Changing the Odds for Vulnerable Children

172 Pages·2019·4.412 MB·English

by  Oecd

Changing the Odds
for Vulnerable Children
BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES AND RESILIENCE
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Changing the Odds
for Vulnerable Children
BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES AND RESILIENCE
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to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international
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Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2019), Changing the Odds for Vulnerable Children: Building Opportunities and Resilience, OECD
Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a2e8796c-en.
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ISBN 978-92-64-91411-7 (pdf)
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 3
Preface
The OECD has been at the forefront in documenting the rising levels of income inequality and the widening
gap in terms of access to opportunities that have marked the past three decades. It has also taken a
leading role in proposing policy approaches that can help countries make the turn towards more inclusive
models of growth. The data make for a sobering read: the average disposable income of the richest 10%
of the population is now around nine and a half times that of the poorest 10% across the OECD, up from
seven times 25 years ago. Wealth inequality is even more pronounced, with the top 10% owning half of
total wealth, while the bottom 40% holds only 3%. The concentration of income, opportunities and assets
at the top of the distribution partly reflects the fact that tax and transfer systems have become less
progressive in many OECD countries over the past decades. In many emerging and developing countries,
inequalities remain large and the institutional developments required to provide effective social safety nets
remain slow to take off the ground.
Childhood is a crucial moment in the development of individuals. Childhood is also a critical issue for
societies and economies, as it determines the formation of human and social capital. Inequality in childhood
means inequality across the life-cycle. Children who grow up in poor families have less access to quality
education and health care. As young people, they are likely to enter the labour market at an earlier age
than their peers and take up low-skilled jobs at a time when technological change and globalisation are
increasing the returns to education. Furthermore, low-skilled workers receive much fewer opportunities to
upskill and retrain: only 20% participate in job-related adult learning compared to 37% and 58% of medium-
and high-skilled workers.
OECD evidence shows that we are facing a persistent gap in opportunities between the children at the
bottom of the income distribution and the children at the top. This is fuelled by the growing inequality in
parents’ resources and the quality of children’s home environments. As a group, children in affluent families
receive far more investment in parenting and education than ever before. However, societies that let
children from less fortunate households fall behind and fail to improve their chances of success pay a
heavy price. According to the 2018 OECD report A Broken Social Elevator? reduced social mobility is now
a feature of our societies. On average across the OECD, it would take between four and five generations
(i.e. up to 150 years) for a child born into a low-income family to reach the average level of income. Left
unchecked, these gaps will further widen and create greater economic and social polarisation. Already the
political consequences of such dynamics can be seen in many countries, expressed through citizens’
distrust of institutions and an overriding sense of discontent with the deal they have been given.
In response to this, the OECD has called for a new growth narrative that puts people’s well-being at the
centre of policy and moves beyond GDP as the sole metric of success. Through its Well-being Framework,
New Approaches to Economic Challenges and Inclusive Growth initiatives, the OECD has sought to
upgrade its analytical models and measurement tools to better understand the functioning of our
economies and to promote policies that integrate considerations of equity ex-ante. The OECD has also
developed a Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive Growth, which offers governments concrete
guidance on how to design and implement policies that will give all people, firms and regions the
opportunity to thrive – particularly those that are struggling or have been left behind.
CHANGING THE ODDS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN © OECD 2019
4 
The OECD has also placed the issue of inequalities and the need for inclusive growth at the heart of the
international agenda, where it has helped inform the work of the G7 and G20.
The present OECD report, Changing the Odds for Vulnerable Children: Building Opportunities and
Resilience, makes an important contribution to the first pillar of the Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive
Growth: Investing in people and places left behind. In doing so, it highlights the fact that children are
vulnerable for different reasons and outlines the individual and environmental factors at play. It calls on
countries to develop child well-being strategies that prioritise the needs of vulnerable children. It
recommends six key policy actions around which to promote child well-being. These policies actions aim
to reduce risks and strengthen protective factors, thereby enabling children to build greater resilience. They
are designed to reach vulnerable children early in life, when it matters most, and include policies targeted
at increasing children’s educational success and empowering vulnerable families.
The analysis underscores the decisive role that childhood experiences play in shaping adult outcomes and
the importance of providing children with the support they need to successfully overcome early-life
disadvantage. Young children under three suffer heavily from family stress and material deprivation.
Conversely, they benefit the most from early childcare and education (ECEC) interventions and time away
from the home environment. Yet, children from low socio-economic households have far less access to
ECEC, in some countries only half as many of them attend as their more fortunate peers. Maltreatment in
childhood undermines adult economic self-sufficiency later in life and is a strong predictor of poor adult
mental health. The quality of out-of-home care informs young adults’ level of educational attainment and
preparedness for the labour market.
We have found that rising inequalities have an adverse impact on child well-being. Higher inequality is
linked with greater psychological distress and poor mental health among adolescents; where children rank
economically amongst their peers matters a lot. The inter-generational transmission of mental health is
strongest for children in lower socio-economic households. A larger share of children with disabilities live
in low socio-economic households.
The report documents a rise in child poverty in almost two-thirds of OECD countries since the Great
Recession. Children are more exposed to poverty than the rest of the population. Right now, across the
OECD, one in seven children grows up in poverty. The living standards of children from low-income families
have declined in many countries, particularly for those families with the smallest incomes. Furthermore,
family homelessness is on the rise in a number of OECD countries, creating hardships that have serious
implications for child development and well-being, as well as later adult outcomes.
The well-being of society improves most when society chooses to invest in its children. This report makes
a key contribution to the OECD’s vision for inclusive growth by placing children where they belong – at the
centre of policy concerns. This report builds an overwhelming case for investing in the well-being of
vulnerable children. We hope it will translate into concrete action by helping governments develop policies
that ensure a better life and a brighter future for all children, particularly the most vulnerable.

