Virginia Morrow
Biographic Data
| ID | 3583282 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Virginia Morrow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Virginia |
| FAMILY NAME | Morrow |
| SIGNATURE | MORROW V |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 384 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Against the Odds: Why Some Children Fare Well in the Face of Adversity
This article asks why some children growing up in poverty seem to fare well, despite the odds being stacked against them early in life. The data come from Young Lives, a 15-year mixed methods study of childhood poverty tracing the trajectories of a cohort of boys and girls (n = 4,000) born in 1994 in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. We use survey data to identify children in the poorest households who, by age 22, were faring well. The article a…
A view from the global south: Commentary on the special section
The papers making up this Special Section reveal important findings and begin to fill gaps in existing literature about children's and young people's understanding and developing beliefs about socio-economic inequality and poverty. We draw on our research experience with children growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (Young Lives) from the perspective of sociology of childhood and social anthropology. The commentary discusse…
A socioecological approach to children’s experiences of violence: Evidence from Young Lives
The scale and extent of violence towards children in different settings is increasingly well documented. However, few studies have attempted to draw on children’s perspectives to understand the linkages between forms of violence, as well as the factors that contribute to, and sustain, violence. We draw together findings from a collaborative project between UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and Young Lives, a 15-year longitudinal cohort study …
Food prices were high, and the dal became watery”. Mixed-method evidence on household food insecurity and children’s diets in India
Past, present and futures of childhood studies: A conversation with former editors of Childhood
Child Labor
There is no agreed definition of “child labor” because the concept is a culturally relative construct, operable primarily in the original English and lost in translation to most other languages. Thus, “child labor” carries different meanings or connotations. In the social sciences, the term usually refers to work that is in some way harmful to children or impedes their development. There is also a legal definition of the term to refer to work tha…
I started working because I was hungry: The consequences of food insecurity for children's well-being in rural Ethiopia
What is the value of qualitative longitudinal research with children and young people for international development
This paper draws on data from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty, to explore how international development research might be strengthened by including qualitative longitudinal research (QLR). We review three problems in development studies: (a) the relatively low status of qualitative research within the hierarchy of development knowledge, (b) the predominance of cross-sectional research, and, (c) marginality of research with …
Moving goals – Towards an age of measurement, in times of Great Derangement? Implications for childhood (and other categories)
Understanding the causes and consequences of injuries to adolescents growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Vietnam and Peru: A mixed method study
The World Health Organization estimates that almost half of all premature deaths among 15- to 19-year olds can be attributed to injuries with most (95%) fatal injuries occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Yet the evidence base for adolescent injuries in low-income countries is poor. This article uses a mixed method approach to gain an understanding of patterns, causes and consequences of unintentional injuries among adolescents aged bet…
Judith Ennew: A personal tribute
Whose Values? Young People's Aspirations and Experiences of Schooling in Andhra Pradesh, India
Increasing rates of school enrolment have changed childhoods in the global South, so that it is now the norm for children to attend at least some years of primary school. This paper explores the extent to which valuing of children as educational projects and outcomes may be displacing previous valuations of children as contributors to the domestic economy. The paper draws on qualitative interview data from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of chi…
Practical Ethics in Social Research with Children and Families in Young Lives: A Longitudinal Study of Childhood Poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Peru and Vietnam
A great deal of attention is now paid to the ethics of social research. Research governance has expanded, and a burgeoning literature describes the processes, practices and questions that arise in social research with children, families and communities. This paper outlines the approach taken to research ethics within Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Peru and Vietnam, co-ordinated by a res…
What's in a number? Unsettling the boundaries of age
Politics and economics in global questions about childhood and youth . . . the trouble with numbers
Troubling transitions? Young people's experiences of growing up in poverty in rural Andhra Pradesh, India
Global policy attention has begun to focus on young people in developing countries and much of the discourse is framed around notions of ‘transition to adulthood’ based on the idea that individuals develop in linear ways, separate from family and community. This idea has already been widely critiqued in western contexts. This article explores the lives of children growing up in rural Andhra Pradesh, India, who are no longer in formal schooling, d…
