Measuring Child Poverty Research Articles

Critically Discuss the Value of Including Children’s Perspectives in Definitions and Measures of Child Poverty

Critically Discuss the Value of Including Children’s Perspectives in Definitions and Measures of Child Poverty

Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement in Sierra Leone and Lao PDR: Contrasting Individual- and Household-Based Approaches

Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement in Sierra Leone and Lao PDR: Contrasting Individual- and Household-Based Approaches

Policies on child poverty eradication in Indonesia: The importance of a common understanding of children and poverty

AbstractThis paper reviews the policies on child poverty eradication in Indonesia. The review covers the definition of child poverty in Indonesian policy and regulation as well as government policies to eradicate child poverty. Based on the review, this paper argues that it is important to reconsider how children and child poverty are defined conceptually, as well as how that understanding influences the definition and measures of child poverty. Regulations and people's views define children and poverty in various ways. Furthermore, the effectiveness of poverty reduction strategies to eradicate child poverty should be contested because of mismatches between concept, regulations, strategies, interventions, and measures of child poverty.

Objective and Subjective Measures of Child Poverty in Denmark

The relative poverty line has been criticized for being arbitrary since it is defined by purely statistical measures without any theory linking objective income poverty to subjectively experienced poverty. The objective-subjective poverty nexus is explored empirically by comparing poverty measures for Danish children using EU-SILC data from 2019. The objective measure is based on the 50 % poverty line, while the subjective measures cover deprivation, financial coping, and accumulation of deprivations. Results shows a far from perfect overlap between objective and subjective poverty, but the subjective poverty risk is much higher for income poor children compared to non-poor children.

The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty Among Children in Colombia During the COVID-19 Recession

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the income, inequality, and poverty levels among Colombian children between 2019 and 2020, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database. The income distribution and changes among Colombian children are analyzed using the probability density function and growth incidence curve. The paper utilizes the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke methodology to measure child poverty in Colombia, decomposes the contributions of different subgroups to child poverty and its changes, and conducts a growth-distribution decomposition of changes in child poverty. The study also employs income-source decomposition to examine the contributions of different income sources to child inequality and its changes. The results show that Colombian children experienced a decline in income, an increase in inequality, and higher levels of poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children from households with higher dependency ratios and those living in rural areas were more likely to experience poverty. The main driver of increased poverty among Colombian children was decreased income, and there was a significant worsening of inequality for ultra-poor children. Labor income emerged as the primary source of inequality and its changes, whereas capital income and private transfers played a role in reducing poverty. However, public social benefits slightly increased inequality levels. Overall, the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is antipoor but pro-ultra-poor. To address similar recessions in the future, the government should expand public transfer payments especially programs targeting children to reduce income inequality and alleviate poverty among children, and bolster the provision of public services essential for children’s development.

Objective and Subjective Measures of Child Poverty in Denmark

The relative poverty line has been criticized for being arbitrary since it is defined by purely statistical measures without any theory linking objective income poverty to subjectively experienced poverty. The objective-subjective poverty nexus is explored empirically by comparing poverty measures for Danish children using EU-SILC data from 2019. The objective measure is based on the 50 % poverty line, while the subjective measures cover deprivation, financial coping, and accumulation of deprivations. Results shows a far from perfect overlap between objective and subjective poverty, but the subjective poverty risk is much higher for income poor children compared to non-poor children.

Child Poverty In Armenia

Children are at the highest poverty risk in any country. Poverty is a blight denying poor children the opportunities that others quite often take for granted. Aiming at elaborating policies/recommendations to eradicate child poverty, the report touches upon social-economic conditions of households with children, presents some measures of child poverty, and highlights social costs of passing childhood in poverty.

Differential item functioning of material deprivation assessment in households with or without children.

Composite multidimensional indices are broadly used to measure child poverty and social exclusion. Many of such indices are based on EU-SILC data or similar large scale complex sampling surveys, with the household as unit of analysis. Indicators related to households with or without children may quantify the intended attribute differently depending on the household structure and characteristics of individuals, potentially compromising the assessment. We conducted statistical modelling and hypotheses tests using a two-parameter logistic item response model (IRM) and the likelihood-ratio test for DIF verification. Methods were applied to 2020 EU-SILC Portuguese data comprising 11,367 households representing a population of 4,099,052. Statistical analysis have allowed for the survey sampling design. Our findings demonstrate differential item functioning in the assessment material deprivation in households with or without children.

