Perceptions of household heads on the causes of child poverty in Boipatong Township

Abstract

Children experience poverty within the context of the households they live in. Methodologically and ethically, it is not permissible to ask children what they perceive to be the cause of their poverty status. The possibility of obtaining incomprehensible data is high if children and minors are included as respondents in any data collection process. Reliance, therefore, is placed on the adults that are either guardians or parents of the children to speculate on what they perceive to be the causes of child poverty. Using data collected from Boipatong Township in Gauteng Province, South Africa, a multiple regression is used to determine characteristics of the of household associated with the perceptions on causes of poverty. The perceptions are divided into the categories common to the traditional causes of poverty as pioneered by Feagin, namely fate, structural and individualistic. The unique twist of the paper, however, is the replacement of the individual child with the adult responsible for the child. The results show that household income, qualification of the household head and household size were some of the significant determinants of perceptions of the causes of child poverty.