Children's responses to risk in agricultural work in Andhra Pradesh, India
This paper discusses protection of children from hazards in agricultural work. International and national policies aim to protect children by eliminating all child labour. Previous literature on hazardous child labour tends to focus on single industries or crops, overlooking the variety of activities that children undertake in subsistence farming. We analyse survey and qualitative data from children, and present rates of work, injuries experience…
Integrating Children's Human Rights and Child Poverty Debates: Examples from Young Lives in Ethiopia and India
There are few attempts to link human rights discourses and child poverty debates, though the field is expanding. Within sociology, both the study of rights and of childhood are marginal. This article utilises a sociological approach to bridge rights and poverty debates in relation to children and explore why there are barriers to implementing children's rights in specific instances. Drawing on Young Lives research, a longitudinal study of childre…
The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook
A practical guide to carrying out ethical research with children and young people, this practical handbook examines the ethical questions that arise at each stage of research, from first plans to dissemination and impact. Illustrated with case studies from international and inter-disciplinary research, it offers advice for addressing each ethical question, issue or uncertainty. Including: A showcase of the best practice on a range of topics inclu…
Combining Work and School: The Dynamics of Girls’ Involvement in Agricultural Work in Andhra Pradesh, India
Child labour in India has long been the focus of research, policy concern and intervention. This article presents an analysis of children’s involvement in agricultural work, particularly cottonseed production, drawing on evidence gathered for Young Lives in 2007 and 2008. In parts of Andhra Pradesh, children work in cotton fields for two or three months of the year, with marked gender and age differentiation. In the mid‐1990s, there was reportedl…
Should the world really be free of 'child labour'? Some reflections
What is wrong with children's well-being in the UK? Questions of meaning and measurement
This paper discusses problems with existing attempts to measure children's well-being using secondary datasets, taking as an example the UNICEF Innocenti report entitled Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries (UNICEF 2007). The report placed the UK's children at the bottom of the league table of rich nations on their average score across six dimensions, including emotional well-being and ‘happiness’. The r…
Ethical dilemmas in research with children and young people about their social environments
There has been a very welcome recent growth in research directly with and by children and young people, with a wide range of reporting children’s own views and experiences. Research ethics has also recently been receiving a great deal of attention, and there are debates about the extent to which research with children differs from research with other groups. This paper draws on the author’s experiences of empirical sociological research with 12-1…
Child Labor
Child labor refers to a form of child work. Child labor was first conceptualized as a social problem during industrialization in nineteenth‐century Britain, and the reasons were related to the need for cheap unskilled factory labor, and new moral concerns about childhood (Cunningham 1996). It is usually assumed that children in contemporary industrialized or post‐industrial societies do not work, and that child labor is a “problem” in developing …
Conceituando o capital social em relação a crianças e jovens: É Diferente Para Meninas
Este artigo descreve um projeto de pesquisa que explorou a relevância da definição de Putnam (1993) de capital social (como algo que consiste de redes sociais, normas de confiança, reciprocidade, engajamento cívico e participação em comunidades) com crianças e jovens de áreas socialmente desfavorecidas. O artigo também apresenta dados de um estudo sociológico empírico que buscou explorar o significado e a relevância de diferentes aspectos do "cap…
Conceptualising Social Capital in Relation to the Well-Being of Children and Young People: A Critical Review
This exploratory article forms the background for an empirical study for the Health Education Authority on children, young people, health, well-being and social capital. In terms of morbidity, children tend not to exhibit clear health problems, but obviously engage in activities that have important implications for their health and well-being (West & Sweeting, 1996), and these activities may be influenced by, as well as impact upon, children's so…
Ethical dilemmas in research with children and young people about their social environments
There has been a very welcome recent growth in research directly with and by children and young people, with a wide range of reporting children’s own views and experiences. Research ethics has also recently been receiving a great deal of attention, and there are debates about the extent to which research with children differs from research with other groups. This paper draws on the author’s experiences of empirical sociological research with 12-1…
My Animals and Other Family: Children's Perspectives on their Relationships with Companion Animals
The relationship between children and companion animals in contemporary British society has not been explored in any depth from a sociological perspective. The new paradigm of the 'sociology of childhood' constructs children as active social agents whose social relationships are worthy of study in their own right. This raises questions about the nature of children's social relationships, which often include close attachment to companion animals. …
