The conference took place on 19.09.2022 and was organized by the Cognitive Science Research Center at New Bulgarian University in partnership with UNICEF Bulgaria and TSA (Trust for Social Alternatives)(see more https://cogsci.nbu.bg/bg/konferencii )

Within the third panel “The role of community and family as an environment for early childhood development in poverty – linking science, interventions and policies” we had the opportunity to speak on the topic “The role of research on psychological aspects of poverty as an approach for better planning of interventions and policies”. We presented a small part of the preliminary results of an online survey we did among parents about how they cope in their daily life in the environment where they live and take care of their children. The report was prepared and presented by our colleague Milena Marinova, psychologist and practitioner in the field of psycho-social work with children and families.

On the basis of the research and on the basis of the study of the topic we advocated two main theses:

the first is that there are different understandings and attitudes towards poverty that influence attitudes towards the implementation of policies and measures to combat it; various international studies have shown that people are almost evenly divided between thinking that the poor are poor because they are lazy and do not work and those who think that poverty is due to multiple factors and circumstances outside of people; in our country there is an attitude towards people who receive welfare as people who live easily “on the backs of others”, i.e. This is a serious problem of confrontation between different groups in society, but also of a permanent formation of attitudes against people who live in extreme poverty; it contributes to the deepening of stigmatisation

the second, that environmental poverty, i.e. circumstances outside people, can be a major driver of isolation and deepening poverty; in our country social services are unevenly distributed, there are not enough and well-qualified professionals; children at the earliest age from 0 to 3 years and their families are the least covered by services for early identification of developmental difficulties and early intervention; there are serious challenges for the education system to meet the needs of children with developmental difficulties

In the survey we conducted, we reached 80 participants, divided into three groups of parents: 22% parents of young children, 10% parents of children with chronic illness or disabilities, and 68% parents of children with developmental disabilities or disabilities

What parents of children with developmental disabilities and parents who have a disability shared about how they cope in our daily lives and what difficulties they face:

“Village infrastructure makes life very difficult for people with disabilities and for children and their families.”

“Inclusive education is only on paper, children are unwanted, there are no trained staff to look after them. Kindergartens and schools are given funds and children stay home.”

“I would do online all the bureaucracy it takes to carry YOU in person caring for a person/child with a disability at the same time.”

This is a small part of the parents’ perspective that we will continue to explore until the end of September, because we believe that research on the psychological aspects of the impact of poverty can make an outstanding contribution to finding effective measures to combat child poverty and poverty of families of specific target groups.

The fight against poverty is complex and requires targeted efforts and measurement of the effects of the measures and policies implemented. There are no well-developed practices in this respect in our country.

The data presented in the survey of parents show that there is a need to change many approaches in the fight against poverty and to broaden the scope of measures to meet the needs of specific target groups.