Denise Hawkes

Early childcare and child development

Nowadays many more young children experience non-maternal childcare than in the past. From a theoretical perspective, the effect this may have on their cognitive and behavioural development is unclear. This paper uses data from the UK for a sample of children in the Millennium Cohort Study, whose mothers were working when they were nine months old, to test how different forms of childcare at an early age play a role in the production of cognitive skills and the behavioural development of young children (measured at age three). The results show that formal group care is positively associated with school readiness test scores. But, unlike previous research, we find no association between formal group care and problem behaviour. Grandparent care, which has received negative attention in the past, is shown to be positively associated with vocabulary test scores, but also positively related to problem behavioural scores.

Age at Motherhood and Child Development: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort

Age at entry to motherhood is increasingly socially polarised in the UK. Early childbearing typically occurs among women from disadvantaged backgrounds relative to women with later first births. The Millennium Cohort finds differentials in their childrens development, cognitive and behavioural, at age 5, by mothers age. These could be due to difficulties facing immature mothers, but much of it is attributable to young mothers’ social origins, or inequalities apparent at the age 0 survey, which may also have had earlier origins. The developmental penalty left to be attributed to the mothers age per se is, at most, modest.

The timing of motherhood, mothers' employment and child outcomes

The last decades of the twentieth century have witnessed, as part of the second demographic transition affecting most industrial countries (Van de Kaa, 1987), two features of particular interest here – a delay in entry to motherhood and an increased chance of women being employed even after they have children. In Britain, these trends have not been experienced uniformly across the social spectrum. The research reported in this chapter attempts to establish links between these two phenomena, to quantify the extent of social differentials (in the timing of first motherhood and maternal employment) and to investigate their impact on the development of children

It takes patience and persistence to get negative feedback about patients’ experiences: a secondary analysis of national inpatient survey data

BackgroundPatient experience surveys are increasingly used to gain information about the quality of healthcare. This paper investigates whether patients who respond before and after reminders to a large national survey of inpatient experience differ in systematic ways in how they evaluate the care they received.MethodsThe English national inpatient survey of 2009 obtained data from just under 70,000 patients. We used ordinal logistic regression to analyse their evaluations of the quality of their care in relation to whether or not they had received a reminder before they responded.Results33% of patients responded after the first questionnaire, a further 9% after the first reminder, and a further 10% after the second reminder. Evaluations were less positive among people who responded only after a reminder and lower still among those who needed a second reminder.ConclusionsQuality improvement efforts depend on having accurate data and negative evaluations of care received in healthcare settings are particularly valuable. This study shows that there is a relationship between the time taken to respond and patients’ evaluations of the care they received, with early responders being more likely to give positive evaluations. This suggests that bias towards positive evaluations could be introduced if the time allowed for patients to respond is truncated or if reminders are omitted.

Timing of motherhood and mothers’ employment and child outcomes

The last decades of the twentieth century have witnessed, as part of the second demographic transition affecting most industrial countries (Van der Kaa, 1987), two features of particular interest here - a delay in entry to motherhood and an increased chance of women being employed even after they have children. In Britain, these trends have not been experienced uniformly accross the social spectrum. The research reported in this chapter, attempts to establish links between these two phenomena, to quantify the extent of social differentials (in the timing of first motherhood and maternal employment) and to investigate their impact on the development of children.