Young people’s explanations and experiences of social exclusion: Retrieving Bourdieu’s concept of social capital
Explores the ideas that a group’s social capital is related to levels of social exclusion, together with the policy implication that social capital can be developed in order to counter exclusion. Analyses a school‐based research project which looks at the relationship of social capital to the well‐being of children and young people covering gender, ethnicity, age, trust and community. Concludes that Putnam’s widely used concept of social capital …
We are people too: Children's and young people's perspectives on children's rights and decision-making in England
No Abstract
If you were a teacher, it would be harder to talk to you: Reflections on qualitative research with children in school
This paper provides a researcher's account of the qualitative methods used in a research project which aimed to establish how children define and make sense of the concept 'family', from a sociological perspective. Research was carried out with 183 children aged between 8 and 14 in schools in two parts of eastern England; a rural area and a large town with a significant population of British Muslims originating from Mirpur and Azad Kashmir in Pak…
Troubling transitions? Young people's experiences of growing up in poverty in rural Andhra Pradesh, India
Global policy attention has begun to focus on young people in developing countries and much of the discourse is framed around notions of ‘transition to adulthood’ based on the idea that individuals develop in linear ways, separate from family and community. This idea has already been widely critiqued in western contexts. This article explores the lives of children growing up in rural Andhra Pradesh, India, who are no longer in formal schooling, d…
Rethinking Childhood Dependency: Children's Contributions to the Domestic Economy
In industrialised countries, the growth of wage labour and capitalist relations of production have been associated with a decline in 'child labour'. The general assumption within sociology is that children do not undertake productive labour, and that their new economic role is to attend school and prepare to become future members of the labour force. This paper presents evidence from a wider research project on children's involvement in 'work' an…
Should the world really be free of 'child labour'? Some reflections
I started working because I was hungry: The consequences of food insecurity for children's well-being in rural Ethiopia
Multidisciplinary research ethics review: Is it feasible
This paper reviews the currently rapid changes in research ethics governance affecting many kinds of social research. Arguments for and against single‐discipline and multidisciplinary research ethics committees will be considered, with examples of how medical and social research ethics can inform one another. We conclude that the use of multidisciplinary research ethics committees, guidance and governance can be an effective and necessary part of…
Integrating Children's Human Rights and Child Poverty Debates: Examples from Young Lives in Ethiopia and India
There are few attempts to link human rights discourses and child poverty debates, though the field is expanding. Within sociology, both the study of rights and of childhood are marginal. This article utilises a sociological approach to bridge rights and poverty debates in relation to children and explore why there are barriers to implementing children's rights in specific instances. Drawing on Young Lives research, a longitudinal study of childre…
What is wrong with children's well-being in the UK? Questions of meaning and measurement
This paper discusses problems with existing attempts to measure children's well-being using secondary datasets, taking as an example the UNICEF Innocenti report entitled Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries (UNICEF 2007). The report placed the UK's children at the bottom of the league table of rich nations on their average score across six dimensions, including emotional well-being and ‘happiness’. The r…
Past, present and futures of childhood studies: A conversation with former editors of Childhood
What is the value of qualitative longitudinal research with children and young people for international development
This paper draws on data from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty, to explore how international development research might be strengthened by including qualitative longitudinal research (QLR). We review three problems in development studies: (a) the relatively low status of qualitative research within the hierarchy of development knowledge, (b) the predominance of cross-sectional research, and, (c) marginality of research with …
Food prices were high, and the dal became watery”. Mixed-method evidence on household food insecurity and children’s diets in India
Practical Ethics in Social Research with Children and Families in Young Lives: A Longitudinal Study of Childhood Poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Peru and Vietnam
A great deal of attention is now paid to the ethics of social research. Research governance has expanded, and a burgeoning literature describes the processes, practices and questions that arise in social research with children, families and communities. This paper outlines the approach taken to research ethics within Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Peru and Vietnam, co-ordinated by a res…
What's in a number? Unsettling the boundaries of age
A socioecological approach to children’s experiences of violence: Evidence from Young Lives
