Who’s at risk? Expanding the categorical understanding of children at risk of social exclusion through measures of self-esteem

Abstract

A strong focus on early intervention involves broad categories by which to assess children at risk of social marginalisation. Most of these categories relate to family characteristics and qualities. In this article, we explore social vulnerability from children’s perspectives and consider whether their self-esteem provides evidence for risk of social marginalisation, here understood as exclusion from social, academic, and cultural communities. The data are derived from a survey of 10-year-old children in the south of Norway on their everyday life and well-being (N = 1360). We have constructed an index of global self-esteem. First, we find a significant correlation between low global self-esteem and personal social vulnerability. Next, we quite surprisingly find no significant correlation between children’s global self-esteem and their family characteristics. The final analysis reveals a correlation between children’s global self-esteem and their social networks. These results prompt us to question some of the common assumptions about the association between family characteristics and social vulnerability. Our results show that more attention should be paid to children’s social networks, regardless of family characteristics. More importantly, the results show that global self-esteem – including self-evaluations of academic skills, athletic skills, feelings of self-worth, and sociability – is a fruitful approach to expanding our categorical understanding of children at risk.