Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Developing ethnic identity questions for Understanding Society
Get PDFEthnic identity, its formation, expression and consequences are sources of extensive discussion and debate within multicultural societies. Analysis of identity is increasingly finding its way into survey based analysis and is being explored by disciplines beyond psychology, and qualitative and theoretical sociology. However, effective and appropriate survey measures of ethnic identity that are suitable for inclusion in a general purpose sample survey and which allow estimation of change and development across the age range are in short supply. Here, we describe the process of development of a series of new ethnic identity questions, designed specifically for inclusion in Understanding Society but with applicability for longitudinal studies further afield. We detail the rationale for the development and the process by which the final set of questions was arrived at, and outline the implications for future research agendas
Becoming adults in Britain: lifestyles and wellbeing in times of social change
Get PDFThis study examines variations in the combination of social roles in early adulthood and their association with mental health, subjective wellbeing, and alcohol use in two nationally representative British birth cohorts, born in 1970 (n=9,897) and 1958 (n=9,171). Using latent class analysis (LCA) we develop a typology of variations in the combination of educational attainment, employment status, housing, relationship and parenthood status of cohort members in their mid-twenties. We also assess the role of early socialisation experiences and teenage life planning as predictors of these status role combinations, and link transition outcomes by age 26 to measures of alcohol use, mental health and wellbeing. In both cohorts we identified five distinct profiles: ‘work-orientation without children’, ‘traditional families’, ‘fragile families’, ‘highly educated without children’, and ‘slow starters’. These profiles are predicted by family social background, gender, own educational expectations and exam performance at age 16. The findings suggest that in both cohorts, high levels of life satisfaction are associated with either ‘work orientation without children’ or ‘traditional family’ life, suggesting that there are different transition strategies enabling individuals to become well-adjusted adults
Comprehensive education, social attitudes and civic engagement
Get PDFThe claims made for comprehensive secondary schooling in Britain have tended to invoke three kinds of rationale – relating to attainment, social mobility and the creation of an integrated or harmonious society. Much research attention has been given to the first of these, and in particular to whether comprehensive schooling reduces social inequalities of attainment and progression. Some attention, notably very recently (Boliver & Swift, 2011), has been given to the second, following from the work on attainment. The third has been somewhat neglected, and is the topic of this paper. Attempts are made to distinguish between general effects of education on civic-mindedness – in the sense that, for example, on the whole, better-educated people tend to be more liberal, respectful of diversity, and so on – and the effects specifically associated with having attended a non-selective school or non-selective system. As with the recent research on comprehensive education and social mobility, long-term effects are of greater relevance to the claims made for the consequences of comprehensive schooling than the effects in late adolescence or early adulthood. The data source is the British National Child Development Study
Childhood obesity: socioeconomic inequalities and consequences for later cardiovascular health
No full textThe last few decades have seen a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents. Being overweight or obese as a child poses considerable long-term risks, particularly for cardiovascular health. Historically, obesity was a disease of affluence. Today, both adults and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be more overweight in high-income settings. In this essay, we present analysis of three research questions using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a cohort of children born in the south west of the UK in 1991/2. Firstly, we review previously published results examining the age at which socioeconomic inequalities in adiposity emerge. Secondly, we discuss previously published evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in cardiovascular risk factors when the participants were age 10 years. And finally, we present new findings on the tracking of overweight/obesity across childhood and adolescence, and whether this differs across socioeconomic groups. Our findings show that socioeconomic differences in adiposity and cardiovascular risk factors emerge at a much earlier age than in older generations. If children are overweight/obese at age 7, there is a very low probability that they will return to a healthy weight by age 15 – although this is similar across socioeconomic groups. Together, these findings suggest an urgent need to prevent obesity at an early age, particularly amongst disadvantaged groups, in order to prevent wide socioeconomic differences in cardiovascular health in later life
Social class returns to higher education: comments on a paper by Bukodi and Goldthorpe with a response from the authors
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Life course influences on quality of life at age 50 years: evidence from the National Child Development Study (1958 British birth cohort study)
Get PDFThe objectives of this study were to investigate whether prospective data reveal life course influences on quality of life at older ages; to establish a baseline for the evolution of quality of life through the Third Age; and to estimate the relative importance of direct and indirect effects in these life course relationships. We used the age 50 years sweep of the National Child Development Study (1958 British birth cohort study) that included the CASP measure of positive quality of life at older ages, allowing prospective path analysis of life course influences on quality of life at the start of the Third Age. We found that material (social class; deprivation) and psycho-social (family conflict; family fracture) circumstances in childhood and adulthood were linked using path analysis to CASP scores at age 50 years. The strength of these relationships was modest; and their influence was primarily indirect via well-recognised contemporaneous factors. Prospective data revealed life course influences on quality of life at the start of the Third Age. We conclude that the influence of these longitudinal factors is weak in comparison with that of contemporaneous circumstances. In this respect quality of life differs from health
Role configurations in young adulthood, antecedents, and later wellbeing among Finns born in 1966
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to identify latent classes of role configurations among Finnish cohort members born in 1966, based on education, employment, housing, marital status, and parenthood, and to investigate their antecedents and individual psychosocial wellbeing outcomes. Data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC66) (N= 11, 825) were used to identify the latent classes at the age of 25–26, together with register data on education, employment, partnership, and parenthood from official registers, and data from a postal questionnaire on living arrangements, administered at age 31, and used as proxies for the 25 to 26 year old situation. Four classes were identified by latent class analysis. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate the classes’ association with their antecedent conditions and logistic/ordered logistic regression with their wellbeing outcomes
The effects of marital status transitions on alcohol use trajectories
Get PDFThis study aims to exploit the longitudinal nature of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), using a semi-parametric mixture modeling (SPMM) approach to examine whether the presence of marital transitions has an impact on alcohol use trajectories among the elderly. The empirical work of this study is based on the 1994-2008 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Findings provide support to the marriage protection effect: for both elderly men and women, remaining divorced or widowed had detrimental effects on alcohol consumption. Findings also concur with the potential roles of assortive mating / marital homophily: having a drinking spouse increased alcohol consumption