Child poverty and child well-being Jonathan Bradshaw Workshop ACWA08 Strong, safe and sustainable; responding to children, young people and families in civil society Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre 18 August 2008

Background  Comparisons of state efforts on behalf of children  Work at York on children: Bradshaw and Mayhew (2005) Child well-being in the UK, Save the Children  Luxembourg Presidency EU: Atkinson recommends “child mainstreaming” and development of child well- being indicators for EU.  We develop of an index of child well-being based on existing comparative data sources for EU (Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D. (2007) An index of child well-being in the European Union 25, Journal of Social Indicators Research, 80, )  UNICEF asks us to adapt it for Innocenti Report Card 7  Now working on Index for CEE/CIS countries for UNICEF: Geneva

FAMILY SPENDING 2003

Child poverty rate (circa 2000) by family exp. as % GDP 2003 (OECD data)

Background: We can compare inputs  OECD comparisons of welfare state effort – social expenditure on families with children  Child tax/benefit packages

“Average” child benefit package 2005

Fertility and the child benefit package

We can compare outcomes for children  OECD comparisons of welfare state effort – social expenditure on families with children  Research on child outcomes has usually been comparisons of child poverty

Child poverty  EU, OECD, LIS (and UNICEF) have most commonly compared child well-being using relative income poverty measures.  Flawed  Income is not well-being  Income data unreliable  Income poverty thresholds arbitrary and  Level of living different  Equivalence scales contested  Income poverty rates hide gaps and persistence.  RP 7 an attempt to move beyond income – to put it into perspective

Our background  Work at York on children: Bradshaw and Mayhew (2005) Child well-being in the UK, Save the Children  Luxembourg Presidency EU: Atkinson recommends “child mainstreaming” and development of child well- being indicators for EU.  We develop of an index of child well-being based on existing comparative data sources for EU (Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D. (2007) An index of child well-being in the European Union 25, Journal of Social Indicators Research, 80, )  UNICEF asks us to adapt it for Innocenti Report Card 7  Now completed on Index for CEE/CIS countries for UNICEF: Geneva

UNICEF  UNICEF Innocenti Centre has been publishing Report Cards since 2000  League Tables of rich (OECD) nations  1 and 6 on income poverty  2 on child deaths  3 on teenage births  4 on educational inequality  5 on abuse and neglect  Latest 7 on child well-being “to encourage monitoring, to permit comparison and to stimulate the discussion and development of policies to improve children’s lives.”

Conceptualisation of child well-being  Multi-dimensional approach  Based on children’s rights as outlined in the UN CRC  Ideology  Child the unit of analysis  What children think and feel is important  Well-being more important than well-becoming

Every Child Matters: Outcomes framework  Economic well-being: having sufficient income and material comfort to be able to take advantage of opportunities.  Being healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle.  Staying safe: being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after themselves.  Enjoying and achieving: getting the most out of life and developing broad skills for adulthood.  Making a positive contribution: developing the skills and attitudes to contribute to the society in which they live.

Multinational indicators for monitoring and measuring child well-being  Safety and physical status  Personal life  Civic life  Economic resources and contribution  Activities  Source:

Well-being of children in Ireland

Conceptualisation of child well-being  Multi-dimensional approach  Based on children’s rights as outlined in the UN CRC  Ideology  Child the unit of analysis  What children think and feel is important  Well-being more important than well-becoming

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)  contains 54 articles that cover every aspect of a child’s life,  applying without exception or discrimination to all children under 18.  The articles of the UNCRC divide into the broad areas of  survival rights,  development rights,  protection rights and  participation rights.  The Convention states that the primary consideration in all actions concerning children must be in their best interest and their views must be taken into account

Conceptualisation of child well-being  Multi-dimensional approach  Based on children’s rights as outlined in the UN CRC  Ideology  Child the unit of analysis  What children think and feel is important  Well-being more important than well-becoming

Data Sources I: Surveys  Health Behaviour of School Aged Children (HBSC) 36 countries at 2001 (Australia not covered)  Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 32 countries at 2000, 41 at 2003

Data Sources II: Series  WHO mortality data base , all countries except DK & CY  World Bank World Development Indicators 2003, all countries  OECD (2004) Education at a Glance, 2002 data  Other OECD sources  World Bank (2002) Health, Nutrition and Population Data

Structure  40 indicators organised into  19 components making  6 dimensions  Material  Health and safety  Education  Peer and family relationships  Behaviours and risks  Subjective well-being