The scale and extent of violence towards children in different settings is increasingly well documented. However, few studies have attempted to draw on children’s perspectives to understand the linkages between forms of violence, as well as the factors that contribute to, and sustain, violence. We draw together findings from a collaborative project between UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and Young Lives, a 15-year longitudinal cohort study …
Moving goals – Towards an age of measurement, in times of Great Derangement? Implications for childhood (and other categories)
No ball games”: Children’s views of their urban environments
In 1998 and 1999, groups of 12–13 year old and 14–15 year old students in two schools in a town in the south east of England were asked to describe their neighbourhoods, as part of a wider qualitative research project investigating the relation between health and social capital.1,2 The research used several different methods, including visual methods, to explore children’s views about places they felt were important to them. The younger group wer…
Children's responses to risk in agricultural work in Andhra Pradesh, India
This paper discusses protection of children from hazards in agricultural work. International and national policies aim to protect children by eliminating all child labour. Previous literature on hazardous child labour tends to focus on single industries or crops, overlooking the variety of activities that children undertake in subsistence farming. We analyse survey and qualitative data from children, and present rates of work, injuries experience…
Releasing the Energy: Celebrating the inspiration of Sharon Stephens
The Ethics of Social Research with Children: An Overview1
This paper attempts to provide an overview of ethical issues related to social research with children. It sets the discussion in the context of current debates about researching children in the UK, and explores the extent to which children should be regarded as similar to, or different from, adults in social research, focusing on how children are positioned as vulnerable, incompetent and relatively powerless in society in general, and how this co…
The Ethics of Social Research with Children: An Overview
Rethinking Childhood Dependency: Children's Contributions to the Domestic Economy
In industrialised countries, the growth of wage labour and capitalist relations of production have been associated with a decline in 'child labour'. The general assumption within sociology is that children do not undertake productive labour, and that their new economic role is to attend school and prepare to become future members of the labour force. This paper presents evidence from a wider research project on children's involvement in 'work' an…
If you were a teacher, it would be harder to talk to you: Reflections on qualitative research with children in school
This paper provides a researcher's account of the qualitative methods used in a research project which aimed to establish how children define and make sense of the concept 'family', from a sociological perspective. Research was carried out with 183 children aged between 8 and 14 in schools in two parts of eastern England; a rural area and a large town with a significant population of British Muslims originating from Mirpur and Azad Kashmir in Pak…
My Animals and Other Family: Children's Perspectives on their Relationships with Companion Animals
The relationship between children and companion animals in contemporary British society has not been explored in any depth from a sociological perspective. The new paradigm of the 'sociology of childhood' constructs children as active social agents whose social relationships are worthy of study in their own right. This raises questions about the nature of children's social relationships, which often include close attachment to companion animals. …
We are people too: Children's and young people's perspectives on children's rights and decision-making in England
No Abstract
Conceptualising Social Capital in Relation to the Well-Being of Children and Young People: A Critical Review
This exploratory article forms the background for an empirical study for the Health Education Authority on children, young people, health, well-being and social capital. In terms of morbidity, children tend not to exhibit clear health problems, but obviously engage in activities that have important implications for their health and well-being (West & Sweeting, 1996), and these activities may be influenced by, as well as impact upon, children's so…
Dirty looks’ and ‘trampy places’ in young people's accounts of community and neighbourhood: Implications for health inequalities
This paper draws on preliminary data collected in an ongoing school-based research project for the Health Education Authority (HEA) which is exploring Putnam's (1993) concept of 'social capital' in relation to children and young people's well-being and health. Putnam's conceptualization of social capital consists of the following features: trust, reciprocal support, civic engagement, community identity, and social networks; and the premise is tha…
Using qualitative methods to elicit young people's perspectives on their environments: Some ideas for community health initiatives
community contexts, and that the ways that individuals relate to wider social networks and communities have important effects on health and This paper describes qualitative methods used in a research project for the former Health Educawell-being. The Government Green Paper Our Healthier Nation: A Contract for Health (Depart-tion Authority, exploring Putnam's concept of 'social capital' in relation to children and young ment of Health, 1998a,b), f…
Young people’s explanations and experiences of social exclusion: Retrieving Bourdieu’s concept of social capital