I Don’t Care Who You Are: Adult Respondent Selection Does Not Alter Child Deprivation Estimates

The last decade has seen strong developments in child poverty measurement. Children are largely recognised to have age-specific needs, which has led to the development of child-specific poverty measures. One of the current ongoing debates is how best to collect that information. Questions regarding child deprivation are most often answered by a reference adult and assume that adult respondents provide accurate reports about their children’s needs. These assumptions have largely gone untested. Making use of a unique feature of the Fijian Household Income and Expenditure Survey (2019/20), this paper explores the effect of respondent selection on child deprivation estimates. We compare three approaches to the selection of adult respondents commonly used in survey design: the children’s mother, the household head, and a random adult respondent in the household. We find that adults largely agree on whether children are deprived of specific items. However, in between 5 to 24% of households (depending on the indicator), adults provide different responses regarding whether children have specific items. Despite these differences, respondent selection does not substantially alter child multiple deprivation estimates or the socio-demographic characteristics of the deprived child population. The article will be of interest to those designing surveys or questionnaires to measure child poverty and children’s unmet needs.

Measuring human rights? Vernacularisation and paradoxes of measurement in child poverty estimation

ABSTRACT During the last two decades, UNICEF has led efforts to measure Child Poverty globally as well as in various regions and countries. These efforts have been explicitly grounded on a human rights perspective and guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this paper, some of the issues raised by these endeavours are analysed. The paper explicitly uses, and expands, Sally Engle Merry's framework of vernacularisation to assess these efforts. Thus, it is organised in three sections. First, a review of criticisms to the broader project of ‘human rights measurement’ is offered. This includes aspects of vernacularisation, paradoxes of measurement, and the tension between universal standards and particular specificities. Secondly, a brief description of Child Poverty measurement is provided, with a focus on developments and debates of the last 20 years. This is the case study on which Merry's framework is applied. This is done in the third section. Based on this analysis, practical recommendations for future research on Child Poverty measurement based on human rights are discussed in the concluding section.

Measurement of Multidimensional Child Poverty: Evidence from North Macedonia

Measurement of Multidimensional Child Poverty: Evidence from North Macedonia

An Expenditure based Approach to Measuring Child Poverty in New Zealand

Poverty is complex, has many dimensions and is difficult to define and measure. When considering child poverty reduction policies, we must thus consider as many different dimensions as possible. In this way, researchers can provide data to build a comprehensive understanding of the issues, allowing decision makers to apply their own judgements. This study aims to provide such data by exploring how household expenditure data can add to our understanding of child poverty.

Մանկական աղքատության տխուր «դիմանկարը». շարունակական զրկանքնե՞ր, թե՞ երազանքի մանկության իրավունք/Ca Sad «Portrait» Of Child Poverty: Endless Deprivation or the Right to Dream Childhood?

Child poverty is an eternal problem, nowadays no country in the world can claim to have solved one of the most important, topical and painful problems: child poverty. It is an undeniable fact that the more painless childhood is, the more complete the environment in which the child is born and develops, the healthier, more educated and developed society the country has, which is the strongest guarantee of economic prosperity and national security. In the Republic of Armenia, the level of child poverty is quite high, and even approximate terms for its reduction are not outlined. In recent years, the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest Artsakh war have been added to the unfavorable socio-economic panorama of the Republic. According to the RA Statistical Committee, in 2020, every third child in our country was in poverty. The paper is devoted to the problem of child poverty, its causes, methods of measuring child poverty, measures taken to reduce child poverty in some foreign countries, and the analysis of the level of child poverty in Armenia

Medicaid Coverage Disruptions Among Children Enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid From 2016 to 2018

