Walking Into the Unknown: A Research Journey Through Abuse, Trauma, Motherhood, Poverty, and the Covid Pandemic

Researching the lives of mothers with children under five from the most deprived areas of a major city in the United Kingdom during a pandemic was never going to be easy. In this performative reflection, I explore how walking and the side-be-sidedness of our interaction facilitated conversation and understanding, between one young mother and myself. I also consider in this performative text, the way a researcher's thoughts whirl around and respond to what is being shared, although never voiced at the time.

Creating Safe Classroom Learning Spaces for Students Living in Urban Areas of Poverty

The current pilot study introduced trauma-informed professional development for teachers in an urban, K-8, Title I public school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Equipping middle school teachers with trauma knowledge and resources enabled them to modify their pedagogical approach to align better with students' emotional and academic needs shaped by living in poverty. Thematic analysis of qualitative data (i.e., 48 teacher journal entries, one focus group transcript) produced three overarching themes related to changes in teaching practices, student engagement, and classroom culture: (a) transforming to teach (i.e., teacher empathy, awareness, understanding of students' living conditions), (b) teaching to transform (i.e., teacher critical thinking about students' needs, reactions, and consequences), and (c) transforming to learn (student engagement, expressiveness, confidence). This study's findings highlight how middle school educators can effectively implement trauma-sensitive techniques in their classrooms to enhance safe learning spaces, student support, and classroom management for stress-affected young people. This study's university-community school partnership may offer a model for the design, structure, and resources necessary to implement classroom-level, trauma-informed professional development for Title I nonclinical middle school personnel.

Nowcasting impact of COVID-19 on multidimensional child poverty

From the onset, it was clear that the impact of the global economic and social crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was unlikely to affect all children equally. Thus, it was necessary to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on child poverty as the events unfolded. Many of the indirect effects of the pandemic - disruptions to health services, delayed vaccination programmes, widespread school closures, and increases in food insecurity - have significant impacts on the realisation of children's rights and, consequently, were expected to increase material deprivations across different dimensions. The question was by how much? In this article we explain the modelling and methodological approach to project or nowcast the answer to that question. The method is dynamic as it was revised as additional information emerged during 2020 and 2021. © 2022 - The authors.

Exploring Children’s Views and Experiences in the Frontline of Poverty in Catalonia: A Qualitative and Participatory Approach

One in three children and adolescents is currently living in poverty in Catalonia. Most specialised research has been concerned with assessing and questioning current legal frameworks and policies to combat child poverty mainly through quantitative approaches. However, these approaches neglect the specific experiences, perspectives, and visions of children and their potential to provide important clues for the design and evaluation of policies to eradicate poverty. It is also uncommon to include the experiences and views of social intervention staff who often work in situations of extreme budgetary reductions with remedial—not transformative—models. The article presents some findings from a qualitative study commissioned by UNICEF to explore this double experience from the point of view of its protagonists on the front line, drawing on fieldwork carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic that aggravated the living conditions of the most vulnerable sectors of society. The results show a shared perception of the impact of material deprivation in all spheres of life, but also diversity in coping perspectives and understanding of the structural factors that cause inequality and poverty, as well as the possible responses to overcome them. They also reveal the need to further explore child poverty as a gendered experience. © 2022 by the author(s);licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal).

How to Assess the Child Poverty and Distributional Impact of COVID-19 Using Household Budget Surveys: An Application Using Turkish Data.

This study presents a methodology to predict the child poverty impact of COVID-19 that can be readily applied in other country contexts where similar household data are available-and illustrates this case using data from Turkey. Using Household Budget Survey 2018, the microsimulation model estimates the impact of labour income loss on household expenditures, considering that some types of jobs/sectors may be more vulnerable than others to the COVID-19 shock. Labour income loss is estimated to lead to reductions in monthly household expenditure using an income elasticity model, and expenditure-based child poverty is found to increase in Turkey by 4.9-9.3 percentage points (depending on shock severity) from a base level of 15.4%. Among the hypothetical cash transfer scenarios considered, the universal child grant for 0-17 years old children was found to have the highest child poverty reduction impact overall, while schemes targeting the bottom 20-30% of households are more cost-effective in terms of poverty reduction. The microsimulation model set out in this paper can be readily replicated in countries where similar Household Budget Surveys are available.

Cette étude présente une méthodologie pour prédire l'impact de la COVID-19 sur la pauvreté infantile et que l'on peut aisément appliquer dans d'autres pays où des données similaires sur les ménages sont disponibles. L'étude illustre ce point en utilisant des données venant de Turquie. À l'aide de l'Enquête sur le budget des ménages de 2018, le modèle de microsimulation estime l'impact de la perte de revenus professionnels sur les dépenses des ménages, en prenant en compte le fait que certains types d'emplois/secteurs peuvent être plus vulnérables que d'autres au choc provoqué par la COVID-19. On estime que la perte de revenus professionnels entraîne des réductions au niveau des dépenses mensuelles des ménages, selon un modèle d'élasticité du revenu, et que la pauvreté infantile ­ sur la base des dépenses - augmente en Turquie entre 4,9 à 9,3 points de pourcentage (en fonction de la gravité du choc) à partir d'un niveau de base de 15,4 %. Parmi les scénarios hypothétiques de transferts monétaires envisagés, l'allocation universelle pour les enfants de 0 à 17 ans s'est avérée être la mesure qui a l'impact global le plus important sur la réduction de la pauvreté des enfants, tandis que les programmes ciblant les 20 à 30 % des ménages les plus pauvres sont les plus coût-efficaces en terme de réduction de la pauvreté. Le modèle de microsimulation présenté dans cet article peut être facilement reproduit dans les pays où des enquêtes similaires sur le budget des ménages sont disponibles.

