Childhood poverty and social exclusion – listening to children’s voices

‘I would like to do more things with my friends, when they go out like down the town and that. But we can’t always afford it. So I got to stay in and that and just [be] in ‘ere. It’s just boring, I can’t do anything.’

Mike, 12 years old

Mike is a 12 year old boy living in a family receiving income support. His father has a disability and his family have been reliant on means-tested benefits for a long period of time. His words give an insight into some of the challenges that children who are living in poverty face in their everyday lives. Mike is one of a group of children and young people living in families on a low income who took part in a new child-centred study of childhood poverty. The findings from the study are reported in a new book, Childhood Poverty and Social Exclusion: from a child’s perspective, which explores the lives and experiences of children living in poverty using child-centred research methods which engage directly with the meanings and perceptions of poor children themselves. Here, the book’s author, Tess Ridge, describes some of the findings.

Pocket money
Paid work
Transport
Friendships
School
Home
Listening to children

The Labour Government’s focus on eradicating child poverty within the next 20 years has meant a developing interest in the lives of children. However, traditionally the voices and experiences of children living in poverty have been some of the least heard. We know from previous studies that the outcomes of childhood poverty for children can be severe.[Footnote 1] However, although there is a large body of research that focuses on the outcomes of poverty for children in adulthood there has been considerably less understanding of the impact that poverty can have on the everyday experience of childhood. Only by engaging directly with children who are living in poverty can we have any true understanding of what the lived experience of poverty means for children. However, research which seeks to explore the nature and impact of poverty needs to be conducted with great sensitivity. This is especially so when the research subjects are children and the research agenda requires considerable openness and trust. This book demonstrates that it is possible to bring a child’s perspective to the analysis of childhood poverty and social exclusion, and in doing so it provides a valuable insight into children’s lives.

The book contains two new pieces of empirical research: first, in-depth interviews with a group of 40 children and young people who were living in families in receipt of income support; and second, findings from a new quantitative study of children's experiences and perceptions of school, using British Household Panel Youth Survey data. For the in-depth interviews a group of children was drawn from both urban and rural backgrounds using a sample of families who had been receiving income support for more than six months. The children were from two different family types, either lone-parent families or couple families where there was an adult or a child with a disability, both of these family types are likely to experience long durations of poverty and reliance on means-tested benefits.[Footnote 2] The study used child-centred research methods, which put children’s own meanings and concerns at the centre of the research process to gain an insight into their lives and the issues that concern them. It explored with children their economic and material environments, their social relationships at home and at school, and their own perceptions of how poverty had affected their lives. In this article we are going to focus on the in-depth interviews and draw out some of the key points in respect of pocket money, paid work, transport, friendship and school and home life.

Pocket money

‘Sometimes like if I haven’t got any money to go on a weekend, I won’t ask my mum 'cos I don’t want to ask her… But I’d like try and get some money somehow like. I dunno, 'cos like my nan might give me some money, a pound or something.’

Laura, 15 years old

Children’s interaction with the economic world is increasing and we live in an economically sophisticated society. Experience of managing their own pocket money is now considered an essential part of developing children’s economic socialisation.[Footnote 3] For most children pocket money is something that they take for granted in their lives. However, for low-income children in the study opportunities for managing money and developing a competent and confident approach to spending and budgeting was severely constrained by their families restricted economic circumstances. Only a quarter of the children in the study were receiving any regular pocket money, the rest received little or nothing and many were reliant solely on their own earning power. For children who did receive pocket money the access to their own money was clearly valued. It acted as a vital resource allowing them some small measure of economic control within a restricted economic environment. Children receiving pocket money were using it not just for sweets and treats but also to sustain their social lives, paying for bus fares and buying clothes and essential items for school.

Paid work

‘I don’t particularly like asking for money off dad, I mean I started a paper round when I was 14 and I have been working ever since, and so I pretty much paid for everything that I done.’

Andy, 16 years old

Children who were not receiving pocket money tended to be working, and these included children both above and below the legal age for employment. These are children from poor families and although they highlighted clear tensions between employment and school work, the ability to gain access to some money of their own was seen by many children as essential. In general children were motivated towards work by a need to share in the consumer culture of their more affluent peers, and the social and cultural demands of childhood were shown to be exerting very heavy pressures on children. Many of them showed great resourcefulness in accessing work and attempting to alleviate their disadvantage, they also show considerable understanding for their family’s financial situation. In many families children’s wages were playing an important role in sustaining their families’ economies. Some children were helping out directly with money while others, by contributing towards their own needs, were freeing household money to meet other pressing demands.

Transport

‘Most of my friends have got more transport than I have, more cars and things like that, so they can usually go different places.’

