Research round-up – July to September 2019

Among Black African and Caribbean families, why are children from advantaged backgrounds more likely to be obese than their less privileged peers? And, do adolescents from religious families tend to fare better in their GCSEs?

Are teens spending too much time online to the detriment of their sleep and health? And, what role does household income play in children’s cognitive development, compared to parents’ education?

Researchers from around the world have been using CLS study data to tackle these and other key questions.

This quarter we have added 23 new papers to the CLS Bibliography, a searchable database of research based on the 1958, 1970, Next Steps and millennium cohort studies. The research addresses pertinent questions in the fields of child development, education and social mobility, to health and wellbeing, families, and ageing.

Each month we find and add new research to our bibliography, and each quarter we will be compiling a round-up of recent academic papers using CLS study data. If you have a paper to add to the bibliography, please contact us.

Featured research

Richer doesn’t tend to mean thinner for ethnic minority children, new study finds

The UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies research found that White children from less advantaged homes had a 13 per cent higher risk of being overweight or obese than White children who were more advantaged. The opposite was true for Black African and Caribbean children, as the researchers found that those from poorer homes had a 37 per cent lower risk of being overweight or obese than Black children from richer families. Among Indian children, there was no statistically significant difference between those of wealthier and poorer parents. This was also true of Pakistani and Bangladeshi children.

When richer doesn’t mean thinner: ethnicity, socio-economic position and the risk of child obesity in the U.K. by Alice Goisis, Melissa Martinson and Wendy Sigle was published in Demographic Research (Millennium Cohort Study)

Child development

Household income and sticky floors in children’s cognitive development: Evidence from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study by Yekaterina Chzhen and Zlata Bruckauf was published in Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (Millennium Cohort Study)

Family structure trajectories and early child health in the UK: Pathways to health by Lidia Panico, Melanie Bartley, Yvonne J. Kelly, Anne McMunn, and Amanda Sacker was published in Social Science & Medicine (Millennium Cohort Study)

Education

Social origin, field of study and graduates’ career progression: does social inequality vary across fields? by Marita Jacob and Markus Klein was published in the British Journal of Sociology (1970 British Cohort Study)

Religion, religiosity and educational attainment: evidence from the compulsory education system in England by John Moffat and Hong Il Yoo was published in Applied Economics (Next Steps)

‘First in Family’ University Graduates in England by Morag Henderson, Dominique Shure, and Anna Adamecz-Völgyi was published in the IZA Discussion Paper (Next Steps)

Health

Clinical onset of atopic eczema: Results from 2 nationally representative British birth cohorts followed through midlife by Katrina Abuabara et al was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study)

Is the relationship between men’s age at first birth and midlife health changing? Evidence from two British cohorts by Elina Einiö, Alice Goisis and Mikko Myrskylä was published in SSM Population Health  (National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study)

Prevalence and Correlates of Meeting Sleep, Screen-Time, and Physical Activity Guidelines Among Adolescents in the United Kingdom by Natalie Pearson, Lauren B. Sherar, Mark Hamer was published in JAMA Pediatrics (Millennium Cohort Study)

Family income and exposure to norovirus in childhood: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study by Mara Violato, David Taylor-Robinson, Daniel Hungerford, Alastair Gray, Sarah O’Brien, Miren Iturriza-Gomara was published in SSM – Population Health (Millennium Cohort Study)

No Evidence for Association of BMI with Salivary Amylase Gene Copy Number in the UK 1958 Birth Cohort by Nzar AA Shwan, and John AL Armour was published in Obesity (National Child Development Study)

Self-rated Health Over the Life Course: Evidence from the 1958 and 1970 British Birth Cohorts by George B. Ploubidis and Benedetta Pongiglione was published in Pathways to Health (National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study)

Modelling the socio-economic determinants of fertility: a mediation analysis using the parametric g-formula by Maarten J. Bijlsma and Ben Wilson was published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A  (1970 British Cohort Study)

Does smoking, drinking, physical activity, and self-reported health mediate the relation between education and voting during midlife? Evidence from the 1958 national child development study by T. Gagné, I. Schoon, and A. Sacker was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health  (National Child Development Study)

Political engagement’s non-political roots: examining the role of basic psychological needs in the political domain by Alexander Wuttke was published in Motivation and Emotion (1970 British Cohort Study)

Mental health and wellbeing 

Association Between Childhood Behavioral Problems and Insomnia Symptoms in Adulthood by Yohannes Adama Melaku, Sarah Appleton, Amy C. Reynolds was published in JAMA Network Open (1970 British Cohort Study)

Sibling Bullying in Middle Childhood is Associated with Psychosocial Difficulties in Early Adolescence: The Case of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Umar Toseeb, Gillian McChesney, Jeremy Oldfield and Dieter Wolke was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Millennium Cohort Study)

The Association of Non-obscene Socially Inappropriate Behavior With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms, Conduct Problems, and Risky Decision Making in a Large Sample of Adolescents by Valerie Brandt, Julia Kerner auch Koerner and Emma Palmer-Cooper was published in Frontiers in Psychiatry (Millennium Cohort Study)

A longitudinal birth cohort study of early life conditions, psychosocial factors, and emerging adolescent sexual orientation by Yin Xu, Sam Norton and Qazi Rahman was published in Developmental Psychobiology (Millennium Cohort Study)

Is socioeconomic inequality in postnatal depression an early-life root of disadvantage for children? by Jemimah Ride was published in The European Journal of Health Economics (Millennium Cohort Study)

Associations between birth order with mental wellbeing and psychological distress in midlife: Findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) by Sebastian Stannard, Ann Berrington and Nisreen Alwan was published in PLoS ONE (1970 British Cohort Study)

What moderates the scarring effect of youth unemployment on later life mental health? by L Wright, J Head and S Jivraj was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (Next Steps)

Social mobility

Climbing Up Ladders and Sliding Down Snakes: An Empirical Assessment of the Effect of Social Mobility on Subjective Wellbeing by Paul Dolan and Grace Lordan was published in SSRN (1970 British Cohort Study)