Intergenerational influences on physical activity

Background

This project investigated the influence of work and family status on exercise and sedentary behaviour in childhood and adult life, taking account of intersections with socio-economic position and gender. The project was part of the Cross Cohort Research Programme.

Research details

Project title

Intergenerational influences on physical activity

Project lead

George Ploubidis

Themes

Employment, income and wealth

Family and social networks

Physical health

Dates

1 June 2016 – December 2018

Funder

ESRC

Summary

The project used data from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to investigate the influence of work and family status on exercise and sedentary behaviour in childhood and adult life, taking account of intersections with socio-economic position and gender. The project used a mixture of modelling to identify physical activity longitudinal typologies in order to quantify change and stability over the life course.

Outputs

News

Private school education linked to better health more than 25 years later, study finds

11 May 2016 Private school pupils are more likely than their peers at comprehensives to have a lower body mass index (BMI) by the time they reach their early 40s. They also spend less time watching television and eat fewer take-away meals, according to new research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Featured scientific publications

Bann D, Chen H, Bonell C, Glynn NW, Fielding RA, Manini T, et al (2016)
Socioeconomic differences in the benefits of structured physical activity compared with health education on the prevention of major mobility disability in older adults: the LIFE study
Journal of epidemiology and community health. 2016;70(9):930-3
Read the full paper
Bann D, Hamer M, Parsons S, Ploubidis G, Sullivan A (2016)
Does an elite education benefit health? Findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study.
International Journal of Epidemiology (online first May 10, 2016).
Read the full paper

Researchers

George Ploubidis Professor of Population Health and Statistics and Principal Investigator of the National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study

Phone: 020 7612 6107
Email: g.ploubidis@ucl.ac.uk

George is Professor of Population Health and Statistics at the UCL Social Research Institute and currently holds the posts of Principal Investigator of the National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Prior to joining UCL he held posts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Cambridge. George is a multidisciplinary quantitative social scientist and a longitudinal population surveys methodologist. His main research interests relate to socioeconomic and demographic determinants of health over the life course and the mechanisms that underlie generational differences in health and mortality. His methodological work in longitudinal surveys focusses on applications for handling missing data, causal inference and measurement error.

David Bann Associate Professor in Population Health, Strategic lead of social science genetics

Phone: 020 7911 5426
Email: david.bann@ucl.ac.uk

David is an epidemiologist with broad interests in population health. David was previously Co-Investigator of the 1958 British birth cohort study (National Child Development Study), and is now strategic lead of social science genetics at CLS. He has responsibility for scientific aspects of genetic-related work at CLS (including data management, storage, access systems, research and collaborations).

Mark Hamer University of Loughborough / University College London

Benedetta Pongiglione Research Associate

Benedetta worked as a Research Associate for CLS from 2016-2018. During her time here, she undertook methodological research on the different British cohort studies and investigated the determinants of healthy behaviours and lifestyles, and the intergenerational transmission of social capital and economic status.

Benedetta has a PhD in epidemiology and population health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research interests include socio-economic inequalities in health, and inequalities in trajectories of healthy ageing. She now works at Bocconi University.

Alice Sullivan Professor of Sociology and Head of Research for the Social Research Institute

Phone: 020 7612 6661
Email: alice.sullivan@ucl.ac.uk

Alice’s research interests are focussed on social and educational inequalities and the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage.

Relevant studies

This research project investigates the influence of work and family status on exercise and sedentary behaviour in childhood and adult life.

Contact us

Centre for Longitudinal Studies
UCL Social Research Institute

20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL

Email: clsdata@ucl.ac.uk

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