Samantha Parsons

The influence of context, timing, and duration of risk experiences for the passage from childhood to midadulthood

This study investigated the long-term effects of social disadvantage on academic achievement and on subsequent attainments in adulthood. The study drew on data collected for over 30,000 individuals born 12 years apart, following their development from birth to adulthood. The pathways that link social disadvantage to individual development across the life course were analyzed in a developmental-contextual systems model. The results showed that the influence of risk factors associated with socioeconomic disadvantage depended on the developmental stage of the individual, the experience of long-term or continuous disadvantage, and the overall sociohistorical context. Early risk had a moderate influence on the formation of individual competences. The greatest risk was associated with persisting and accumulating experiences of socioeconomic disadvantage throughout childhood and adolescence. Material conditions improved for the later-born cohort, yet pervasive social inequalities existed that affected outcomes during childhood and were consequently reflected in adult attainment.

Socioeconomic adversity, educational resilience, and subsequent levels of adult adaptation

The aim of this article is to determine the extent to which individual, family, and contextual resources influence the school adjustment of 16-year-old teenagers and to investigate their consequent adult attainments at age 33. Adopting a longitudinal perspective, the experiences of more than 9,000 socially advantaged and disadvantaged young people are compared. The study shows that socioeconomic adversity is a significant risk factor for educational failure and that it influences consequent adjustment in work and healthrelated outcomes. Various social-psychological factors can counterbalance such adversity. In particular, parental educational aspirations for their child are significantly associated with educational resilience among less privileged individuals. The study confirms the long-term stability of secondary school adjustment. It is concluded that the factors and processes that modify the impact of adversity are context specific and that their influences have to be studied in the context in which they operate.

Children's language ability and psychosocial development: a 29-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVES: Little is known on the psychosocial adult outcomes of childrens early language skills or intervening circumstances. The aim of this study was to assess the longitudinal trajectory linking childhood receptive language skills to psychosocial outcomes in later life. METHODS: The study comprised 6941 men and women who participated in a nationally representative Birth Cohort Study. Direct assessment of language skills were made at age 5. The sample was studied again at age 34 to assess psychosocial outcomes and levels of adult mental health. Characteristics of the family environment, individual adjustment, and social adaptation in the transition to adulthood were assessed as potential moderating factors linking early language skills to adult mental health. RESULTS: In early childhood, cohort members with poor receptive language experienced more disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances than cohort members with normal language skills and showed more behavior and psychosocial adjustment problems in the transition to adulthood. At age 34, cohort members with poor early language skills reported lower levels of mental health than cohort members with normal language. After adjustment for family background and experiences of social adaptation, early language skills maintained a significant and independent impact in predicting adult mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Early receptive language skills are significantly associated with adult mental health as well as psychosocial adjustment during early childhood and in later life. The needs of children with language problems are complex and call for early and continuing provision of educational support and services.

Childhood Language Skills and Adult Literacy: A 29-Year Follow-up Study

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to assess the longitudinal trajectory of childhood receptive language skills and early influences on the course of language development. METHODS: Drawing on data collected for a nationally representative British birth cohort, the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examined the relationship between directly assessed early receptive language ability, family background, housing conditions, early literacy environment, and adult literacy skills. A sample of 11349 cohort members who completed the English Picture Vocabulary Test at 5 years of age were studied again at 34 years of age, when they completed a direct assessment of their basic literacy skills. We contrasted experiences of individuals with language problems at age 5 against the experiences of those with normal language skills at that age, assessing the role of socioeconomic family background and early literacy environment in influencing the longitudinal course of developmental language problems. Statistical comparisons of rates with χ2 tests at P values of .001, .01, and .05 were made, as well as multivariate logistic regressions. RESULTS: Cohort members with receptive language problems at age 5 had a relatively disadvantaged home life in childhood, both in terms of socioeconomic resources and the education level of their parents, but also regarding their exposure to a stimulating early literacy environment. Although there is significant risk for poor adult literacy among children with early language problems, the majority of these children develop competent functional literacy levels by the age of 34. Factors that reduce the risk for persistent language problems include the child being born into a working family, parental education beyond minimum school-leaving age, advantageous housing conditions, and preschool attendance. CONCLUSION: Effective literacy-promoting interventions provided by pediatric primary care providers should target both children and parents.

Qualifications, Basic Skills and Accelerating Social Exclusion.

A manifestation of social exclusion is difficulty in gaining and retaining employment. In the modern labour market, employability is said to be bound up with the possession of human capital in the form of skills and qualifications. This paper compares the early labour market experiences of two cohorts born in 1958 and 1970 respectively (National Child Development Study-NCDS, and 1970 British Cohort Study-BCS70). We demonstrate that for the younger cohort, unemployment rates at different ages were consistently higher for those without qualifications than for the older cohort. Logistic regression analysis, using extended experience of unemployment as the outcome variable, shows heightened significance for possession of qualifications and numeracy skills as protection against unemployment. It is concluded that those without these attributes are likely to experience increasing difficulty in obtaining and retaining employment. Across the generations, the process of social exclusion is accelerating.

