Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Can we spot deleterious ageing in two waves of data? The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 from ages 70 to 73
Get PDF‘Younger’ old age (the late 60s through early 70s) is, for many, a period of stability of lifestyle and considerable freedom to pursue leisure activities. Despite the stability that many enjoy, the mortality rate is about 2% per year in western nations. This increases to about 5% by age 80. It would be useful to know if those most vulnerable can be identified through patterns of deleterious ageing, and especially if this could be accomplished with just two waves of data. The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 was surveyed on a host of individual difference variables including cognition, personality, biomarkers of physical health, and activities at ages 70 and 73 years. Overall, the group showed the expected basic stability in mean levels for these variables, but some individuals had died and others did show substantial changes that could be considered statistically reliable. These presumably reliable changes were at least as likely to be positive (reflecting improved condition/ability) as negative (reflecting decline/ageing). Moreover, limitations in the estimated reliabilities of the measures meant that most of the observed changes could not be considered reliable. The changes clustered only weakly around general health to predict death over the next approximately two years. We concluded that two waves of longitudinal data were not sufficient to assess meaningful patterns of ageing, despite often being used to do so
Father involvement, family poverty and adversity, and young children’s behaviour in intact two-parent families
No full textUsing data from the first two sweeps of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) we explored the association between father involvement and young children’s emotional and behavioural adjustment among continuously two-parent families (N = 9,498). We also investigated the role of father involvement in moderating the association between contextual risk (family-level adverse life events and family-level socio-economic disadvantage) and young children’s adjustment. We found that early father involvement was negatively associated with later emotional symptoms, but no other problem behaviour, and dampened the effect of socio-economic disadvantage, but not adverse life events, on emotional symptoms. Our findings highlighted the importance of considering specificity at both child outcome and contextual risk levels when modelling father involvement effects
Patterns of adult roles, their antecedents and psychosocial wellbeing correlates among Finns born in 1959
Get PDFThe study aimed to identify patterns of adult role combinations across the transitional domains of housing, educational attainment, work, partnership, and parenthood at age 27, and to investigate their antecedents and concurrent psychosocial well-being correlates. Data were derived for 354 Finns (born in 1959) from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. Three latent classes were identified: Work-orientation with delayed parenthood (WO; 46%; completed adult transitions of independent living, education, work, and partnership), Traditional work and family (35%; completed all five adult transitions), and Academic track with no children (AT; 19%; completed independent living, education, work, and partnership transitions). Individuals in the Traditional pattern were more likely to be women, whereas individuals in the AT and WO patterns were more likely to be men. The socio-economic status (SES) and structure of the family of origin did not differentiate the patterns, but individuals in the AT pattern had had higher school success and educational aspirations in adolescence than those in the other patterns. Early adult life satisfaction and career stability were higher, and depressive symptoms and binge drinking lower in the Traditional pattern than in WO. Life satisfaction was also higher in AT than in WO
Parental separation and adult psychological distress: evidence for the 'reduced effect' hypothesis?
Get PDFParental separation has been linked to increased likelihood of reporting psychological distress in adulthood, but relatively little is known about how this association may have changed over time. One hypothesis is that as the experience of separation has become more common, the association with psychological distress will reduce (the ‘reduced effect’ hypothesis). Previous evidence using the British birth cohorts does not support this hypothesis, but past studies have several limitations which we aim to address. In this study we measure parental separation from birth, account for missing data and statistically test cohort differences using data from two British birth cohorts – the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS). Despite these methodological improvements, we find little evidence to support the ‘reduced effect’ hypothesis: parental separation was associated with a similarly increased likelihood of reporting psychological distress in adulthood for men and women in both cohorts
Role statuses and transitions in adolescence and young adulthood: reflections and implications
Get PDFThe reflections begin by considering the methodological challenges in undertaking comparative youth transition research as exemplified by the Special Section papers. The paper then moves to the findings of the analysis reported and their interpretation in context. The final sections discuss substantive and methodological issues raised by the research and finish with some conclusions about next steps in what needs to be a continuing comparative programme