Gabriela Ramos
OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20 and Leader of the Inclusive Growth Initiative

CHANGING THE ODDS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN © OECD 2019
 5
Foreword
The OECD established the Inclusive Growth Initiative in 2012 to provide answers on how to reduce the
problems of inequality and lack of opportunities that many OECD countries have experienced over the last
decades. In 2018, the Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive Growth was launched to help countries
design policies that makes growth more inclusive. This report, Changing the Odds for Vulnerable Children:
Building Opportunities and Resilience, positions investing in the well-being of vulnerable children as a
central action for inclusive growth, along the recommendations of the first pillar of the Framework that
emphasises the importance of investing in people and places left behind.
The report highlights the fact that children are vulnerable for different reasons and outlines the individual
and environmental factors at play. It calls on countries to develop child well-being strategies that prioritise
the needs of vulnerable children. It recommends six key policy actions around which such strategies could
be organised. These policies actions aim to reduce risks and strengthen protective factors, thereby
enabling children to build greater resilience. They are designed to reach vulnerable children early in life,
when it matters most.
 Chapter 1: This chapter provides an overview of the report drawing on analyses carried out in
subsequent chapters. It introduces the concept of child vulnerability and an analytical framework
for overcoming it. This framework looks at the factors contributing to vulnerability and seeks to
integrate resilience building into the design of policies. The chapter discusses the recommendation
of countries developing well-being strategies, with a particular focus on vulnerable children and
outlines a set of recommendations through which OECD countries can develop such strategies.
 Chapter 2: This chapter analyses five individual factors contributing to child vulnerability: disability,
mental health difficulties, immigrant background, maltreatment and being in out-of-home care.
 Chapter 3: This chapter analyses environmental factors contributing to child vulnerability.
Environmental factors operate at both the family and community levels. Family factors include
material deprivation, parents’ health and health behaviours, parents’ level of education, intimate
partner violence and family stress. Community factors are associated with the school and
neighbourhood environments.
 Chapter 4: This chapter builds on the insights gained in the previous chapters and identifies six
policy areas around which child well-being strategies could be organised. They are policies
empowering vulnerable families; policies strengthening children’s emotional and social skills; child
protection policies; policies improving educational outcomes; policies improving health outcomes
and policies reducing child poverty and material deprivation. For each of these policy areas, a
selection of best-practice programmes and policy initiatives in OECD countries suited to building
resilience in children is presented.
 Chapter 5: This chapter describes the common challenges facing vulnerable children in developing
countries, taking a life-cycle approach. It examines selected dimensions of well-being, including
educational attainment, health and child protection measures.

