Participation is a fundamental principle of social inclusion, and ‘fitting in’ and ‘joining in’ with the everyday activities and expectations of peers is a driving force in children's lives. Without satisfactory opportunities for participation, children's social lives can be disrupted and restricted. For children who are poor, gaining access to adequate resources and opportunities for social participation is a significant concern. Poverty can have a profound impact on participation, excluding children from social experiences available to other more affluent children, and encroaching on their capacity to develop and maintain satisfactory social relationships.

The voices of children who are poor are some of the least likely to be heard in policy and practice; they are doubly silenced both as children and as part of the constituency of the poor. Poverty is a stigmatised social position, and perceptions of child poverty are often informed by contradictory discourses of poor children as either vulnerable and at risk, or dangerous, out of control and socially threatening (Davis and Bourhill, 1997; Scraton, 1997; Lee, 2001). Therefore, to begin to comprehend the meaning and experience of poverty in childhood, it is essential that researchers, policy makers and practitioners develop an understanding of child poverty that is grounded in the realities of children's everyday lives and experiences.

In 2003/04, there were more than 3.5 million children living below the poverty line in the UK (Flaherty et al, 2004). For these children, poverty is an everyday lived experience, and research shows that the effects of being a poor child in an affluent society can permeate every aspect of that child's life (Ridge, 2002). This chapter explores the impact that poverty can have on children's capacity for participation and social inclusion. It engages directly with children's accounts of their social lives, and reveals some of the issues and concerns that they themselves identify as problematic. It is based on findings from qualitative child centred research carried out with children and young people who are living in low-income families in the UK.

The chapter draws on two main research studies: first, research carried out with children and young people living in families in receipt of Income Support (Ridge, 2002); and second, findings from the Families, Work and Care Study, a longitudinal, qualitative study of the lives and experiences of children living in low-income, working, lonemother households.