Abstract: Measuring children’s basic needs and deprivation from a multidimensional perspective is of great significance for exploring relative poverty governance and improving children’s well-being. As an exploratory study, this paper identifies the basic needs of children based on the perspective of children, and further uses the Alkire-Foster (A-F) method to measure and compare the multidimensional deficits of children in the eastern and western regions under the framework of deprivation and social exclusion. The results show that a child-centered indicator system is different from the framework preset by adults. Specifically, adults pay more attention to children’s survival needs and ignore children’s social needs. Second, regional imbalances in economic development affect children’s perception of basic living needs. Children in economically disadvantaged areas are more likely to develop a deep and long-term sense of deprivation, while children in economically developed areas perceive more social exclusion. Lastly, identifying the factors that contribute to children’s perception of deprivation and social exclusion will be a future focus for alleviating multidimensional child poverty and promoting child well-being. For economically disadvantaged areas, it is crucial to expand support for children and their families, improve children’s health and satisfy children’s needs for energy and learning resource. However, for economically developed regions, child policies need to shift towards public services and community support to reduce children’s feelings of multidimensional social exclusion.

Key words: children’s perception, basic needs, method of necessity consensus, deprivation, social exclusion