Brief disruptions in insurance coverage among eligible participants are associated with poorer health outcomes for children. To describe factors associated with coverage disruptions among children enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid from 2016 to 2018 and estimate the outcome of preventing such disruptions on medical expenditures. This was a retrospective cohort study using North Carolina Medicaid claims data. All enrolled individuals were aged 1 to 20 years on January 1, 2016, and with 30 days of prior continuous enrollment. Children were observed from January 1, 2016, until December 31, 2018. Analyses were conducted from June 2020 through December 2020. Risk of Medicaid coverage disruptions of 1 to less than 12 months was assessed. Among children who disenrolled from Medicaid for 30 or more days, the risk of reenrollment within 1 to 6 months and 7 to 11 months was assessed. An inverse probability of censoring weights method was then used to estimate the outcome of an intervention to reduce coverage disruptions through preventing disenrollment on per member per month (PMPM) cost. The study population included 831 173 Medicaid beneficiaries aged 1 to 5 years (23%), 6 to 17 years (68%), and 18 to 20 years (9%); 35% were Black, 44% were White, and 14% were Hispanic/Latinx. Among those with a first disenrollment (n = 214 401, 26%), the risk of reenrollment within 6 months and 7 to 11 months was 19% and 7%, respectively. Risk of coverage disruption was higher for Black children (hazard ratio [HR], 1.21; 95% CI, 1.18-1.24), children of other races (Asian, American Indian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, multiple races, or unreported; HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.33-1.40), and Latinx children (HR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.60-1.70) compared with White children. Risk of coverage disruption was also higher for children with higher medical complexity (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.12-1.19). The risk of coverage disruption was lower for children living in counties with the highest unemployment rates (HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.85-0.94), and comparisons between county-level measures of child poverty and graduation rates showed little or no difference. The estimated PMPM cost for the full population under a scenario in which all medical costs were included was $125.73. Estimated PMPM cost for the full cohort in a counterfactual scenario in which disenrollment was prevented was slightly lower ($122.14). Across all subgroups, estimated PMPM costs were modestly lower ($2-$8) in the scenario in which disenrollment was prevented. In this cohort study, the risk of Medicaid coverage disruption was high, with many eligible children in historically marginalized communities continuing to experience unstable enrollment. In addition to improving health outcomes, preventing coverage gaps through policies that decrease disenrollment may also reduce Medicaid costs.

Comparison of Child Poverty Measures: Looking for Consensus

Comparison of Child Poverty Measures: Looking for Consensus

Conceptual Debates on Poverty Measurement: The Use of Qualitative Expert Consultation to Guide Methodological Decision-making in Designing a Multidimensional Child-Poverty Measure

Conceptual Debates on Poverty Measurement: The Use of Qualitative Expert Consultation to Guide Methodological Decision-making in Designing a Multidimensional Child-Poverty Measure

A Rights-Based Approach to Child Poverty Measurement and Child Rights Realisation in Zimbabwe

Abstract 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.

The child poverty factor as a constraint in a model of overall welfare: The case of Greece

Ιn this paper a specific, specialized and cumulative index is formulated, in a theoretical level, for the measurement of child poverty in Greece. This index is subsequently introduced in a general model of welfare as a constraint and its relation with social solidarity is examined. The creation of an exclusive and polyprismatic child poverty/ welfare index is useful as it helps for a more reliable and exact measurement, in order to take effective policy-measures to address and reduce this phenomenon, which has taken gigantic magnitude in Greece.

Introduction to Special Collection Eight on Children’s Well-Being from Different Angles

