Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Spatial Dimensions of Child Social Exclusion Risk in Australia: Widening the Scope

  • Published:
Child Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Despite great concern about child well-being, and an increasing recognition of the need to monitor how well children are doing, small area measures of child disadvantage are a very recent development in understanding child well-being both within Australia and internationally. This paper describes the further development of Australia’s only small area index of child social exclusion risk. Drawing on the latest conceptual and methodological developments in child indicator research, the authors have identified additional domains and variables to best measure child social exclusion at a small area level. Incorporating new data, the paper then goes on to discuss the use of principal components analysis and equal weighting to transform the individual indicators into domain scores, and then the domain scores into a single composite index.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Data was requested for dependent children divided into two age groups: 0–4 years old and 5–15 years old, but in this paper we present our analysis for all dependent children up to 15 years of age.

  2. The Statistical Subdivision (SSD) is an Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) defined area which represents an intermediate level, general purpose, regional type geographic unit. Statistical Subdivisions consist of one or more SLAs.

  3. We trialed the use of factor analysis and equal weights (alternatively) instead of principal components analysis, to come up with the domain scores. As the use of these alternative methods yielded roughly similar results as the use of PCA, we have opted to use PCA. The results on these alternative methods (as well as other exercises to test the robustness of the CSE index) are extensive and will be presented in another paper.

  4. The transformation used is as follows. For any small area, denote its rank on the index, scaled to the range [0,1], by R (with R = 1/N for the least deprived, and R = N/N, ie, R = 1, for the most deprived, where N = the total number of small areas). The transformed index, X say, is X = -23*log {1 - R*[1 - exp(-100/23)]} where log denotes natural logarithm and exp the exponential or antilog transformation.

References

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004). Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2001. Technical Paper, Cat. No. 2039.0.55.001 (Canberra: ABS).

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008). Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas: Information Paper, Cat. No. 2039.0. (Canberra: ABS).

  • Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) (2008). ‘Report card: the wellbeing of Young Australians’, ARACY.

  • Barnes, H., Noble, M., Wright, G. A., & Dawes, A. (2009). A geographical profile of child deprivation in South Africa. Child Indicator Research, 2(2), 181–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baum, S., O’Connor, K., & Stimson, R. (2005). Fault lines exposed: Advantage and disadvantage across Australia’s settlement system. Clayton: Monash University ePress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Arieh, A. (2008). The Child Indicators movement: past, present and future. Child Indicators Research, 1(1), 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J., Kemp, P., Baldwin, S., Rowe, A. (2004). The drivers of social exclusion. A review of the literature for the Social Exclusion Unit in the Breaking the Cycle Series, the Social Exclusion Unit, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, UK, available on the web at http://www.socialexclusion.gov.uk

  • Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P., Richardson, D. (2006). ‘Comparing child well-being in OECD countries: concepts and methods, UNICEF, Innocenti Working Paper IWP-2006-03 Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy.

  • Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P., & Richardson, D. (2007). An index of child well-being index in the European Union. Social Indicators Research, 80, 133–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J., Noble, M., Bloor, K., Huby, M., McLennan, D., Rhodes, D., Sinclair, I., & Wilkinson, K. (2009). A child well-being index at small area level in England. Child Indicators Research, 2(2), 201–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Annie E Casey Foundation (2010). Kids Count, available on the web at www.aecf.org

  • Chapple, S. (2009). Child Well-Being and Sole-Parent Family Structure in the OECD: An Analysis, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 82.

  • Coulton, C., Korbin, J. A., & McDonell, J. (2009). Editorial: Indicators of child well-being in the context of small areas. Child Indicators Research, 2(2), 109–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, A. (2006). ‘Social Inclusion and Exclusion among Australia’s Children: A Review of the Literature’, Online Discussion Paper DP62, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, University of Canberra (available from www.canberra.edu.au).

  • Daly, A., McNamara, J., Tanton, R., Harding, A., & Yap, M. (2008). Indicators of social exclusion for Australia’s children: an analysis by State and age group. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 14(2), 133–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). Markedly socially disadvantaged localities in Australia: their nature and possible remediation, available at www.socialinclusion.gov.au

  • Dunteman, G. H. (1989). Principal Components Analysis. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, M., Jacobs, K., Arthurson, K., Burke, T., with Yates, J. (2005). Conceptualising and measuring the housing affordability problem, Research Paper 1 for National Research Venture 3: Housing affordability for Lower Income Australians, Melbourne, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, August 2005.

  • Hagerty, M., & Land, K. (2007). Constructing summary indexes of quality of life: a model for the effect of heterogeneous importance weights. Sociological Methods and Research, 35(4), 455–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, A., & Yap, M. (2008). Indicators of social exclusion for Australia’s children: an analysis by State and age group. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 14(2), 133–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, A., McNamara, J., Daly, A., & Tanton, R. (2009). Child social exclusion: an updated index from the 2006 Census. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 12(1), 41–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A., Gray, M., Edwards, B. (2008). ‘Social Inclusion: Origins, Concepts and Key Themes’, Paper prepared by the Australian Institute of Family Studies for the Social Inclusion Unit, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, October 2008.

