Child Income Poverty Levels and Trends in Urban China from 1989 to 2011

This paper fills the existing knowledge gap by examining the changes in the extent and nature of child poverty in urban China between 1989 and 2011, and contributes to the literature by using the relative income approach, different from the absolute income approach used in many previous studies. All waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey Data (CHNS) is used including the newest 2011 survey. Both the anchored and current relative poverty lines were constructed in this paper. In addition, the FGT index introduced by Foster et al. (Econometrica 52(3), 761–766, 1984) is used to measure income poverty gaps and inequalities. The findings show that income distribution has been unequal and the income gap has widened during the study period. Although China has achieved great economic growth since economic reform, the lower income group benefited much less from China's fast economic growth compared with the middle or higher income groups. The findings of this paper imply that policy makers need to pay more attention in future on reducing income inequality in urban China.     

Children in Angola: Poverty,Deprivation and Child Labour

Child poverty is considered to be an obstacle for the development of children around the world and to have a negative effect on social, economic and human development of a country. Therefore, analysis of this situation becomes vital in the study of poverty. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence in this field, especially in countries such Angola, with a long history of internal conflict and violence. This paper aims to measure the levels of deprivation and multidimensional poverty of children in Angola and the perceptions of poverty and child labour that urban households have in this country. A mix-methods study was designed, initially using the Integrated Survey on the Well-being of the Population (IBEP) 2008–2009. The levels of deprivation and multidimensional poverty of households with children of 18 years old or younger were calculated and the characteristics of those households were analysed. In the second part, a thematic analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews was conducted. The interviews were done in Lubango, urban Angola, with 14 children (8 to 16 years old) and 7 heads of household. The findings revealed that more than 30% of children aged 5 to 17 years in Angola are multidimensionally poor and 52% of children aged 0 to 17 years are absolutely poor. In addition, parents and children in Lubango associate poverty with lack of food and an income which is inadequate to cover the basic needs in a household. In addition, child work is considered to be normal if the family does not have the means to provide the minimum dietary intake.     

Child Poverty in China-A Multidimensional Deprivation Approach

This paper applies a human-rights based deprivation approach to measure child poverty in China based on secondary data analysis. It discusses the following questions: How to select available deprivation indicators to measure child poverty in China? Are the available deprivation indicators valid, reliable and additive? How did child poverty change between1989 and 2009 and how did it vary by region? The main objective is to use existing longitudinal and cross sectional survey data to build scientific deprivation indicators to measure the living standards of children and produce estimates of child poverty in China across time and space. All waves from 1989 to 2009 of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data will be utilized. In order to choose a set of deprivation indicators, several statistical tests for the validity, reliability and additivity of the deprivation items are developed. Validity tests aim to check whether income has a significant association with deprivation indicators; A Classical Test Theory (CTT) model is used to determine if the list of deprivation items form a reliable scale/index.; The final test shows whether the deprivation indicators are additive or not. This methodology builds on the work of Gordon (2000, 2006) and final list of valid, reliable and additive deprivation indicators is applied to explore child poverty across time and space. The findings indicate that children’s living standards in China have improved over time but that significant regional disparities remain.     

Child Poverty in a Rich Welfare State

Norway is a rich welfare state with universal welfare services and statutory rights to benefits in the event of illness and unemployment. Recent decades have seen strong wage growth and low unemployment. In the same period the question of how those in poverty should be defined, and by what criteria, has acquired renewed political relevance. This article sheds light on poverty in a welfare state with high employment and economic growth. Drawing on data from two samples of Norwegian families with children, it examines the trend in incomes and living conditions over time: a ‘low-income sample’ below 60 % of median income, and a ‘control sample’ drawn from the entire income spectrum. The families’ income development is observed from 2000 to 2007, whereas living conditions variables such as consumption, housing and subjective poverty are observed up to 2009. Research questions examine what share of the families remain below the chosen poverty line of 60 % of median income 8 years after their selection, what share has risen above the poverty line and how far it has risen. This is followed by an analysis of the families’ material living conditions and subjective experience of poverty, and the degree to which they experience deficiencies in all three areas. By way of conclusion the results are used to question the standard assumption that poverty is a dichotomous condition and hence that the poor are clearly distinguished from the non-poor.     

Multidimensional Child Poverty in three Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper describes and reviews the process of constructing a Multidimensional Child Poverty Measure in three sub-Saharan Africa countries: Mali, Malawi, and Tanzania. These countries recently (in 2015 and 2014) constructed a measure of multidimensional child poverty using UNICEF’s Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology and conducted a comprehensive child poverty study including both deprivation and monetary poverty. This work describes how the methodology was adapted in the different contexts, discussing critical issues that arose during the study process, and compares the results of the three studies. The goal is to offer an overview of the different national processes and determine how similar or different factors influence the results.     

Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors: Parental Concern and Concordance Between Parent and Adolescent Reports

Objective

We investigated which adolescent health risk behaviors are of concern to parents generally, according to adolescent age, gender, and in the context of perceived risk. We compared adolescent and parent reports of the presence of health-risk behaviors and factors predicting agreement.

The Measurement and Description of Child Income and Asset Poverty in Canada

Wealth is a durable economic resource and it is typically held by individuals over the long-term. Measuring the wealth-type resources held by families, lends important information about the financial security of children. Following others, we argue that wealth provides additional information regarding child well-being, complementing traditional income-based measurements. In this paper, we extend the traditional income measure of child poverty in Canada to include wealth, by defining and presenting two measures of low-assets, or asset poverty. We present a novel estimation of child asset poverty in Canada and the first known estimation of child-level asset poverty more broadly. Focusing specifically on the measurement of asset poverty among children, we find that rates of asset poverty are two to three times as large as rates of income poverty. Prior literature highlights that higher asset levels are strongly associated with better outcomes for children, and families. The high levels of asset poverty in Canada, relative to other comparable nations, has implications for indicators of child well-being and the welfare of Canadian children.     

The Dynamics of Child Poverty in South Africa Between 2008 and 2012

Children have been shown to be one of the most economically vulnerable groups within the South African context. We examine and decompose the dynamics of child poverty in South Africa over the period 2008–2012 in order to arrive at a better understanding of the nature and causes of child poverty, and specifically persistent poverty over time. We use the framework of an asset poverty line first developed by Carter and May (World Development, 29(12), 1987–2006, 2001) and longitudinal data from the National Income Dynamics Study in order to identify those children in households that are in structural poverty with an asset base which is too low to escape poverty in the long run. We find that almost 40 % of the children in our sample found themselves in this structural poverty trap between 2008 and 2012. As expected, these children have suffered as a result of this deprivation, even in comparison to their peers who have also been poor over the period, but were living in households with access to more assets. We conduct some preliminary investigations into the potential causes of welfare changes over time. In line with previous work on the topic, we identify low initial levels of education, low asset-holdings, low initial employment and adverse household formation as possible causes of these poverty traps.     

Parental age and child growth and development: Child health check‐up data

Background: The aim of the present study was to determine whether parental age has any influence on child health. Methods: Well‐baby check‐up data at 1 month and at 12 months of age were used. The trends of parental age in association with growth measurements, incidence of physical and developmental abnormalities, occurrence of low birthweight, and maternal history of spontaneous abortion were analyzed. Results: Associations between increasing paternal age and incidence of psychomotor developmental delay at 12 months, increasing paternal and maternal age and increasing birthweight, and increasing parental age and higher incidence of history of spontaneous abortion were found. The incidence of low‐birthweight infants was significantly decreased with increasing paternal age. Conclusions: Not only increasing maternal age but also increasing paternal age have influences on child development and growth in the general population.     

Analysing Multidimensional Child Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings Using an International Comparative Approach

This study provides with a first indication on the number of multidimensionally poor children in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents a methodology measuring multidimensional child deprivation within and across countries, and it is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 1 focusing on multidimensional poverty by age and gender. Using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology, the study finds that 67% or 247 million children are multidimensionally poor in the thirty sub-Saharan African countries included in the analysis. Multidimensional poverty is defined as missing two to five aspects of basic child well-being captured by dimensions anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely nutrition, health, education, information, water, sanitation, and housing. The analysis also predicts the multidimensional child poverty rates for the whole sub-Saharan African region estimating 64% or 291 million children to be multidimensionally poor. In comparison, monetary poverty rates measured as less than USD 1.25 PPP per capita spending a day and weighted by the child population size finds 48% poor children. The results of this study highlight the extent of multidimensional poverty among children in sub-Saharan Africa and the need for children to have a specific poverty measure in their own right.     

Multidimensional Child Poverty in Korea: Developing Child-Specific Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals

This paper aims to examine child poverty in Korea by constructing a multidimensional child poverty index. The Sustainable Development Goals (hereafter SDGs) recommend producing children-specific poverty statistics based on the concept of multidimensional poverty. Responding to such global norms and trends, in Korea, there is an increasing need to define and measure multidimensional poverty among children, focusing on the individual rather than the household as a whole. Drawing on the Poverty and Social Exclusion methodology, we established a Child Deprivation Index and combined it with household income to estimate multidimensional child poverty, using data from the 2013 Korean National Child Survey. The findings show that the number of children in poverty are in fact around 10% of the child population, as measured by material deprivation and income combined, which is two times higher than the official Korean child poverty rate. This indicates that conventional measurements, based only on household income, not only insufficiently identifies poor children, but also excludes more than half of the potential recipients from the social assistance system. In addition, our logit analysis offers strong evidence that deprived children are mostly living in working-poor and single-parent households. These findings lead to the conclusion that support for the working poor should be considered as important child policy agenda.     

Medical Child Care in Sweden: Short Review of its Development, Importance and Immediate Objectives

During the last 25 years one of the main developments within the field of pediatrics has been the appreciation and increasing application of social aspects of childhood problems. Sweden has been fortunate enough to have had farsighted pediatricians guiding this development. Of these W allgren has been one of the leading men.     

Twin-Sibling Differences in Parental Reports of ADHD, Speech, Reading and Behaviour Problems

Differences between twins and siblings in behaviour problems were investigated in a non-selected sample of 1938 families with children aged 4-12 years. Families were sent a questionnaire based on DSM-III-R criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD) and Separation Anxiety (SA), which was validated by formal clinical interview. The questionnaire also included measures of speech and reading problems. There were significant differences between twins and siblings for ADHD symptoms, but not for symptoms of ODD, CD or SA. Twins and siblings differed significantly for gestational age, birth weight, speech and reading problems. While there was little evidence for birth weight or gestational age contributing to the difference in ADHD symptoms, there was a strong association between ADHD symptoms and speech and reading problems.