Overall child well-being: OECD

Overall child well-being index: EU

Overall child well-being index: CEE/CIS Table 0.1 Average rank MaterialHousingHealthEducation Personal and Social Family For ms and Car e Risk and Saf ety Croatia Bosnia Herzegovina FYR Macedonia Serbia Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Belarus Montenegro Bulgaria Ukraine Kazakhstan Russia Kyrgyzstan Romania Armenia Georgia Turkey Azerbaijan Albania Tajikistan Moldova

Material  Relative child income poverty OECD  Child deprivation  Lacking car, own bedroom, holidays last year, a computer HBSC  Lacking a desk, quiet for study, a computer, calculator, dictionary, text books PISA  Less than ten books in the home PISA  Parental worklessness OECD

Child well-being by child poverty r=0.75

Health  Health at birth  Infant mortality rates (WDI 2003)  Low birth weight (OECD Health Data)  Immunisation  Measles WDI (2003)  DPT3 WDI HNP (2002)  Pol3 WDI HNP (2002)  Child mortality  All child deaths: All under 19 deaths per 100,000 children, WHO mortality database, 3 year averages, MRD

Behaviours and Risks  Health behaviour  Eating fruit every day (HBSC)  Eating breakfast before school (HBSC)  Physical activity (HBSC)  Obesity and pre obesity (HBSC) Experience of violence  Young people who were involved in physical fighting at least once in the previous 12 months 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Young people who were bullied at least once in the previous couple of months 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Risk behaviour  Teenage pregnancy (adolescent fertility rate), adolescent fertility rate, births per 1000 women WDI,  Young people who have had sexual intercourse, 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Young people who used a condom during their last sexual intercourse, 15-year-olds (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Cigarette smoking at least once per week HBSC 2001  Drunk two or more times HBSC 2001  Cannabis used in the last 12 months HBSC 2001

Child well-being and teenage fertility rate r = 0.82***

Subjective Well-being  Personal well-being  Young people with scores above the middle of a life satisfaction scale 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Students who agree or strongly agree to 'I feel like an outsider (or left out of things)', 15 years (%) - PISA 2003  Students who agree or strongly agree to 'I feel awkward and out of place', 15 years (%) - PISA 2003  Students who agree or strongly agree to 'I feel lonely', 15 years (%) - PISA 2003  Well-being at school  Young people liking school a lot 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Self defined health  Young people rating their health as fair or poor 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02

Peer and family relationships  Quality of family relations  Students whose parents eat the main meal with them around a table several times a week, 15 years (%) - PISA 2000  Students whose parents spend time just talking to them several times a week, 15 years (%) - PISA 2000  Family structure  Young people living in 'single parent' family structures 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Young people living in 'Stepfamily' family structures 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02  Peer relationships  Young people finding their peers kind and helpful 11, 13 and 15 years (%) - HBSC 2001/02

Overall child well-being and % of young people saying they lived in a lone parent family

Education  Achievement  Reading literacy achievement, 15 years - PISA, 2003  Mathematics literacy achievement, 15 years - PISA, 2003  Science literacy achievement, 15 years - PISA, 2003  Participation  Full-time and part-time students in public and private institutions, by age: as a percentage of the population of 15 to 19-year-olds (2003) LU SK (2002)  Aspirations  Percentage of the youth population not in education, not in the labour force or unemployed - age OECD, 2003  Proportion of pupils aspiring to low skill work, 15 years - PISA, 2000

Child well-being and educational attainment r = 0.15 (ns)

What explains these variations?  Very difficult  Probably depends on domain – need for more detailed work  National wealth matters

Overall child well-being and GDP per capita complete countries

WHY?  Very difficult  Probably depends on domain – need for more detailed work  National wealth matters  Policy effort matters

Child well-being and expenditure on social protection benefits as % GDP 2003

WHY?  Very difficult  Probably depends on domain – need for more detailed work  National wealth matters  Policy effort matters  Direction of that effort matters

Child well-being by expenditure on family benefits and services as % GDP all countries

Self criticism  Partly data driven  Countries dropped  Indicators missing for some countries - USA  Some well-being indicators not available – housing, citizenship….  Validity and reliability of indicators – low birth weight  Focus on older children  Out of date  Summarising indicators  Z scores  Implied weights  Weighting equal except differences in indicators per dimension  No direct access to HBSC  Cumulating % without regard to confidence intervals  No measures of dispersion

Thoughts about further work  First attempt: Obviously good if  Australia, Iceland, Japan and NZ were in HBSC  And US asked HBSC questions about sexual behaviour and children’s feelings!  Also to have HBSC data more quickly and direct access  Also OECD updated their poverty estimates more regularly  Further analysis worthwhile – data available  Is it pie in the sky to ask for a better international survey of children?

Child poverty and child well-being Workshop ACWA08 Strong, safe and sustainable; responding to children, young people and families in civil society Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre 18 August 2008