Child deprivation in Australia: A child‐focused approach

Abstract

Income-based studies of child poverty treat children and young people as effectively invisible and determine the poverty status of families or households on the basis of information that is provided by, and is primarily about, K E Y W O R D S child well-being, deprivation, disadvantaged groups, poverty, social exclusion

Children's and adults' perceptions of child necessities in Hong Kong

“…In line with previous studies, adults and children perceived that minimum needs extended beyond basic subsistence needs. Fulfilling customary social roles, obligations, and being able to participate in contemporary Hong Kong society are considered to be necessities (Main & Bradshaw, ; Redmond et al, ; Saunders et al, ). The generational differences between adults and children were also manifested within the same household.…”

“…There is an increasing recognition of the value of measuring children's own views about their daily lives and well‐being (Main & Pople, ; Redmond et al, ). However, there has been only limited evidence of child‐derived deprivation indicators (Barnes & Wright, ; Main & Bradshaw, ; Saunders et al, ). Such a focus on children's own perspectives not only takes into consideration children's feelings but also supports children's rights as enshrined by the normative framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Main, ; Minujin et al, ; Rees & Main, ; Ridge, ; United Nations Children's Fund Office of Research, ).…”

“…Their resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are, in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns and activities.Townsend defines poverty as a relative and multidimensional sociological phenomenon. This approach has laid the foundation for poverty studies in the United Kingdom (Bramley & Bailey, ; Dermott & Main, ; Gordon & Pantazis, ; Gordon et al, ; Pantazis et al, ) and extended its influence into different parts of the world informing poverty studies in Europe (Halleröd, Larsson, Gordon, & Ritakallio, ; Nolan & Whelan, ; van den Bosch, ), Australia (Saunders, Bedford, Brown, Naidoo, & Adamson, ; Saunders et al, ), Asia (Abe & Pantazis, ; Saunders & Chen, ; Saunders et al, ), and Africa (Nandy & Pomati, ; Noble, Wright, Magasela, & Ratcliffe, ). For instance, Chow's () pioneering study of poverty in an affluent city made use of Townsend's relative deprivation approach and developed culturally relevant deprivation indicators reflecting the “style of living” in Hong Kong.…”

Measuring What Matters: Drawing on a Participatory Wellbeing Framework and Existing Data to Assess Child Wellbeing Outcomes Over Time

“…There are four key benefits of applying a child participatory wellbeing framework to guide indicator selection to longitudinal analysis. Firstly, doing so ensures that the measures have direct relevance, and capture the aspects of life that matter, for children (De Berry et al, 2003;Fattore et al, 2009;González-Carrasco et al, 2019;Redmond et al, 2016;Saunders et al, 2019). This ultimately means that we obtain a more refined and nuanced conceptualisation of wellbeing that is directly applicable to the target population.…”

“…Finally, while measuring a slightly different construct, participatory approaches have been applied to measure child material deprivation using the consensus approach by Townsend (1987) in a number of contexts throughout the world (e.g. Gross-Manos, 2015;Main & Pople, 2011;Saunders et al, 2019;Swords et al, 2011). To the authors' best knowledge, there are no studies that have previously applied an adult or child participatory wellbeing framework for longitudinal analysis.…”