Social Exclusion of Children in the US: Compiling Indicators of Factors from Which and by Which Children Are Excluded

If developments in Europe over the last decade are any indication, the concept of social exclusion holds the potential to reframe policy research and policy development, and perhaps the entire policy discourse, on problems facing children and families. The concept of social exclusion can extend policy discussions from an exclusive focus on income poverty to a nuanced appreciation of the factors that exclude children and families from opportunities and experiences. Unlike the concept of poverty and disadvantage, social exclusion remains relevant to societies with robust economies and low poverty rates (like many Scandinavian countries). Children can be and are excluded from the basic activities that define membership in a culture or society even when they are not poor. Social exclusion may also prove increasingly relevant to societies which still experience high poverty rates, such as the U.S. and the U.K., but perhaps for different reasons. Using the concepts of strategic frame analysis (Gilliam & Bales, 2001), “social exclusion ” likely provokes very different attributions of the causes of and preferred solutions to children’s problems than does “poverty. ” Specifically, whereas th