Child Poverty in the International Context

Abstract

Poverty affects children’s mental and physical health, their access to education, their adulthood outcomes, and their overall well-being. Children are more vulnerable and at greater risk of poverty than adults and impoverished children suffer more hardship in developing than in developed countries. This chapter is a review of academic and empirical literature concerned with the extent and intensity of international poverty, the definition and measurement of child poverty, and how child poverty impacts on children’s everyday lives. The first section is a comprehensive review of literature concerned with child poverty in the international context while focusing at times on Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, UK and the US. This is followed by an assessment of efforts to achieve a global definition of child poverty and a discussion of a number of models and methods to measure child poverty. An overview of studies that explored the relationship between child poverty, education, health, and well-being concludes the chapter.