school district administrators consider them successful; (e) cooperating universities regard them as superior; and (f) they evaluate themselves as outstanding teachers. Star teachers are not deterred by the professional and emotional demands placed upon them by students, parents, and administrators; rather, they share Haberman's philosophy that life's greatest gift is the opportunity to throw oneself into job that puts meaning into the lives of other people (p. xii). Having such teachers in the lives of poor urban children, he maintains, is a matter of life and death (p. 1). Haberman's star teachers personify warmth, fairness, and discipline. They understand that their role is to teach; love and compassion are not enough. Teachers Haberman designates as failures blame academic underachievement on students' backgrounds, home context, and perceived personal shortcomings rather than recognizing their responsibility to provide safe, risk-free environment for students to learn. Haberman also contends that pejorative terms such as culturally deprived, academically disadvantaged, difficult to serve, hard to reach, alienated, and host of others-including the currently popular at risk-have hampered teachers' attempts to reach and teach all children. According to Haberman, these terms are labels used for the same purpose: to attribute the causes of low achievement and school failure to the child and family, but in manner that implies the labeler is not prejudiced and is sincerely trying to help. As he steadfastly maintains, there is no way to provide an equitable education to child one perceives and labels as basically inadequate. The book is divided into four chapters, the first of which, What Star Teachers Don't Do, discusses issues of parent bashing, discipline, homework, assessment, reinforcements, and time-on-task. Time-on-task, in Haberman s view, is not separate and discrete function but is best measured through engagement in collaborative projects where time spent is based on students' involvement and interest. …

The objective of our study was to examine the association between poverty and child health outcomes in school-age children referred to child protective services. We conducted a secondary analysis of children aged 5 to 9 years in the Second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a nationally representative longitudinal observational data set of children referred to protective services for maltreatment (2008-2012). We analyzed the association of poverty, defined as family income below the federal poverty level (FPL), with caregiver report of the child's overall health, primary care, and emergency department visits using Pearson's chi-squared test. Children below FPL compared with children above it had poorer overall health (29.8% vs 18.0%, P = .03). We also conducted a longitudinal multivariable logistic regression analysis and found poverty was associated with the child's poorer overall health at 36 months (odds ratios 2.78, 95% confidence interval 1.55-5.01). Future studies and interventions to improve health in this at-risk population should target poverty.

An additional 100,000 children were lifted out of poverty on the most commonly cited of the government's relative poverty measures between 2000-01 and 2001-02. The most recent figures show 3.8 million children (roughly 30 per cent of all children) in Britain in households with income below 60 per cent of the median income after housing costs. Although this means that almost one in three children in Britain live in poverty on this definition, this is the lowest level recorded since 1991. Since the Labour government came to power, the total drop in the numbers in child poverty has been around 500,000. In 1998-99, the government set a target for child poverty in 2004-05. If the rate of decline in child poverty observed since 1998-99 continues for three more years, then the government will miss this target. Indeed, it is now further behind schedule than it was based on figures from 2000-01. The rather slow decline in recorded child poverty is due, in large part, to the fact that the government is targeting relative, rather than absolute, poverty. Income growth has been particularly strong across society since 1998-99, and this means that the poverty line has risen significantly over this time. Although the government is continuing to increase the living standards of low-income households with children, the gap with the rest of society is not closing as fast as the government would like. Rectifying this may require additional resources to be directed to families with children in the forthcoming Budget, on top of measures already announced.

This study aims to quantitatively uncover multidimensional child poverty in Jakarta Metropolitan Area, where Indonesia’s capital and its surrounding regions are located. It comprises 15 indicators in six dimensions of child wellbeing: housing, education, facility, food and nutrition, child protection, and health. It is a very alarming condition in the region that nearly one-fourth of children are deprived in at least three dimensions. These children experience, on average, 0.57 of all possible deprivations, or 3.4 deprivations, which indicates a massive high deprivation intensity. The overall deprived children are also almost two times larger than the poor children that suggest the lower monetary child poverty rate doesn’t guarantee to lower the multidimensional child poverty.

Against the context of limited research in Zimbabwe on rights-focused child poverty research, policy and practice, this study employs the Bristol Approach to measure the extent and relationship with gender and location, respectively, of child poverty among children aged five years and below (N = 6418). Using Zimbabwe’s 2015 Demographic and Health Survey secondary data, 14 selected measures are tested for validity, reliability and additivity. Severe deprivation estimates are developed, showing the commonest deprivation forms as early childhood development (78 per cent), water (46 per cent), healthcare (44 per cent), sanitation (40 per cent), shelter (30 per cent) and nutrition (13 per cent). While boys and girls are similarly severely deprived, children in rural areas are the most severely deprived. While all deprivations are non-significantly correlated with gender, most are significantly correlated with location. Overall, the study highlights the extreme nature of child rights violations caused by poverty in Zimbabwe, and how rights-based child poverty measurement can better inform policy and practice responses.

Child poverty and the well-being of children is an important policy issue throughout the industrialised world. Some 47 million children in ‘rich’ countries live in families so poor that their health and well-being are at risk. The main themes addressed in this book are: the extent and trend of child poverty in industrialised nations; outcomes for children – for example, the relationship between childhood experiences and children's health; country studies and emerging issues; and child and family policies. All the contributions underline the urgent need for a comprehensive policy to reduce child poverty rates and to improve the well-being of children. Findings are clearly presented and key focus points are identified for policy makers to consider.

Over 50 years after Lyndon Johnson launched his “War on Poverty,” poverty remains a significant problem in the U.S. The most recent data indicate that 40 million Americans live below the official poverty line. The situation is worst for children under five, especially young children of color. Children in poverty are especially likely to bear the brunt of the various social ills associated with poverty, including high levels of school failure. Despite the overwhelming evidence on the debilitating effects of poverty there is a strong tendency among policymakers, politicians and even some educators to blame poor children and their families for failing to achieve economic and academic success. This chapter begins with an overview of the deficit thinking which situates school failure in minds and bodies of young children as well as their families, communities, language and culture. The chapter then considers the consequences of deficit thinking, what it means when early childhood educators attempt to fix children and their families. Finally, an alternative to deficit thinking is considered, a philosophy of abundance which presumes that every person is smart, constantly in the process of constructing meanings based on their own life experiences.