APPENDIX 2
Proposed Additional Social Exclusion Measures
Child mortality and child morbidity—both
of these have a close association with social class and area deprivation.
For example, those in social class V had 2.3 times the death rate
of those in social class 1 in 1991-92 (Botting, 1997).
Fatal child accidents on the roads and in the
home—a strong relationship between social class and/or levels
or area deprivation and childhood accident fatality has been demonstrated
(Quilgars, 2001)
Low birth-weight—this is one of the "Milestones"
in the Social Justice Annual Report . . . a Scotland where everyone
matters (The Scottish Executive, 2002).[121]
Low-income households have higher rates of children born with
low birth weight (Dattani, 1999)
Dental cavities—dental decay among five-year-olds
is one of the "Milestones" in the Social Justice Annual
Report . . . a Scotland where everyone matters (The Scottish Executive,
2002). Dental decay among children is strongly related to social
background (Moyniham and Holt, 1996)
Obesity—children's eating habits appear
to be related to social class and equivalised income. Research
has found that children in the lower social classes are more likely
to consume larger amounts of sweet foods, sugary drinks, crisps
and chips, and less fresh fruit and vegetables that those in the
higher social classes (Johnson, 2001)
Self-esteem—children who grow up poor
have lower self-esteem than their contemporaries do. They are
also more likely to feel useless (Ermisch, Francesconi and Pevalin,
2002). The British Youth Panel Survey (BYP) contains a rich set
of data about adolescents' subjective psychological well-being,
ranging from the number of days the child feels to be unhappy
to whether or not he/she enjoys taking exercise. For their study,
Ermisch, Francesconi and Pevalin (2002) were able to use the data
included in the BYP to construct a continuous measure of self-seteem
combining the following five items: "I feel I have a number
of good qualities", "I certainly feel useless at times",
"I am a likeable person", "I am inclined to feel
I am a failure", and "At times I feel I am no good at
all".
Teenage birth rate—not the teenage pregnancy
rate—numerous studies have found a strong association between
deprivation and young motherhood. But as Bradshaw (2001) points
out the teenage pregnancy rate includes those that eventually
end in abortion, and abortion and access to abortion are policy
inputs which can be manipulated. Moreover, there is evidence that
young women with higher expectations of education and employment
are less likely to continue an unplanned teenage pregnancy (Innocenti,
2001). It is therefore better to use the teenage birth rate or
the proportion of teenage pregnancies that end in births rather
than the teenage conception rate.
Leaving school at 16—there is evidence
that poverty can have significant effect on school staying-on
rates. For example, in 1999-2000 in Northern Ireland only 27%
of pupils entitled to free school meals stayed on at school after
year 12 compared to 48% of all pupils. Young people in poverty
were also three times less likely to enter further or higher education
on leaving school (DE, 2001)
Passing exams with higher grades—This
is one of the "Milestones" in the Social Justice Annual
Report . . . a Scotland where everyone matters (The Scottish Executive,
2002).36 A recent DWP research report ((Ermisch, Francesconi and
Pevalin, 2002) found that growing up poor reduced young men's
chances of passing GCSEs with higher grades.
Homelessness—this is one of the "Milestones"
in the Social Justice Annual Report . . . a Scotland where everyone
matters (The Scottish Executive, 2002). While the causes of homelessness
are multi-faceted and complex, poverty and deprivation are precipitating
factors (Jones, forthcoming). Moreover, Article 27 (3) states
that "States Parties, in accordance with national conditions
and within the means, shall take appropriate measures to assist
parents and others responsible for the child to implement this
right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and
support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing
and housing."
Proportion of children living in poor housing—children
in lone parent, minority ethnic households and those on low incomes
are particularly likely to live in poor housing (Quilgars and
Wallace, 2002)
Satisfaction with neighbourhood—neighbourhood
dissatisfaction is associated with social hosing, social class,
region, and household type (lone parents are the most dissatisfied)
(Quilgars and Wallace, 2002)
121 Milestone 9: "bringing the poorest-performing
of 20% of pupils in terms of Standard Grade performance, closer
to the performance of all pupils." Standard Grade is equivalent
to GCSEs. Back
| 
