Main, Gillian orcid.org/0000-0003-3691-9089 and Bradshaw, Jonathan Richard orcid.org/0000-0001-9395-6754 (2016) Child poverty in the UK:measures, prevalence and intra-household sharing. Critical Social Policy. 1. pp. 1-24. 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: | © The Author(s) 2015. |
Keywords: | poverty,children,Measurement |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Research Groups (York) > Social Policy Research Unit (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 14 Dec 2015 09:32 |
Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2025 00:18 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018315602627 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0261018315602627 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:92866 |
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