Scribd
Upload
31 views52 pages

CHST1000B Winter 2015 Lecture 2

This document discusses child poverty around the world and in Canada. It defines different types of poverty, such as absolute poverty and relative poverty. Some key points made include: 1) Approximately 1 in 6 children in rich nations live below the poverty line, and Canada has one of the highest child poverty rates among rich nations at 12-15%; 2) In developing nations, percentages of deprived children range from 13-34% across categories like education, health, food, etc.; 3) Measures of relative poverty in Canada include low-income cutoffs (LICO) and low-income measures (LIM) which are a percentage of median income; 4) Risks of childhood poverty include growing up to be poor adults and negative

Uploaded by

aicha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
31 views52 pages

CHST1000B Winter 2015 Lecture 2

This document discusses child poverty around the world and in Canada. It defines different types of poverty, such as absolute poverty and relative poverty. Some key points made include: 1) Approximately 1 in 6 children in rich nations live below the poverty line, and Canada has one of the highest child poverty rates among rich nations at 12-15%; 2) In developing nations, percentages of deprived children range from 13-34% across categories like education, health, food, etc.; 3) Measures of relative poverty in Canada include low-income cutoffs (LICO) and low-income measures (LIM) which are a percentage of median income; 4) Risks of childhood poverty include growing up to be poor adults and negative

Uploaded by

aicha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 52

CHST1000B: Childhood in the Global Context

Lecture 4
Questions?
Discussion Groups
Assignment #1

Children in the news this week


Lecture

Defining poverty
Absolute poverty
When a family cannot buy or use what is
considered the minimum necessary
(goods and services) for a given country

Relative poverty
When a family has significantly less than
the rest of their fellow citizen

Defining poverty
Social inequality
When certain sectors of the population
have less access to fundamental
resources (e.g., food, health, education)
than others

Child poverty around the


world
1 out of 6 children (47 million
children) in rich nations live below
the poverty line
Canada has amongst the highest
rates of child poverty of the rich
nations (12-15%)

Child poverty around the


world
In the developing world children that are
deprived of basic needs:
13%
15%
15%
20%
25%
31%
34%

Education
Health (e.g. immunization)
Food
Water
Information (e.g., radio, TV, newspapers)
Sanitation
Shelter

Measures of relative poverty


Low-Income Cut Offs LICO
Families that spend 55% or more on food,
shelter, and clothing; this measure is
adjusted according to family and community
size

Low Income Measure LIM


50% of the median income
The median is the that number that falls in
the middle of the list if all income values
were to be ordered from lowest to higher

Measures of relative poverty


Low-income gap:
It measures how poor people are, that is,
how much income they would need to reach
the LICO or LIM (e.g., a family with $15,000
with a LICO of $20,000 have a low-income
gap of of $5,000)

Social inequality
Despite the growing world economy the poor in
Canada have been getting poorer
The gap between the poor and the wealthy has
widened (also happening between countries
and within countries around the globe)
In Canada, the average income for the poor
has increased about 18% between 1994 and
2005
The average income for the wealthy has
increased about 31% in the same time period

Social inequality
This indicates an increase in social
inequality both in Canada and around
the world, despite the global growth
in economy
For a full report see Statistics Canada
(2007). Analysis of Income in Canada
2005. Ottawa, Statistics Canada
(Catalogue no. 75-202-XIE)
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-203-x/75-203-x2002000-en
g.htm

Low income in children and


adults

Low income in selected


provinces

Where do these data come


from?
The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID)
complements traditional survey data on labour
market activity and income with an additional
dimension: the changes experienced by individuals
over time. At the heart of the surveys objectives is
the understanding of the economic well-being of
Canadians: what economic shifts do individuals and
families live through, and how does it vary with
changes in their paid work, family make-up, receipt
of government transfers or other factors? The
surveys longitudinal dimension makes it possible
to see such concurrent and often related events.

Risks of poverty
One of the worse consequences of child
poverty, at the societal level, is for poor
children to grow up into poor adults
Income assistance and welfare programs
may be harmful to low income families
because they are incompatible with
savings (e.g., applicants to income
assistance must use up all their assets to
qualify and they lose the benefit if they
begin saving

Risks of poverty
Children in poverty are helped by parental
support and high quality childcare
Children from poor neighbourhoods benefit
from the presence of social support and
social capital

Changes in extreme
poverty
Most of the worlds extreme poor do
not live in the worlds poorest
countries.
That wasnt true 20 years ago. In
1990, about 90 per cent of the worlds
poor lived in low-income countries,
where average incomes were close to
the incomes of the poor. Your nations
wealth determined your wealth.

