Whilst child poverty has come to the fore in academic and policy circles in recent decades, definitions and measureshave tended to draw on adult-derived understandings of poverty. The aims of this thesis are to test whether children’s own perceptions of poverty can be used to form a scientifically robust and practically useful measurement tool, and to demonstrate the use of such a tool. Analysis indicates that a child-derived index of mateiral deprivation, whilst open to development and improvement, is a useful tool in measuring child poverty and inunderstanding the relationship between child poverty and children’s subjective well-being. It can also be used tocompare children’s and adults’ conceptions and reports of poverty. Findings indicate that commonly used indicators of poverty such as income, receipt of free school meals and adults in paid work appear to make much more sense to adult conceptions of poverty than they do to children’s conceptions. These findings reinforce the view that children’s conceptions of their needs can be used to further our understandings of child poverty and its impacts.

 

Full thesis can be downloaded here.