CHANGING THE ODDS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN © OECD 2019

 7
Acknowledgements
This report was prepared under the umbrella of the OECD Inclusive Growth Initiative. It was developed
under the leadership of Gabriela Ramos, Chief of Staff, Sherpa to the G20 and the supervision of Romina
Boarini, Coordinator of the Inclusive Growth Initiative, and co-ordinated by Gráinne Dirwan.
The report draws extensively on analysis carried out across a range of OECD Directorates. Chapter 1:
lead author was Gráinne Dirwan. Chapter 2: lead author was Gráinne Dirwan with contributions from
Thomas Liebig and Yves Breem of the Directorate for Labour, Employment and Social Affairs, and
Caitlyn Gutherie and Francesco Borgonovi of the Directorate for Education and Skills. Chapter 3: lead
author was Gráinne Dirwan with contributions from Olivier Thévenon and Marissa Plouin of the Directorate
for Labour, Employment and Social Affairs, and Stéphanie Jamet, Yuri Belfali, and Elizabeth Shuey of the
Directorate for Education and Skills. Chapter 4: lead author was Gráinne Dirwan with contributions from
Olivier Thévenon of the Directorate for Labour, Employment and Social Affairs, Stéphanie Jamet,
Yuri Belfali, Caitlyn Gutherie, Elizabeth Shuey and Tracey Burns of the Directorate of Education and Skills,
and Elettra Ronchi and Andras Molnar of the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. Chapter
5: lead authors were Alexandre Kolev, Justina La and Ji-Yuen Rim of the OECD Development Centre, with
contributions from Olivier Thévenon of the Directorate for Labour, Employment and Social Affairs.
In addition, the report was reviewed and valuable guidance and comments received from Olivier Thévenon
and Willem Adema of the Directorate for Labour, Employment and Social Affairs, Stéphanie Jamet, Yuri
Belfali, Elizabeth Shuey and Tracey Burns of the Directorate for Education and Skills, and Alexandre Kolev
of the Development Centre. An earlier draft of the report was also reviewed by the Working Party on Social
Policy. Valuable support in the editorial and production process was provided by Amelia Smith, Janine
Treves and France Charlet, Damian Garnys, Eileen Capponi, Audrey Garrigoux and Paul Gallagher. The
report was prepared with a grant from the Ford Foundation.

CHANGING THE ODDS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN © OECD 2019
8 
Table of contents
Preface 3
Foreword 5
Acknowledgements 7
Executive Summary 11
1 What is child vulnerability and how can it be overcome? 15
Introduction 16
What is child vulnerability? 16
Notes 29
References 29
2 Individual factors that contribute to child vulnerability 31
Introduction 32
Disability 32
Mental health difficulties 34
Immigrant background 36
Out-of-home care 43
Notes 46
References 47
3 Environmental factors that contribute to child vulnerability 57
Introduction 58
Family Factors 58
Community Factors 74
Notes 83
References 84
4 Building resilience: policies to improve child well-being 107
Introduction 108
Which policies can empower vulnerable families? 108
Which policies can strengthen children’s emotional and social well-being? 110
Which policies can strengthen child protection? 115
Which policies can improve children’s education outcomes? 117
Which policies can improve children’s health? 122
Which policies can reduce child income poverty? 126
CHANGING THE ODDS FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN © OECD 2019