Multidimensional Child Deprivation: Constructing Longitudinal Indicators for the Early Childhood Period

Longstanding research has shown that childhood poverty and deprivation have negative consequences for children, from birth. Much of this literature, especially in the early childhood period, uses one-dimensional, static concepts that relate to households rather than children per se, missing a nuanced and dynamic description of children’s lived experience of poverty and deprivation during their first years of life. We propose an early childhood deprivation framework that is multidimensional, dynamic and child-centred, and describe its methodological application to a micro-level panel survey of early childhood. We use a nationally-representative birth cohort of 18,000 children born in France in 2011, observed from birth to age 5, to produce a longitudinal multidimensional deprivation index composed of five distinct dimensions of deprivation (material, housing, extreme living conditions, parenting, and health behaviours). During the early years, income poverty does not always overlap with deprivation: in France, only 40% of deprived children are also income poor. We show that different populations are deprived in different dimensions: for example, young children from a migrant background are twice more likely to be deprived in housing and material dimensions, while not at higher risk of health behaviours deprivation, compared to their non-migrant peers. This paper therefore highlights that early childhood deprivation has a dynamic and complex structure that must be considered when studying the early years period.