Introduction to Special Collection Eight on Children’s Well-Being from Different Angles Dagmar Kutsar and Heili Pals Introduction The papers included in this Special Collection originate from–or were inspired by–the 7th conference of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) ‘Children of the Worlds: The Touch of Change. Research, Policy, and Practices,’ held on 27–29 August 2019 in Tartu, Estonia. International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI, established in 2005) incorporates senior researchers and professionals internationally who develop and support indicators to measure and monitor the well-being of children and apply the collected data to influence and formulate policies. ISCI holds biannual international conferences since 2007. The ISCI conferences aim to gather researchers, practitioners, policy makers and child advocates from across the world to share and discuss the latest research on child indicators and their implications for policy and interventions. The current Special Collection presents examples of children’s well-being research from different angles, such as measurement of child poverty, a debate over applying the notion of child well-being in children’s rights law and research, and empirical evidence of children’s rights and well-being from adults’ and children’s perspectives. The ten articles included in the Collection capture analyses of children’s subjective well-being from Bangladesh, Estonia, France, Indonesia, Nigeria, Poland, and Russia. They are authored by different scholars (sociologists, psychologists, educational scientists, childhood and well-being scholars, faculty of law), but also by an advisor to the Chancellor of Justice of Estonia, UNICEF senior adviser, and head of the Analysis and Statistics Department at Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs. The ISCI conferences carry ideas of children as a separate social group and a part of the society, also known in academic literature as a ‘new’ understanding of children and childhood. The emergence of a ‘new’ understanding of childhood as a social phenomenon, and of children being active social actors in their own right within a generational order, has given rise to a paradigmatic advancement in the field of reshaping studies in children and childhood, since its development in the mid-1980s (Qvortrup 1985; Qvortrup, Sgritta, and Wintersberger 1994; Alanen 1994). The paradigm rapidly gained popularity with the fresh view it contributed to the development of new theories regarding children and childhood (e.g., Corsaro 1997; James, Jenks, and Prout 1998; and others). [End Page 195] The new approach differed significantly from the prior one, as it viewed a child not as a future adult but as an active social actor and a subject in the here and now. An international group of researchers studying social indicators of children’s well-being (Ben-Arieh et al. 2001) admitted that administrative data collected on children so far and the so-called simple counting of children (e.g., how many drop out of school, how many have a certain disease, etc.) is not enough to explain how children themselves think they are doing and to what extent their rights are secured. It became clear that the assessments of adults about children are not always adequate and correct. The assessments of children and adults cannot be the same because they are representatives of different generations and, as such, they fulfil different roles in the society as well as towards each other (e.g., Casas 2011; Casas et al. 2013; Gilman and Huebner 2000). If a child is considered as a subject, not an object, it should also be believed that the child has age-appropriate social competence and ability to provide subjective evaluations about different aspects of one’s life (Ben-Arieh 2005; Casas et al. 2013; Mason and Danby 2011). This new viewpoint in the child well-being research is important in both policy formulation as well as for official statistics, because it can significantly alter the statistical picture. Moreover, new theoretical considerations about children and childhood pave the way for discussions about children’s rights (e.g., Carvalho 2008; Doek 2014; Mayall 2015; and others), and the normative framework of the understanding of a child’s well-being (Kosher and Ben-Arieh 2016). Internationally, the interest in data collected from children started with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of...

Child Rights, Poverty, and Well-being: Measurement Debates and Empirical Advances

Children experience poverty differently from adults. This is the fundamental premise of the work to design specific, child-focused policies to eliminate child poverty. Devising, planning, and monitoring the impact of these policies without a proper measure of child poverty is almost impossible. However, most attempts to measure and analyze child poverty are challenged by the steps needed to measure it properly. In this article a solution is offered in this regard. In the context of global efforts, including by governments, to eliminate child poverty, UNICEF has developed a position on how to measure child poverty, based on a few simple and clear principles. These principles are meant to guide the measurement of child poverty. The main objective of this article is to explain and provide a rationale for this position as well as its relationship to related debates on child poverty measurement. Child poverty should be measured at the level of the individual child, not just as a disaggregation by age of household-level or adult-centered measurement. The measurement should be based on constitutive rights of poverty (i.e., those crucially and directly determined by access to material resources) and not on all possible problems children may face. As all rights are equally important, all dimensions should be equally weighted. The measurement should provide the prevalence as well as the depth/breadth/severity of child poverty. There are various groups of children who require different or special goods and services to fulfill the same rights constitutive of poverty as all other children. These needs ought to be incorporated into the measurement (e.g., children with disabilities may require assistive devices or indigenous children may require culturally appropriate learning materials). Implications and opportunities for flexibility and adjustment of such measures at the country level (while applying the principles) are also addressed in this article as well as a description of the most recent estimates of child poverty across developing countries using the same dimensions, indicators and thresholds.