Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
Not a member yet
277 research outputs found
Sort by
Childhood evacuation during World War II and subsequent cognitive ability: the Scottish Mental Survey 1947
Full text linkChildhood evacuation during World War II was reported by a recent Finnish study to be associated with lower intelligence at follow-up in to early and late adulthood (Pesonen et al., 2011, 2013). Opportunities of conducting such natural experiment studies are rare, and yet they contribute to understanding impacts of the early life environment on cognitive development and ability. We investigated the association between evacuation and later cognitive ability in a different national sample. This included 6,082 pre-school boys and girls, 768 of whom were evacuated from their homes in Scotland between 1939 and 1945. The mean duration of evacuation was 14.8 months (SD = 17.8, Mdn = 7.0). Cognitive ability was measured at age 11, in 1947, using the Moray House Test (No. 12). Evacuated children scored on average 1.5 points higher on intelligence test scores relative to their non-evacuated peers (Cohen’s d = 0.10, p = .038). The p value was .070 after controlling for potential confounders, including socioeconomic status. These findings, in contrast with those from Finland, raise the possibility that evacuation in Scotland may have had a small positive effect on children’s cognitive ability scores, due to a difference in educational and environmental exposures. However, analysis of a subset of results using sibling intelligence data, could not rule out selection bias, caused by higher intellectual-ability parents’ being more likely to volunteer their children for evacuation. Nevertheless, any supposed adverse effect of evacuation on children in Scotland was not reflected in subsequent intellectual performance
Exploring household dynamics: the reciprocal effects of parent and child characteristics
Full text linkA burgeoning line of literature has shown there are strong effects of maternal mental health on child socio-emotional development (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Downey & Coyne, 1990; Mensah & Kiernan, 2010; Smith, 2004). This literature is often based on the examination of dyadic relationships, where maternal mental health is hypothesised to have an effect on child development and well-being, and the mother-child relationship is examined in isolation of other household relationships. This may also be true in clinical practice: while family dynamics are often considered when treating children for behavioural problems or other psychological symptoms, this is often not the case when the parents are treated. However, household dynamics are complex, and other household members may have an effect both on the well-being of the mother and the child. Furthermore, children’s characteristics can also have a feedback effect on their parents’ outcomes. While the literature often concentrates on the effects of parents’ characteristics on child outcomes, the reverse might also occur. In this paper, we employ a structural equation model with crossed lagged effects, to understand the reciprocal relationships between the mother’s mental health, the child socio-emotional development, and the quality of the parental relationship. Analyses were conducted using longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective national birth cohort of children born in the UK in 2000-2001. The Millennium Cohort Study has a wealth of information on the socio-economic background of the household, and has collected data on the mother’s mental health, the quality of the parents’ relationship, and the children’s socio-emotional development. In this work we look at data relating to the pre-school age, a crucial developmental age which has often been missing from the literature
Realising health data linkage from a researcher’s perspective: following up the 6-Day Sample of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947
Full text linkHealth and wellbeing in old age are influenced by genetic, environmental and social factors throughout the life course. At present, few longitudinal studies offer information from childhood through to old age. Data linkage between multiple sources of health data enhances the value of existing longitudinal data. Regulations governing access to personal data for health research exist to protect the privacy and confidentiality of data on behalf of the individual. This paper outlines the process of obtaining permission for data linkage from a researchers’ perspective, using a case study which offers an unusual opportunity to understand life course influences such as socio-economic status, childhood deprivation and measured intelligence on health and wellbeing in old age in an entire year-of-birth population. The Scottish Mental Survey 1947 (SMS1947, n = 70,805) has childhood intelligence data from individuals born in 1936 and attending schools in Scotland in June 1947. Representative sub-groups of the SMS1947 provided additional sociological information. The 6-Day Sample (n = 1,208), born on 6 days of 1936, were followed up for 16 years to age 27. Their younger siblings also took an intelligence test and were followed up for several years. Our team’s planned research on the SMS1947 falls into two distinct parts. The first is a revival of the 6-Day Sample study involving tracing Sample members and inviting survivors to a follow-up study. The second part aims to carry out linkage between existing data on the SMS1947, its sub-groups, and the younger siblings, and morbidity and mortality data from central databases in Scotland and in England and Wales. We conclude by offering some recommendations for simplifying the process of obtaining permission to access linked health data, and place these into the context of the shifting landscape of data linkage in the UK and beyond
Did the Great Recession affect young people’s aspirations and reinforce social inequality?
