ESRC Grant for UK Child Poverty Research Project

Dr Gill Main has been awarded a £150,000 grant from the ESRC for a project which explores the links between children’s experiences of poverty and their subjective well-being.

‘Fair Shares and Families: Children’s perceptions of material resource distributions and decision-making within families’ is a two year project beginning this October and continuing through to September 2018. The research will employ a mixed-methods approach using ethnographic and survey methods.

Dr Main commented “This grant provides a fantastic opportunity to build on and develop my research into child poverty and children’s subjective well-being. We know that children’s own perceptions of poverty can help in understanding these links, but as yet we know very little about how children perceive resource sharing and decisions about resources within their families.  The research funded by this grant will explore this topic. 

“This project will also extend a long-term partnership with The Children’s Society and build a new partnership with Leeds City Council Children’s Services, partnerships which are of high value in getting research findings to policy makers and practitioners.”