Actions to prevent and mitigate child poverty at the local level

This review presents evidence to support local authorities and Community Planning Partnerships (CPP) to: 1. Identify factors that may mitigate the effects of child poverty. 2. Make suggestions on how the local authority can act to prevent child poverty occurring. 3. Identify early trigger signs that may suggest an increased risk of poverty. These three issues are explored for families through pregnancy, in the child’s early years and in the primary school years, under the themes: income maximisation, education and childcare. A fourth theme, lone parenthood, will be explored as a stand-alone cross-cutting theme

Can we put the poverty of aspirations myth to bed now?

This briefing paper uses responses from parents and children in the birth cohort study Growing Up in Scotland1 to dispel the myth of the ‘poverty of aspiration’ widely used in education and policy circles in Scotland and beyond

A 'pockets' approach to addressing financial vulnerability

This briefing paper outlines recent evidence on financial vulnerability among families in Scotland, and draws on the Healthier, Wealthier Children case study as an example of action that could help families both at risk of, and experiencing, poverty

Do changes in objective and subjective family income predict change in children's diets over time? Unique insights using a longitudinal cohort study and fixed effects analysis

Background While an association has been established between low income and poor diet using cross-sectional data, such analysis cannot account for confounding by unobserved characteristics correlated with income and diet, and changes in income and diet cannot be tracked over time. This paper, using longitudinal panel data, explores whether falls in objective and subjective family income predict deterioration in children's diets over time.  Methods This paper uses panel data from the nationally representative birth cohort study Growing Up in Scotland. 3279 families have valid data on all dependent, independent and control variables for both time points. Dietary data were collected using maternal recall at sweeps 2 and 5 when the children were aged 22 and 58 months, respectively. Mothers reported on children's variety of consumption of vegetables, fruit and on the frequency of consumption of crisps, sweets and sugary drinks. The dietary variables were ordinal and were analysed using multivariate fixed effects ordinal logistic regression models.  Results Controlling for time-varying confounders (children's food fussiness, maternal social class, maternal education, family composition, maternal employment) and for family and child time-invariant characteristics, moving from the highest to the lowest income band was linked to a smaller chance of increased fruit variety from 22 to 58 months (OR=0.42, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.82). Mothers who transitioned from ‘living very comfortably’ to ‘finding it very difficult’ to cope on current income had children who consumed fewer fruit varieties over time (OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.85), and who increased their frequency of consumption of crisps (OR=2.03, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.94) and sweets (OR=2.23, 95% CI 1.18 to 4.20).  Conclusions The diets of young children in Scotland deteriorated between the ages of 2 and 5 years across the entire socioeconomic spectrum. Additionally, deterioration in subjective income predicted less healthy diets for children

Qualitative Longitudinal Research: From Monochrome to Technicolour

Qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) has grown in prominence and popularity since the 2007 themed section on the subject in this journal. This new themed section reflects on how QLR has been mobilised and made sense of in recent times. This article showcases QLR’s distinctive way of knowing and understanding the social world and how it can illuminate the processes through which policy can enhance, or indeed inhibit, the well-being of individuals and groups within society. This state of the art article focuses on QLR as a valuable but tricky approach. It argues that QLR can enhance qualitative research in social policy by fostering sustained policy engagement and development, and that this is especially useful for policy-making in relation to socioeconomic disadvantage. It also explores cross-cutting methodological dimensions pertinent to QLR’s distinct approach, such as its enhanced ethical considerations, which are also integral to research with people at high risk of socioeconomic disadvantage. The article concludes with possible future directions and developments for QLR as a methodology

Deprived or not deprived? Comparing the measured extent of material deprivation using the UK government's and the Poverty and Social Exclusion surveys' method of calculating material deprivation

Poverty can either be measured directly, through standards of living such as material deprivation, or indirectly through resources available, usually income. Research shows that the optimum measure of poverty combines these methods, a fact that the UK government took cognisance of in its tripartite measure of child poverty. For use in a birth cohort study, two methods of calculating material deprivation were tested: the method used by the UK government taken from the Family Resources Survey (FRS), and the methods used in the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) study at Bristol University. Results show that the former measure, compared to the latter measure, underestimates the depth and extent of material deprivation among families with young children in Scotland

The effects of financial vulnerability and mothers’ emotional distress on child social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing: a structural equation model

This article aims to understand the pathways through which financial vulnerability affects children’s social, emotional and behavioural (SEB) well-being and whether that impact is directly experienced or, as hypothesised, indirectly through their mothers’ emotional well-being. It uses data from Growing Up in Scotland – a longitudinal birth cohort study of 5217 children born in 2004–2005. The results show that maternal emotional distress is strongly associated with financial vulnerability, more so than with income, and that child SEB well-being is negatively associated with financial vulnerability and maternal emotional distress, with two-thirds of the effect of financial vulnerability being experienced indirectly through maternal emotional distress. While the qualitative evidence shows that financial vulnerability adversely affects older children directly, through the comparisons they make to their reference group, the quantitative finding is that young children are also negatively affected but predominantly via the effect of financial vulnerability on their mothers’ emotional distress

How COVID-19 crisis measures reveal the conflation between poverty and adversity

The application of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in public policy and practice ignore the structural circumstances in which children and their families live; the majority of studies on ACEs do not take socioeconomic position into account. Poverty and ACEs are often conflated, which can lead to unintended consequences for children and families and for the implementation of policy and practice. Using some of the COVID-19 crisis response measures in Scotland, in particular the example of the hubs for ‘vulnerable’ children and receipt of free school meals (FSMs), this paper explores how poverty and adversity become conflated and how this can impede children's access to support and even to their legal entitlements. The sole criterion for eligibility to FSMs, outwith the universal entitlement for P1-P3s, is low income and the dignified response to an eligibility based exclusively on low income is to provide cash. Yet, many local authorities have imposed a nonmonetary approach to FSM eligibility, even when this has proved difficult, e.g. in sourcing food. By assuming that parents living in poverty will misspend monies meant for children they conflate poverty with adversity. The policy focus in Scotland should prioritise poverty, using a cash-first approach, and trust the majority of parents to prioritise their children. This would also free up resources to provide dedicated services to children who do in fact experience high levels of adversity

Challenges of Poverty: Parents' voices

The Child Poverty Action Group Early Warning System (EWS) gathers information and case studies about the impact of welfare reform on children and families across Scotland.  This EWS short report is published as part of Challenge Poverty Week 2017 to highlight, through the experiences of low income families, and in their own words, how poverty and welfare changes impact on child and family wellbeing.  It draws on work for CPAG by Dr. Morag Treanor, University of Stirling, who has been undertaking a series of interviews with low income families since 2013 to gain an in-depth understanding of how poverty and welfare changes are affecting child and family wellbeing