Adaptive deprivation scales in a multi-national context: the European child deprivation indicators

In 2018, EU Member States adopted a 17-item scale to measure child deprivation and monitor progress in their fight against child poverty. This indicator will be collected in future each three years via an ad hoc module of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Previous research has shown how deprivation measures can be implemented more efficiently and with minimal information loss using adaptive testing, at least in the context of a single country. This paper examines the scope to implement the adaptive approach in a multi-national context with wide variations in deprivation levels and potentially in cultural preferences for consumption. The paper shows that the adaptive approach works effectively in this context. Time savings of around 40 per cent can be achieved with very minimal information losses both at the EU level and at the level of each individual country. Time savings are much greater in countries with lower deprivation. The adaptive approach may therefore offer particular advantages in a multi-national context as it can provide a consistent measure for all participating countries while targeting survey time and resources where they are most needed.