  • Kennedy, B and Firman, D. (2004). ‘Indigneous SEIFA – revealing the ecological fallacy’. Paper presented at the Australian Population Association 12th Biennial Conference, 15-17 September 2004, Canberra Australia.

  • Land, K., & Crowell, J. (2010). The Child and Youth Well-Being Index 2010, available on the web at www.soc.duke.edu/~cwi/.

  • Land, K., Lamb, V., Meadows, S., & Taylor, A. (2007). Measuring trends in child well-being: an evidence-based approach. Social Indicators Research, 80(4), 105–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Land, K., Lamb, V., & Zheng, H. (2011). How are the kids doing? how do we know? recent trends in child and youth well-being in the united states and some international comparisons. Social Indicators Research, 100(3), 463–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitas, R., Pantazis, C., Fahmy, E., Gordon, D., Lloyd, E., Patsios, D. (2007). ‘The multi-dimensional analysis of social exclusion’, Social Exclusion Taskforce, London, http:www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force/publications/research/multidimensional.asp

  • Lightfoot, A., & Johnson, L. (2011). ‘Investigating the relationships between travel patterns and social exclusion of children in Sydney’, Australian Transport Research Forum 2011, 28-30 September 2011, Adelaide.

  • McNamara, J., Tanton, R., Daly, A., & Harding, A. (2009). Spatial trends in the risk of social exclusion for Australian children: patterns from 2001 to 2006. Child Indicators Research, 2(2), 155–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nepal, B., Tanton, R., & Harding, A. (2010). Measuring housing stress: How much do definitions matter? Urban Policy and Research, 28(2), 211–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NicGabhainn, S., & Sixsmith, J., (2005). Children’s understanding of well-being, The National Children’s Office, Dublin, available at http://www.nco.ie

  • Noble, M., Wright, G., Dibben, C., Smith, G., McLennan, D., Anttila, C., Barnes, H., Mokhtar, C., Noble, S., Avenell, D., Gardner, J., Covizzi, I., & Lloyd, M. (2004). The English Indices of Deprivation 2004. London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oroyemi, P., Damiolo, G., Barnes, M., Crosier, T. (2009). Understanding the risks of social exclusion across the life course: Families with children’, A Research report of the Social Exclusion Taskforce, Cabinet Office, UK.

  • Pratschke, J., & Haase, T. (2007). Measurement of social disadvantage and its spatial articulation in the Republic of Ireland. Regional Studies, 41(6), 719–734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salmond, C., & Crampton, P. (2002). NZDep2001 index of deprivation. Wellington: Department of Public Health, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, P., & Naidoo, Y. (2008). Social exclusion and children, Bulletin no. 4, SPRC, UNSW, November, available on the web at www.sprc.unsw.edu.au

  • Saunders, P., Naidoo, Y. A., & Griffiths, M. (2008). Towards new indicators of disadvantage: deprivation and social exclusion in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 43(2), 175–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanton, R., Harding, A., Daly, A., McNamara, J., & Yap, M. (2010). Australian children at risk of social exclusion: a spatial index for gauging relative disadvantage. Population Space and Place, 16(2), 135–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF (2005). Child poverty in rich countries 2005, Report Card no. 6, UNICEF, Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy.

  • UNICEF (2007). An overview of child well-being in Rich Countries 2005, Report Card no. 7, UNICEF, Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy.

  • UNICEF (2010). The children left behind: a league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries, Report Card no. 9, UNICEF, Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy.

  • Vinson, T. (2007). Dropping off the Edge: the distribution of disadvantage in Australia. Victoria: Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yates, J., & Gabriel, M. (2006). Housing affordability in Australia: Housing affordability for low income Australians, Research Paper No. 3 Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a Discovery Grant from the Australian Resource Council (DP1094318). The authors would like to thank the other Chief Investigators and Partner Investigators on the grant – Prof Laurie Brown, Dr Asher Ben-Arieh, Prof Michael Noble, Ms Leanne Johnson and Ms Rebecca Cassells. The authors would also like to thank Dr Riyana Miranti, and two anonymous referees who provided inputs to earlier versions of this paper. We are grateful to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and the Australian Early Childhood Indicators (AEDI) for the data used in this project, and gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Electoral Commission of Queensland in supplying a concordance between Statistical Local Areas and Brisbane electoral wards for 2006. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 11th AIFS Conference.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Annie Abello, Cathy Honge Gong & Justine McNamara

  2. Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Anne Daly

  3. NATSEM, University of Canberra, Building 24, University Drive South, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Annie Abello

Authors
  1. Annie Abello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cathy Honge Gong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anne Daly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Justine McNamara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annie Abello.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Abello, A., Gong, C.H., Daly, A. et al. Spatial Dimensions of Child Social Exclusion Risk in Australia: Widening the Scope. Child Ind Res 5, 685–703 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-012-9142-x

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-012-9142-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation