Rural poor families and their opportunities for children development

Improvement of the level and quality of life of families with children is a top priority of state policy in Russia. In rural areas, this problem is particularly relevant. Low incomes of most rural households limit sustainable development of rural areas, create risks for the formation of human capital of modern countryside, and contribute to the depopulation of villages. The purpose of this paper is the identification of differences in opportunities for children from poor and non-poor households on the basis of an analysis of poverty factors among rural families with children under 18 years of age. The generalization of theoretical approaches to the analysis of poverty factors in relation to rural households and mechanisms of family incomes’ impact on children development allows us to better understand the prerequisites for the emergence of differences in opportunities for rural children from different families. The information basis of this work consists of the results of a Sample survey of the population’s income and participation in social programs, conducted by Rosstat in 2017, and a Sociological study of factors of multi-criteria poverty - 2017, carried out by the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting of RANEPA. The results of the study show that members of poor households are characterized by lower education level, they are less likely to have paid employment, they are more focused on their subsidiary husbandry, and they more often seek social assistance from the government, which results in a special structure of income sources. Poor families face difficulties of balancing a family budget, they are forced to transform their food consumption patterns and postpone purchases of durable goods along with leisure activities. These restrictions directly affect rural children’s quality of life. It is emphasized that one of mechanisms for improving living standards of rural families with children should be an identification principle of providing social support to families with children on the basis of the systematization of households in need according to the key problems of their life, which will ensure the principle of targeting and increase the efficiency of implemented measures.