Day In, Day Out: Understanding the Dynamics of Child Poverty

Poverty during childhood can have a very wide range of adverse effects on those who experience it, ranging from immediate hardship to long-term damage to life-chances, with low income persisting over a sustained period most likely to lead to severe hardship. The extent of child income poverty as conventionally measured is particularly high in Ireland, and has been for a considerable period. Tackling child poverty has come to be seen as a major challenge for Irish society. To do so effectively the factors at work in producing and perpetuating child poverty must be understood.

The aim of this study is to obtain an improved understanding of the long-term situation of Irish children, the features that distinguish those children who are faring particularly badly, and the causal processes at work underpinning long spells in poverty for some, versus little or no experience of poverty for many others. The study carries out a dynamic analysis of child poverty persistence in Ireland, using longitudinal data from the Living in Ireland Survey (LII) from 1994 to 2001, and also investigates the intergenerational transmission of poverty and disadvantage.

Chapter 1 sets out the aims of the study, and the conceptual framework, methods and data employed. Chapter 2 provides the background against which the dynamic analysis of poverty has to be set, in terms of the extent of relative income poverty for children in Ireland compared with other EU countries. Chapter 3 examines the overall persistence of poverty for Irish children over the period for which we have suitable data, from 1994 to 2001. Chapter 4 looks at spells in income poverty and their duration. Chapter 5 develops this spell-based analysis by estimating formal statistical models of the processes involved in order to identify key influences on spell duration. Chapter 6 takes a comparative perspective on this duration analysis, comparing patterns in Ireland with those in ten other EU countries for which similar longitudinal data are available. Chapter 7 shifts to focus on intergenerational transmission, relating the current experience of poverty back to childhood economic circumstances. Finally, Chapter 8 summarises the conclusions and brings out the implications for policies to tackle child poverty in Ireland.