Session: Multidimensional Poverty: A More Comprehensive Picture of Deprivation (Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Social Change)

The proposed symposium examines different ways of assessing multidimensional poverty in the United States with the purpose of obtaining a more comprehensive picture of poverty, compared to monetary measures, and a better understanding of hardships and deprivations experienced by poor individuals and families in the US. Symposium presenters conceptualize and measure multidimensional poverty as (1) material hardships index, (2) vulnerability index that comprises health indicators (life expectancy, low infant birth weight), poverty metrics (rates of poverty and deep poverty), and social mobility data (Opportunity Insights Mobility Metrics), (3) multidimensional deprivation based on UNICEF's MODA tool (multiple overlapping deprivation analyses), and (4) multidimensional poverty measure based on the Alkire and Foster method. Presenters use variety of datasets, including Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the New York City (NYC) Longitudinal Study of Wellbeing or "Poverty Tracker", American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), as well as qualitative data collected within the mixed-methods study. Symposium hopes to improve our understanding of poverty by offering a holistic systemic view on this complex phenomenon and inform the poverty-reduction policies in the country.