Neighbourhood cohesion and mental wellbeing among older adults: a mixed methods approach.

There is now a body of evidence that demonstrates strong links between neighbourhood characteristics and mental health and wellbeing. There is an increasing interest in how this relationship varies for individuals of different ages. Understanding the link between neighbourhood and wellbeing for older adults is of particular significance, given the changing age structure of the population and the desire among policy makers and practitioners to promote healthy and active ageing. This paper provides further evidence on the nature and strength of the link between individual perceptions of neighbourhood belonging and mental wellbeing among those over age fifty using both qualitative and quantitative data from three British cohort studies. Between 2008 and 2011 quantitative data were collected from 10,312 cohort members, and 230 of them took part in qualitative biographical interviews. Quantitative analysis confirms that there is a moderate association between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing measured at the individual level in each of the three cohorts. This association persists after controlling for a range of covariates including personality. The association between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing is stronger for individuals in the older two cohorts than in the younger cohort. Using qualitative biographical interviews with 116 men and 114 women we illustrate how individuals talk about their sense of neighbourhood belonging. The importance of social participation as a mechanism for promoting neighbourhood belonging, and the use of age and life stage as characteristics to describe and define neighbours, is clear. In addition, the qualitative interviews point to the difficulties of using a short battery of questions to capture the varied and multi-dimensional nature of neighbourhood relations.

Social origins, school type and higher education destinations

To what extent and why do social origins matter for access to higher education, including access to elite universities? What is the role of private and selective schooling? This paper uses the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to analyse the trajectories of a generation currently in early middle age. We find that the influence of social origins, especially parental education, remains when both a wide range of cognitive measures and school attainment are controlled. Attending a private school is powerfully predictive of gaining a university degree, and especially a degree from an elite institution, while grammar schooling does not appear to confer any advantage.

Prevalence of streaming in UK primary schools: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

The adoption of streaming in the primary school (where children are placed in a class on the basis of measures of attainment and remain in that class all of the time) was commonplace when the 11 plus examination was used to select children for grammar school places. During the 1950s and 1960s the practice died out with most children being taught in mixed ability classes with some in-class grouping. During the 1990s successive governments indicated that some form of ability grouping should be introduced in primary schools, setting (children placed in ability groups for some subjects and taught in mixed groups for the remainder of the time) being preferred, however, streaming was introduced in some schools despite evidence that movement between structured ability groups is infrequent and that children tend to remain in the same groups throughout their school careers limiting their educational opportunities. Recent research based on 8875 children, in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 16.4% of children in Year 2 were in streamed classes. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top stream were whether the child was born in autumn or winter 2000, parents owning their own home, and the child’s cognitive ability score. The measures predicting being in the bottom stream were being a boy, being born in the spring/summer of 2001, having a behaviour problem, being born into a lone parent family, and cognitive ability score.

The incidence and make up of ability grouped sets in the UK primary school

The adoption of setting in the primary school (pupils ability grouped across classes for particular subjects) emerged during the 1990s as a means to raise standards. Recent research based on 8875 children in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 25.8% of children in Year 2 were set for literacy and mathematics and a further 11.2% of children were set for mathematics or literacy alone. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top set for literacy or mathematics were whether the child was born in the Autumn or Winter and cognitive ability scores. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to be in the bottom literacy set. Family circumstances held less importance for setting placement compared with the child’s own characteristics, although they were more important in relation to bottom set placement. Children in bottom sets were significantly more likely to be part of a long-term single parent household, have experienced poverty, and not to have a mother with qualifications at NVQ3 or higher levels. The findings are discussed in relation to earlier research and the implications for schools are set out.

The relationship between gender, receptive vocabulary, and literacy from school entry through to adulthood

Abstract It is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls, but this assumption is largely based on studies with small, clinical samples or focusing on expressive language skills. This study examines the relationship between gender and receptive vocabulary, literacy, and non-verbal performance at 5 years through to adulthood. The participants were a UK birth cohort of 11,349 children born in one week in March 1970. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the association of gender with language and literacy at 5 and 34 years. Non-verbal abilities were comparable at 5 years, but there were significant differences for both receptive vocabulary and reading, favouring the boys and the girls, respectively. Boys but not girls who had parents who were poor readers were more likely to be not reading at 5 years. Gender was not associated with adulthood literacy. Boys may have a slight advantage over girls in terms of their receptive vocabulary, raising questions about the skills tested and the characteristics of clinical populations. The findings are discussed in terms of the nature of the way that children are assessed and the assumptions underpinning clinical practice.