Children's dimensions of poverty: Qualitative studies in urban China.

The dimensionality of child poverty is not well understood because children are seldom asked systematically to describe their poverty experience. This hinders the prediction of poverty's long‐term consequences and constrains policy design. In this research, 55 children aged 8–12 from Hangzhou and Beijing China were each interviewed individually for 0.5–2 h and participated in 3–4 focus group sessions on poverty experience. Integrating their understanding with the perspectives of parents and teachers suggests nine dimensions of poverty: four structural (material deprivation, limiting home environment, constrained education, restricted opportunities); three relational (violence, negative social relations, lack of confidence) and two core (shame, neglected agency). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]