Parental wealth in childhood and its relationship with children’s development and predictors of wealth in adult life

Background

Using data from three of our cohort studies, this project aimed to understand how parents’ long-term financial position shapes their children’s outcomes from an early stage. This was part of the Cross Cohort Research Programme.

Research details

Project title

Parental wealth in childhood and its relationship with children’s development and predictors of wealth in adult life

Project leads

Vanessa Moulton

Bilal Nasim

Themes

Employment, income and wealth

Family and social networks

Housing and local environment

Poverty

Social mobility

Dates

1 October 2015 – December 2018

Funder

ESRC

Summary

For the first time in the history of the UK birth cohort studies, a short measure of parents’ financial assets and debts is available in childhood (Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), age 11 survey), alongside measures of income. This will prove a valuable source of information about social mobility in the future. It also provides an immediate opportunity to understand how parents’ long-term financial position shapes their children’s outcomes from an early stage.

This project used data from the National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study as well as the MCS.

Findings from this work were compared to results from models using measures of family income. As a result, policy conclusions will be drawn, such as relating to measuring child poverty and on appropriate policy levers for improving child outcomes and increasing social mobility.

Outputs

Presentation

Wealth and Social Mobility- Impact Partner Workshop

The research team gave a project update to the Resolution Foundation, Equality Trust, Social Mobility Commission, Save the Children and others at an impact workshop.

Presentation

Parental wealth and children's outcomes

In November 2017, the research team presented findings from this project at the CLOSER conference, Inequalities: a longitudinal perspective.

Researchers

Vanessa Moulton Senior Research Fellow

Phone: 020 7612 6288
Email: vanessa.moulton@ucl.ac.uk

Vanessa is a psychologist, with a strong interest in multidisciplinary social science. Her research interests include using longitudinal and secondary data analysis to examine the influence of the earlier life course on children’s and adult mental health, cognitive, educational and socio-economic outcomes. In addition, Vanessa co-coordinates the CLS cohort training workshops and webinars.

 

 

Bilal Nasim UCL Institute of Education

View Bilal’s biography on the Institute of Education website here.

Ludovica Gambaro Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellow, DIW Berlin

Email: l.gambaro@ucl.ac.uk

Ludovica worked in CLS from 2013 to 2016, mainly on the Millennium Cohort Study and she continues to collaborate with researchers in CLS.

Her main areas of interest are inequalities in child development, early childhood education and care services, residential mobility.

Alissa Goodman Professor of Economics, Director of CLS and Co-Director of the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study

Phone: 020 7612 6231
Email: alissa.goodman@ucl.ac.uk

Alissa Goodman is Professor of Economics, Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, and Co-Director of the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study, a project funded by ESRC to test the feasibility of a new birth cohort for the UK. She is a Co-Investigator on two further new national cohort projects, Children of the 2020s and the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities Study. Alissa joined CLS in 2013 as PI of the 1958 National Child Development Study, having previously worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where she served as its Deputy Director (2006-2012), and Director of its Education and Skills research sector.

Alissa’s main research interests relate to inequality, poverty, education policy, and the intergenerational transmission of health and wellbeing. Alissa was awarded a CBE for services to social science in 2021.

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.

Relevant studies

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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