Children’s Experiences of Household Poverty Dynamics in Ethiopia

This study explores household poverty dynamics and child wellbeing in Ethiopian communities and households. Poor families have difficulty dealing with shocks to their household income – drought, poor harvest, etc. – which require them to seek help from their children.

This study finds that, although children contribute to positive changes in family economic status, there is no guarantee that children’s wellbeing will improve as a result of their contributed income. This conflict between household wealth and child wellbeing is often overlooked in traditional methods of analyzing household poverty dynamics. The study ultimately argues that, in order to understand child poverty, a mixed methods approach to household and child poverty research needs to be employed.