Rural Food Insecurity: A Longitudinal Analysis of Low-Income Rural Households with Children in the South

Researchers have noted large spatial variations in rates of food insecurity. But little research exists on why this is so and the impacts it has on rural families. Drawing on a mixed-methods longitudinal study with 124 poor and working-class households in North Carolina, we analyze the processes that shape lower-income rural families’ access to food. We trace the narratives of three families whose stories are emblematic of themes from the larger data set to illumine how space and context influence families’ experiences across the life course. As the caregivers in our study navigated how to feed their families, living in a rural area shaped the resources and often precarious forms of support that they drew on from their social networks, local communities, and the state.

Should Increased Flexibilities in Child Nutrition Programs Continue Beyond the Pandemic?

For many decades, children from low-income families have been able to receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at their school. Provision of school meals addresses concerns about student hunger and is believed to promote positive education and health outcomes for target children. When the COVID pandemic led to abrupt school closures in the Spring of 2020, students lost access to those school meals. Congress addressed the lack of school meals by creating greater flexibility in how food assistance was provided to children while they were unable to attend school in person.

RESPONSE TO JONATHAN BUTCHER'S ESSAY

For many decades, children from low-income families have been able to receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at their school. Provision of school meals addresses concerns about student hunger and is believed to promote positive education and health outcomes for target children. When the COVID pandemic led to abrupt school closures in the Spring of 2020, students lost access to those school meals. Congress addressed the lack of school meals by creating greater flexibility in how food assistance was provided to children while they were unable to attend school in person.

RESPONSE TO CRYSTAL FITZSIMONS’ ESSAY

For many decades, children from low-income families have been able to receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at their school. Provision of school meals addresses concerns about student hunger and is believed to promote positive education and health outcomes for target children. When the COVID pandemic led to abrupt school closures in the Spring of 2020, students lost access to those school meals. Congress addressed the lack of school meals by creating greater flexibility in how food assistance was provided to children while they were unable to attend school in person.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS FOR ALL IS THE KEY TO SUPPORTING EDUCATION AND HEALTH OUTCOMES

For many decades, children from low-income families have been able to receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at their school. Provision of school meals addresses concerns about student hunger and is believed to promote positive education and health outcomes for target children. When the COVID pandemic led to abrupt school closures in the Spring of 2020, students lost access to those school meals. Congress addressed the lack of school meals by creating greater flexibility in how food assistance was provided to children while they were unable to attend school in person.

PROVIDING FREE SCHOOL MEALS TO WEALTHY STUDENTS DOES NOT HELP CHILDREN IN NEED

For many decades, children from low-income families have been able to receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at their school. Provision of school meals addresses concerns about student hunger and is believed to promote positive education and health outcomes for target children. When the COVID pandemic led to abrupt school closures in the Spring of 2020, students lost access to those school meals. Congress addressed the lack of school meals by creating greater flexibility in how food assistance was provided to children while they were unable to attend school in person.

Exploring China's Potential Child Poverty

This paper estimates child poverty in China using 2018 data from the China Household Income Project. Applying the Alkire-Foster drawer approach, we constructed a multidimensional poverty indicator system that accounted for multiple factors contributing to a child's development and well-being, based on which we estimated multidimensional poverty experienced by children. Children's poverty varied by age, gender, rural/urban settings, and geographic region. By extending the Alkire-Foster drawer approach, two important features of child poverty in China were found, which had normally been neglected by per capita poverty measures: poor children in nonpoor families and unequal allocations to different children within the same families. The results showed that more than 40 percent of multidimensionally poor children lived in nonpoor families. Unequal resource allocation within families was observed in half of the families. These two features of child poverty require more policy attention and the Chinese government should prioritize addre ssing multidimensional child poverty.

Supporting children and families through the pandemic, and after: The case for a US child allowance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a contraction in economic activity that is unprecedented in both its nature and speed. In doing so, it has exposed who is protected and supported by modern welfare states, and who is not. While the US has a relatively robust set of social insurance and assistance programs for older Americans and working-age Americans who become unemployed or disabled, it lacks - in contrast to many other wealthy nations - a comparably strong universal or wide-reaching mechanism to support families with children. The US emergency relief packages enacted to date will undoubtedly mitigate the economic effects of the current crisis for many families, but because this legislation relies on the existing social policy infrastructure, its intended cash relief reinforces current inequalities and underserves families with children, with a particular impact on immigrant families and families of color. To protect all families with children through the immediate crisis and beyond, existing gaps and inequities in the US social safety net must be addressed. The creation of a national US child allowance offers a concrete and evidence-based way in which to do so. This analysis outlines key shortcomings in the existing system of US public support for families with children, the ways in which these shortcomings have been exacerbated in the COVID-19 economic response package to date, and how a national child allowance can provide the immediate relief families need during the pandemic and the unfolding economic downturn, as well as lay the foundation for positive health and development for all children in the years to follow.

Children in Monetary Poor Households: Baseline and COVID-19 Impact for 2020 and 2021.

The impact of the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will not affect all children equally: those in poorer households and children who are disadvantaged face the most serious consequences. As parents lose their jobs and incomes, the impact on children living in impoverished households must be measured. In this article, we assess the economic consequences of the pandemic on these children. Given that poorer families have a larger number of children than other families, the analysis first establishes the proportion of children living in monetary poor households, as defined by national standards, across developing countries. Then, using historical changes and trends of income distribution per country, the latest projections about economic decline due to the pandemic, and demographic information about the distribution of children by deciles, we estimate the expected increase in the number of children in monetary poor households in developing countries as of end of 2020 to be an additional 122-144 million and, at best, a moderate decline in these numbers by end of 2021.