The Daily Life and Reality Behind Child Poverty in Sweden: Children\u2019s and Adolescents\u2019 Voices

Ylva Odenbring

doi:10.1007/s12187-018-9558-z

Abstract

Today, approximately 12% of children growing up in Sweden are living in what could be defined as child poverty. Although the number of children living in poverty has slightly decreased during recent years, social exclusion and segregation between different groups in society have increased. The present study will shed a light on the reality of how children and adolescents living in poverty experience their daily lives. Analytically, the study explores how these experiences connect to different practices concerning child poverty. The study draws from an empirical and theoretical analysis of interviews with children and adolescents published in the Swedish Save the Children’s report At the margin. The daily life behind the statistics of child poverty [På marginalen. Vardagen bakom barnfattigdomsstatistiken]. The results reveal that lack of material and financial resources creates social stigmatization for this group of children and adolescents; they have fewer possibilities to spend time with peers, and this quite often also results in self-exclusion. The children’s and adolescents’ narratives also indicate the importance of the social role of the school, here in relation to the school providing nutritious school lunches and free packed lunch for school excursions.

Highlights

Introduction and AimBoy aged 13: I think you should drop the idea that Sweden is a rich country, because all children in Sweden would be Brich^, but that is not the case you know, because there are quite a lot of children who are living in poverty (Save the Children 2013, p. 18)
The present study has investigated how children and adolescents living in economic hardship experience their daily lives, what challenges they say they have to face and what kind of support they find vital to helping them in their difficult situation
The concept of economic capital has provided a useful tool for analysing and understanding how social injustice frames the daily lives of children and adolescents living in poverty

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and AimBoy aged 13: I think you should drop the idea that Sweden is a rich country, because all children in Sweden would be Brich^, but that is not the case you know, because there are quite a lot of children who are living in poverty (Save the Children 2013, p. 18). A majority of these children are growing up in the so-called Million Homes Programme areas [Miljonprogramsområden]: suburbs that have become socially stigmatized neighbourhoods (Beach and Sernhede 2012). The Million Homes Programme was implemented during the period 1965–1974 and was intended to provide one million new homes. Today these neighbourhoods provide homes for approximately 20% of the population in Sweden. These neighbourhoods have become the most socially disadvantaged areas in the country and are characterized by a high proportion of people living on social welfare and families living in overcrowded apartments (Odenbring et al 2018; Sernhede 2011)

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion