Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Statistical modelling of repeated measurement data
Get PDFThis tutorial describes ways of modelling repeated measurements taken on a sample of individuals. It gives a brief historical introduction and then describes how a 2-level formulation provides a flexible and straightforward approach
Birth outcomes and early-life social characteristics predict unequal educational outcomes across the life course and across generations
No full textWe investigated the effects of adverse birth characteristics and social disadvantage upon educational outcomes over the lifecourse and across generations. Our subjects were 12,674 Swedish infants born 1915-1929 and 9,706 of their grandchildren born 1973-1980. Within both cohorts, better school achievement (schoolmarks in elementary school) was predicted by: heavier birthweight, lower birth order, older mother, married mother and higher family social class. These effects persisted after mutual-adjustment, and birth characteristics and family composition did not play a major role in explaining social class effects. There were no independent effects of pre-term or twin status, but weak evidence of a disadvantage to post-term infants. The predictors of education continuation (secondary school attendance and entrance to tertiary education) were very similar, with family composition and social class effects persisting even after adjusting for school achievement. In cross-generational analyses, better educational outcomes in the grandchildren were predicted by heavier birthweight, lower birth order and higher social class in the grandparents. These associations became non-significant and/or were substantially attenuated after adjusting for grandchild socio-economic position in childhood, suggesting that this was the major mechanism for this effect. We conclude that multiple early-life characteristics predict educational outcomes across the lifecourse and across generations. This includes birth characteristics and family composition effects which typically receive far less attention than socio-economic influences. Most effects were remarkably stable across the half-century separating our cohorts, suggesting their potential relevance for understanding educational inequalities in populations around the world
The origins and innovatory nature of the 1946 British national birth cohort study
Get PDF The first of Britain’s six large-scale birth cohort studies began in 1946, within eleven months of the end of the Second World War. Evidence is given in support of the argument that the initial aims of the first study were determined mostly by pre-war policy and scientific concerns with falling fertility and the social gradient in infant mortality. It is also shown that the methods and dynamic of the study were provided by the enthusiasm and expertise of a young demographer, and by a young physician’s expertise and war-time experience of data collection and analysis. Their pioneering methods of data collection, their concern with both science and policy, and with biological as well as social questions, and the physician’s determination and persistence in swimming against the tide of contemporary scientific opinion, provided a strong basis for the study, which still continues
Family income,education and cognitive ability in the next generation: exploring income gradients in education and test scores for current cohorts of youth
Get PDFThe relationship between the incomes of the family a child is growing up in and the education level the child obtains has been of great interest to researchers for a number of reasons. Firstly, this gives us a measure of educational inequality in its own right and secondly, because the relationship between family income and education is also one of the key drivers of intergenerational income mobility across time in the UK and gradients in life chances across a range of other domains. This paper explores the evolution of the relationship between family income and education for a group of cohorts from those born in 1958 to those born in 1991/92. The range of educational relationships we can measure depends on the age of the child. For older cohorts, who we observe as finished in education, we can measure the full range of educational outcomes up to degree level and their relationship with family income. For younger cohorts who are in earlier stages of education, we can measure test scores and GCSE results but not later educational outcomes
Sex differences in childhood hearing impairment and adult obesity
Get PDFSome adult neurological complications of obesity may have early-life origins. Here, we examine associations of childhood hearing impairment with childhood and adult obesity, among 3288 male and 3527 female members of a longitudinal cohort born in Great Britain in 1970. Height and weight were measured at age 10 years and self-reported at 34 years. Audiometry was conducted at age 10 years. The dependent variable in logistic regression was minor bilateral hearing impairment as a marker of systemic effects, while BMI at age 10 or 34 years were modelled as independent variables with adjustment for potential confounding factors including social class, maternal education and pubertal development at age 10 years. Among females, the adjusted odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) for hearing impairment at age 10 years were 2.33 (1.36-3.98) for overweight/obesity; and at age 34 years they were 1.71 (1.00-2.92) for overweight and 2.73 (1.58-4.71) for obesity and the associations were not explained by Childhood BMI at age 10 years. There were no consistent associations among males and interaction testing revealed statistically significant effect modification by sex. The dose-dependent associations among females are consistent with childhood origins for some obesity-associated impaired neurological function and the possible existence of a ‘pre-obese syndrome'. The accumulation of risks for poorer health among those who become obese in later life begins in childhood. Childhood exposures associated with bilateral hearing impairment are risks for obesity in later life among females.
The association of childhood socio-economic position and psychological distress in adulthood: is it mediated by adult socio-economic position?
Get PDFThere is substantial evidence that lower socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with poorer mental health outcomes. However, uncertainties exist about the origins of socioeconomic gradients in mental health problems and the relative contributions of both childhood and adult SEP. In this study we assess the association of childhood SEP with psychological distress in adulthood and investigate how much of this association is mediated by adult SEP.Data for this cross-sectional analysis came from Wave 3 of the Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE) in New Zealand (n=14,470). Childhood SEP was measured using parental occupation recalled at age 10. Non-specific psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler 10 scale (K10). Adult SEP was measured using five socioeconomic indicators (area deprivation, household income, wealth, labour market activity, education). The association of childhood SEP with psychological distress before and after controlling for confounders and adult SEP indicators was determined using logistic regression with the K10 dichotomised at low/moderate versus high/very high. Sensitivity analyses included birth cohort and sex.There was a weak inverse relationship between increasing proportion of psychological distress with lower childhood SEP. Adjusted for age, sex and ethnicity, respondents with low compared to high childhood SEP had 1.35 greater odds of reporting high psychological distress (95% CI 1.13-1.60). Adjustment for adult mediating SEP variables led to a 77% reduction in the excess odds ratio to 1.08 (95% CI 0.90-1.29). The relationship did not significantly differ by birth cohort or sex. This finding is consistent with the current evidence that socioeconomic circumstances in adulthood are important determinants of inequalities in adult mental health and mediate much of the association of childhood SEP with adult psychological distress
Post-school education and social class destinations in Scotland in the 1950s
Get PDFData from the 1947 Scottish Mental Survey are used to investigate the relationship between type of secondary school attended and both post-school education up to age 27 and also occupational status by age 27, controlling for social background (social class, parental education, gender), intelligence at age 12, and attitude to school work. The survey was based on a representative sample of all children born in Scotland in 1936. They were first surveyed in 1947 and then almost annually to 1963. The focus of the paper is on the legacies of several waves of reform to secondary education in the first half of the twentieth century. The main research questions are whether the reforms extended access to educational attainment up to age 27 and thus widened access to high-status occupations. These questions are investigated using mainly multiple linear regression. The conclusions are that access was extended, but that people who had attended the older-established secondaries that pre-dated the reforms were more successful educationally and occupationally than people who attended newer foundations, even controlling for social background and intelligence. This effect was especially pronounced for pupils of above-average intelligence, the old schools providing them with particularly pronounced opportunities in adulthood