Listening To Children Gaining A Perspective Of The Experiences Of Poverty And Social Exclusion Of Single Parent Families

This essay will critically analyse the article listening to children: gaining a perspective of the experiences of poverty and social exclusion from children and young people of single-parent families. It will discuss the main themes within the article which are; poverty, social, exclusion and diversity. It goes on to identify the medias portrayal of these themes emphasising its relevance even in today's society. The purpose of this article is to give an insight into children's lives that live with single-parent families that have firsthand experience. With supporting statistical evidence to strengthen the discussion. Family can be defined as a social unit of two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption and having a shared commitment

Despite the fact that, at the end of the century the UK was the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, large sections of its population were still living in poverty. The media fulfils an important role in shaping, amplifying and responding to public attitudes towards poverty. Although public attitudes cannot be attributed to the influence of mass media, it is important to acknowledge the media’s key role in responding to and reinforcing public ideas about poverty. The media have the capacity to inform the public about the nature of poverty; there is scope to humanise and politicise poverty. However, this possibility is undermined, as poverty is rarely explicitly described or explained. Four UK governments have made a significant investment in expanding high quality childcare, particularly in disadvantaged communities, through programmes such as Sure Start Local and the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative. This has enabled many poorer parents to access childcare and to return to work 92 per cent of parents using neighbourhood nurseries said that this helped them to work, with 22 per cent saying they could not have worked otherwise. The impact was greatest on disadvantaged groups, including lone parents and those with no or low qualifications. Sure Start Children’s Centres and Neighbourhood Nurseries benefited from start-up funding, enabling them to offer subsidised or

Families with step parents mainly consist of a biological mother and a step father. As a result, in 2006 84% of step families consisted of a step father and a biological mother. In the same year, 6% of step families comprised children from both partner's previous relationships. The number of lone parent families and single mothers, is also higher among the Afro Caribbean population in the UK, In contrast, Richard Berthoud indicates that rates of marriage are very high in the UK's South Asian population, with 75% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. Differences in family structure can also be related to religious belief although it is also important to remember that religion, like ethnicity, does not produce fixed social categories. Christian and Jewish families are least likely to have children living with them. In 2001, 40% and 41% of Christian and Jewish families respectively had children living at home. This contrasts with Muslim families, of which 73% had at least one dependent child living with