Colleen, 13 years old

Children and young people identified transport as one of their key issues. In general while adults expect a large degree of mobility, children by contrast experience limited mobility and a high dependence on adults to supply their needs. For low-income children in the study the issue of transport assumed considerable importance and was having a major impact on their lives. Many of the children lived in households without access to private transport and this was especially evident for rural children in lone-parent families. Those without access to a car were heavily reliant on costly and inadequate public transport. Without affordable transport children reported feeling trapped within their immediate environment and restricted from joining in shared social events with their peers. These findings indicate that the provision of transport for low-income children and young people is a critical issue. Although the ConneXions smart card will provide leisure and travel concessions for young people aged 16-19 in continuing education, the study indicates that low-income children are in need of support with transport at a much earlier age.

Friendships

‘If you don’t have any [friends] you won’t be able to go out and play without being bullied.’

Jim, 10 years old

The development of friendships and wider social networks play an important role in development of children’s human and social capital. As you would expect, children in the study valued their friends for fun and play, but critically children’s accounts also revealed that friendship had an important protective effect, safeguarding children from isolation and bullying. Given children’s evident fears of experiencing stigma and difference associated with poverty and disadvantage the significance of opportunities to develop and sustain strong and supportive social networks assumes a particular salience. Children’s opportunities to make friends and develop social relationships occur both within their home environment and during school time. The study showed how low-income children’s opportunities to make and sustain friendships and share in the social and leisure opportunities of their peers was severely constrained. Transport costs and participation costs all conspire to leave children feeling on the periphery of the leisure experiences that their peers in general take for granted.

School

‘Like we’ve got to work out all this money for school bags and stationery, and then you’ve got a uniform that when it gets too small for you as well you’ve got to keep paying every two years or something. It gets expensive.’

Nicole, 13 years old

Considerable concerns were also raised by children’s accounts of their school lives and the opportunities and activities they felt were open to them. School is a particularly important milieu for children academically but also socially. It is within the confines of school life that children meet with a wider and more diverse group of their peers than they would in their home environments. Contact and experience of meeting children from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, enhances children’s capacity for developing wider social networks, and the value of school for developing social and human capital should not be underestimated. The Government has shown a strong commitment to improving literacy and numeracy standards, and reducing the incidence of school exclusions and truancy of poor children at school. However, welcome though these initiatives are they do not address many of the key issues and concerns about school life that were identified by children themselves in the study. Children’s accounts of their school lives indicated that they were experiencing considerable disadvantage within their schools. With many reporting feeling bullied, isolated and left out at critical stages of their academic careers. Their accounts of their school lives highlight some fundamental inequalities that exist within the school system, issues of social and academic parity and inclusion that that the Government is at present failing to address.

Home

‘I don’t usually go out with my friends... If they arrange to do things and I haven’t got the money I say no I can’t do it, I ain’t got enough money. Some of my friends are “Oh I will pay for you”, but I don’t like to take their money either, so I say no don’t worry I just won’t come.’

Laura, 15 years old

In talking about their lives at home and in their communities children highlighted their inner worries and their fears of social difference and stigma. They reported feeling that their experiences of poverty were affecting their self-esteem, confidence and personal security. These are difficult areas for children to reflect on as difficulties with friendships and worries about social acceptance can be particularly hard for children to articulate. Children were very aware of the impact of poverty on their lives and on the lives of their parents. The effect of poverty on their social involvement and their friendships was an area particularly highlighted by children. Their fears of social detachment and social difference were very real, and they were acutely aware of the dangers of being excluded from the activities of their friends and social groups.

Listening to children

The children in this study were open and informative about their lives. Their accounts have provided us with a richer and more complex understanding of childhood poverty. The concerns they raise pose critical questions for both policy makers and practitioners about the realties of childhood poverty and the challenges that poor children face in their everyday lives. Children themselves have clearly identified areas for concern, such as transport, friendship, clothing expectations, school inclusion and shared peer group participation. These represent critical areas in children’s social lives and in their social development. The book argues that whatever policies and provisions are chosen to respond to children’s concerns, they need to be child-centred in their concept, and the delivery should be adequate, non-stigmatising and based on needs identified by children and young people themselves.

Dr Tess Ridge works in the Department of Social Policy Sciences at the University of Bath Childhood Poverty and Social Exclusion: from a child’s perspective is published by The Policy Press

Footnotes

1. V Kumar, Poverty and Inequality in the UK: the effects on children, National Children's Bureau, 1993; P Gregg, S Harkness and S Machin, Child Development and Family Income, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1999; J Hobcraft, Intergenerational and Life-Course Transmission of Social Exclusion: influences and childhood poverty, family disruption and contact with the police, Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion CASE Paper 15, London School of Economics, 1998; J Ermisch, M Francescanii and D Pevalin, Outcomes for Children of Poverty, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 158, Corporate Document Services, 2001; J Bradshaw, Child Poverty Under Labour in G Finnister (ed) An End in Sight, Child Poverty Action Group, 2001 [back to text]
2. Department for Work and Pensions, Client Group Analysis, Quarterly Bulletin on Families with Children on Key Benefits November 2001, Analytical Services Division, 2001 [back to text]
3. A Lewis, P Webley and A Furnham, The New Economic Mind, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1995 [back to text]

Poverty 113, Autumn 2002