‘Good’ parenting practices:how important are poverty, education and time pressure?

This article examines how parenting practices popularly classed as ‘good’ are related to poverty, education and time pressure. Using the 2012 UK Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) survey we argue that parenting practices such as reading, playing games and eating meals together are not absent among those who are less well educated, have lower incomes or are more deprived of socially accepted necessities: therefore, political claims of widespread ‘poor parenting’ are misplaced. Further, we suggest that the dominant trope of poor people being poor at parenting may arise because the activities of the most educationally advantaged parents – who do look different to the majority – are accepted as the benchmark against whom others are assessed. This leads us to suggest that the renewed interest in sociological research on elites should be extended to family life in order that the exceptionality of the most privileged is recognised and analysed

Applying the Consensual Method of Estimating Poverty in a Low Income African Setting

We present the first study of multidimensional poverty in Benin using the consensual or socially perceived necessities approach. There is a remarkable level consensus about what constitutes the necessities of life and an adequate standard of living. Following Townsend’s concept of relative deprivation, we show how social consensus provides the basis for a reliable and valid index of multiple deprivation, which can be used to reflect multidimensional poverty. We discuss the issue of adaptive preferences, which has previously been used to criticise the consensual approach, and provide evidence to contest the claim that the poor adjust their aspirations downwards

The distribution and dynamics of economic social wellbeing in the UK: An analysis of the recession using multidimensional indicators of living standards - Summary Findings

Living standards in the United Kingdom are typically measured using income as a proxy. Past research into living standards focuses on how living standards have changed over time, the extent to which there are in inequalities in living standards for different groups, and the impact of the recession on living standards. To date, little research combines economic and non-economic indicators to inform living standards. Multidimensional indicators of living standards (MILS) that go beyond disposable (net) income and expenditure or consumption as a proxy are able to capture a fuller picture of living standards and better inform policy making and research

Barriers to participation in education and training

This study explores the barriers and constraints young people currently face when deciding what to do at the end of their compulsory schooling in Year 11. The study conducted by the NFER, working in partnership with Triangle and QA Research, included a survey of 2029 young people who completed Year 11 in either 2008 or 2009 conducted between August and October 2009. This survey was supplemented by interviews with booster samples of 519 young people across specific sub-groups and 102 parent interviews