Main, G orcid.org/0000-0002-6191-5269 and Bradshaw, J (2016) Child poverty in the UK: Measures, prevalence and intra-household sharing. Critical Social Policy, 36 (1). pp. 38-61. ISSN 0261-0183
Abstract
There is cross-party agreement on the urgency of addressing child poverty in the UK, but less consensus on how to define and measure it, and understand its causes and effects. The Conservative/Liberal Coalition government’s policy and rhetoric favoured individual explanations for poverty, portraying poor parents as making bad spending decisions, and transmitting their attitudes and behaviours on to their children. This article draws on the 2012 UK Poverty and Social Exclusion survey (PSE2012) to examine how far the realities of life for poor children match these explanations. Analysis covers four strands: the prevalence of child poverty; the demographics of poor children; the experiences of poor children; and how parents in poverty allocate household resources. Little evidence is found to support this ‘culture of poverty’ theory, and parents who are themselves in poverty are found to engage in a range of behaviours suggesting they sacrifice personal necessities to provide for children.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2015, The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in Critical Social Policy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | child poverty, intra-household sharing, poverty, social exclusion |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Feb 2016 15:38 |
Last Modified: | 24 Nov 2020 11:52 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018315602627 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0261018315602627 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:92093 |