Childhood poverty is a complex, multi-dimensional and context-specific problem. This complexity of childhood poverty is not easily captured by available quantitative data. Rather than trying to break new ground, this paper aims to systematically review the literature on child poverty in Vietnam in the context of a more general debate on poverty in Vietnam. Discussion will focus on quantitative perspectives and is broadly divided into four areas:health, nutrition, education and child labour. The overall main findings from literature can be summarised as follows:

Objective: The mental health of children living in low-income countries remains a neglected research area despite the high burden of disease. This study is one of the first that examines the effects of long-term physical health problems on child mental health disorders in a low-income country and investigates whether this association is modified by the socio-economic status of the child's family.

The incidence of child labour in the World today is very high, particularly in Third World countries and an extensive literature exists on the causes of this phenomenon. However there has been little investigation into the consequences of child labour on socioeconomic outcomes of which the educational attainment of the children is one.