Full text linkA discussio
Partnership formation and dissolution over the life course: applying sequence analysis and event history analysis in the study of recurrent events
Full text linkWe present two types of approach to the analysis of recurrent events for discretely measured data, and show how these methods can complement each other when analysing co-residential partnership histories. Sequence analysis is a descriptive tool that gives an overall picture of the data and helps to find typical and atypical patterns in histories. Event history analysis is used to make conclusions about the effects of covariates on the timing and duration of the partnerships. As a substantive question, we studied how family background and childhood socio-emotional characteristics were related to later partnership formation and stability in a Finnish cohort born in 1959. We found that high self-control of emotions at age 8 was related to a lower risk of partnership dissolution and for women a lower probability of repartnering. Child-centred parenting practices during childhood were related to a lower risk of dissolution for women. Socially active boys were faster at forming partnerships as men
Parental worklessness and the experience of NEET among their offspring. Evidence from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)
Full text linkThis paper examines the assocations between parental worklessness and the experiences of their offspring making the transition from school to work during a time that included a major economic downturn. The study draws on data collected for the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), a cohort of young people born in 1989/90 completing compulsory education in 2006 – just before the onset of the Great Recession. Data on parental worklessness collected between 2004 and 2006 was linked to information about subsequent employment activities of their offspring, in particular the experience of not being in education, employment or training (NEET) between 2007 and 2010 (ages 16 to 20 years). Parental worklessness was significantly associated with their sons’ and daughters’ experience of being NEET for longer periods of time (months spent in NEET). However, much of this association was explained by a number of other socio-economic risks facing these young people and their families (e.g. low parental education level, living in rented accommodation and in highly deprived neighbourhoods). Furthermore, the role of individual agency, in particular educational achievement orientation (EAO) as a potential mediator was examined. Although parental worklessness was associated with lower levels of EAO, especially among young males, the findings also suggest that EAO can serve as a potential resource for young men and women in adverse economic circumstances. The study does not support the assumption of an inter-generational transmission of a ‘culture of worklessness’ but points to the role of multiple deprivations and lack of local opportunities in shaping the life chances of young people
Parental economic hardship and children's achievement orientations
Full text linkWhile children’s orientations to achievement are strong predictors of attainments, little is known about how parental economic hardship during recessionary times influences children’s orientations to their futures. The Youth Development Study has followed a community sample of young people in St Paul, Minnesota from mid-adolescence through their mid-thirties with near-annual surveys, and has recently begun surveying the children of this cohort. Using linked parent and child data, the present study examines the relationship between parental economic hardship and children's achievement orientations in the aftermath of the recent “Great Recession.” Initial OLS analyses draw on 345 parent-child pairs, with data collected from parents in 2011 as well as during the preceding decade, and from their children (age 11 and older) in 2011. Then, first difference models are estimated, based on a smaller sample (N=209) of parents and children who completed surveys in both 2009 and 2011. Our findings indicate that when families are more vulnerable, as a result of low parental education and prior parental unemployment experience, children’s achievement orientations are more strongly threatened by the family’s economic circumstances. For example, as parental financial problems increased, efficacy declined only among children of the least well-educated parents. Low household incomes diminished educational aspirations only when parents experienced unemployment during the ten years prior to the recent recession. Parental achievement orientations, as adolescents, were also found to moderate the impacts of shifts in the family’s economic circumstances. Finally, boys reacted more strongly to their parents’ hardship
How wrong were we? Dependent interviewing, self-reports and measurement error in occupational mobility in panel surveys
Full text linkOccupation is a central concept in sociology and economics and individual change in occupation is of major importance to literatures on wage determination, human capital, careers and social mobility. The collection of occupational data in surveys, particularly panel surveys, is challenging due to measurement error, and observed rates of occupational mobility are argued to be overestimated. We use a methodological discontinuity in the collection of occupational data from independent interviewing (respondents are asked to describe their occupation each year) to dependent interviewing (respondents are shown their previous response and only asked to describe their occupation if this has changed) and information on self-reported occupational changes in two panel surveys to estimate the degree of error in occupational mobility in panel data. We also test whether observed patterns differ by the level of aggregation of occupational classifications and examine the external validity of different measures of occupational mobility through their predicted impacts on selected labour market outcomes. Results indicate that occupational mobility is dramatically lower under dependent than independent interviewing (particularly for highly disaggregated occupational classifications) and that there is an evident mismatch between respondents’ self-reports of occupational switches and mobility measures inferred from changes in occupational codes. The impacts of occupational changes on earnings and job satisfaction are more consistent with theoretical predictions under dependent than independent interviewing and when occupational mobility is inferred from respondents’ self-reports. These findings have important implications for survey design, question the validity of existing studies on occupational change and call for further research