Changes in extreme
poverty
Today, nearly 80 per cent of the worlds
poor live in middle-income countries
states, most formerly poor, that now
have buoyant economies, large middle
classes and surging economic growth
propelled by exports to the West.
Poverty and social inequality are
increasingly less international and
more within nations.

The social gradient of health & social


capital
More stressful occupations? Q.

Impact on health?

34

Whitehall Study

(Marmot et al, 1991)

United Kingdom
Civil Servants (N = 10,000+ men and
women)
Cardiovascular disease, Bronchitis
Diet, smoking, exercise
Possible Explanations:
Stress, monotonous work, low control

35

Between-country gradient
(Wilkinson, 2009)

36

Within-country gradient
(Wilkinson, 2009)

37

Canadian study: Mechanisms


(Kosteniuk et al., 2003)

N = 17,000 Canadians
Results: Higher SES
Greater levels of control
Lower levels of stress
Higher levels of self-esteem
Greater sense of belonging and identity (with
others)
Better physical health (vision, hearing, mobility)
More mental distress (hopelessness, sadness,
nervousness)
38

Mechanisms
Stress
Circulatory system: Increased heart beat,
blood vessel constriction increased
blood pressure
Adrenal glands: Increased cortisol
Brain: Impaired memory
Immune system: Less effective

Cortisol = The Stress Hormone


39

Social capital
What is social capital? Can be
difficult to define.
Why study social capital?
Increase social capital = Better health

Social capital may buffer the effects


of poor health at a community,
regional, or national level

40

What is social capital?


Structural:
Entities that link individuals together (e.g.,
church, local societies, volunteer groups
These are easily measured by counting these
entities in any given neighbourhood
The percentage of people who participates in
these groups is also a measure of social capital

Cognitive:
It can be measured asking people their level of
trust in neighbours, civic identity, sense of
belonging
41

What is social capital?


Bonding:
Strong norms, loyalty, and exclusivity
towards the members of a group (e.g.,
family, close-knit migrant groups, support
groups)

Bridging:
Weaker ties between people, more fragile
(e.g. social networks)
Links different groups of people in society
Thought to be more positive than bonding
since it brings different groups together to
form a community

42

What is social capital?


Horizontal:
It links people from the same social
strata

Vertical:
The degree of integration of groups
from different strata in a hierarchical
society

43

Social capital and poverty


Poverty is characterized by lack of structural
resources (libraries, community centres,
daycare, schools etc.)
Living in poverty often means being in unsafe
environments which promote isolation rather
than aggregation
Poverty erodes the ability of people to
associate and provide emotional and
instrumental support
Volunteerism is a powerful means to social
capital
44

Volunteerism
Is a type of structural, bridging, vertical
social capital
Is an essential component of healthy and
successful societies
Is known to benefit the volunteer as much
as the recipient of volunteerism
Most NGOs, church groups, self-help groups
exist thanks to the work of volunteers
The Catch 22 of volunteerism
45

UN Millenium Development
Goals
Is a type of structural, bridging, vertical
social capital
Is an essential component of healthy and
successful societies
Is known to benefit the volunteer as much
as the recipient of volunteerism
Most NGOs, church groups, self-help groups
exist thanks to the work of volunteers
The Catch 22 of volunteerism
46

Vincente Navarro on political epidemiology


In his keynote address to the Eighth International
Union of Health Promotion and Education European
Conference, held in Turin in Sept. 2008 and published
in the International Journal of Health Services (2009),
Navarro reviewed a World Health Organization (WHO)
report on the social determinants of health. He
applauded much of its analysis and many of its
recommendations, but faulted it for ignoring the
power relations that shape those social
determinants.
It is not inequalities that kill people, as the report
states; it is those who are responsible for these
inequalities that kill people. (emphasis in the
original)

Applications of political epidemiology


How political epidemiology research can address
why the Millennium Development Goals have not
been achieved: Developing a research agenda
Gil-Gonzlez et al, Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health (2009)
One quarter of all U.S. counties saw an actual
reduction in life expectancy for women between
1997 and 2007, meaning that girls born today are
expected to live shorter lives than their mothers. As
the Los Angeles Times wrote in 2011, For life
expectancy to decline in a developed nation is rare.
Setbacks on this scale have not been seen in the U.S.
since the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918,
according to demographers.

You might also like