Explores the ideas that a group’s social capital is related to levels of social exclusion, together with the policy implication that social capital can be developed in order to counter exclusion. Analyses a school‐based research project which looks at the relationship of social capital to the well‐being of children and young people covering gender, ethnicity, age, trust and community. Concludes that Putnam’s widely used concept of social capital …
Carol Smart, Bren Neale and Amanda Wade: The Changing Experience of Childhood. Families and Divorce. Oxford: Polity Press, 2001
Releasing the Energy: Celebrating the inspiration of Sharon Stephens
No ball games”: Children’s views of their urban environments
In 1998 and 1999, groups of 12–13 year old and 14–15 year old students in two schools in a town in the south east of England were asked to describe their neighbourhoods, as part of a wider qualitative research project investigating the relation between health and social capital.1,2 The research used several different methods, including visual methods, to explore children’s views about places they felt were important to them. The younger group wer…
Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives on the Study of Children
Understanding Gender Differences in Context: Implications for Young Children's Everyday Lives
This article reviews recent UK‐based research that has prioritised children's accounts of their experiences of their daily lives, and focuses on gender differences in these accounts of family life, friendships, use of public space, use of out‐of‐school care, popular culture and consumption, and children's views of gender differences—drawing mainly from research with children in middle childhood. It then discusses some of the implications for prac…
Multidisciplinary research ethics review: Is it feasible
This paper reviews the currently rapid changes in research ethics governance affecting many kinds of social research. Arguments for and against single‐discipline and multidisciplinary research ethics committees will be considered, with examples of how medical and social research ethics can inform one another. We conclude that the use of multidisciplinary research ethics committees, guidance and governance can be an effective and necessary part of…
Monica Barry, Youth Policy and Social Inclusion. Critical Debates with Young People
Child Labor
Child labor refers to a form of child work. Child labor was first conceptualized as a social problem during industrialization in nineteenth‐century Britain, and the reasons were related to the need for cheap unskilled factory labor, and new moral concerns about childhood (Cunningham 1996). It is usually assumed that children in contemporary industrialized or post‐industrial societies do not work, and that child labor is a “problem” in developing …
Conceituando o capital social em relação a crianças e jovens: É Diferente Para Meninas
Este artigo descreve um projeto de pesquisa que explorou a relevância da definição de Putnam (1993) de capital social (como algo que consiste de redes sociais, normas de confiança, reciprocidade, engajamento cívico e participação em comunidades) com crianças e jovens de áreas socialmente desfavorecidas. O artigo também apresenta dados de um estudo sociológico empírico que buscou explorar o significado e a relevância de diferentes aspectos do "cap…
Ethical dilemmas in research with children and young people about their social environments
There has been a very welcome recent growth in research directly with and by children and young people, with a wide range of reporting children’s own views and experiences. Research ethics has also recently been receiving a great deal of attention, and there are debates about the extent to which research with children differs from research with other groups. This paper draws on the author’s experiences of empirical sociological research with 12-1…
What is wrong with children's well-being in the UK? Questions of meaning and measurement
This paper discusses problems with existing attempts to measure children's well-being using secondary datasets, taking as an example the UNICEF Innocenti report entitled Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries (UNICEF 2007). The report placed the UK's children at the bottom of the league table of rich nations on their average score across six dimensions, including emotional well-being and ‘happiness’. The r…
Combining Work and School: The Dynamics of Girls’ Involvement in Agricultural Work in Andhra Pradesh, India
Child labour in India has long been the focus of research, policy concern and intervention. This article presents an analysis of children’s involvement in agricultural work, particularly cottonseed production, drawing on evidence gathered for Young Lives in 2007 and 2008. In parts of Andhra Pradesh, children work in cotton fields for two or three months of the year, with marked gender and age differentiation. In the mid‐1990s, there was reportedl…
Should the world really be free of 'child labour'? Some reflections
The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook
A practical guide to carrying out ethical research with children and young people, this practical handbook examines the ethical questions that arise at each stage of research, from first plans to dissemination and impact. Illustrated with case studies from international and inter-disciplinary research, it offers advice for addressing each ethical question, issue or uncertainty. Including: A showcase of the best practice on a range of topics inclu…
Politics and economics in global questions about childhood and youth . . . the trouble with numbers
Sociology (38 works) · Psychology (27 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (21 works) · Political science (19 works) · Social science (19 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (17 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Economic growth (15 works) · Economics (13 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (11 works)