Research round-up – January to March 2019

Is screen time really behind the rise in teenage mental health problems? How is the ‘sandwich generation’ faring as they care for their ageing parents and their children and grandchildren? And why do so few low- and middle-income children attend grammar schools?

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

This quarter we have added 17 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, health and wellbeing, families, and biomedical research.

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

Depression is on the rise among young people, but antisocial behaviour is down, new research shows

Young people today are more likely to be depressed and to self-harm than they were 10 years ago, but antisocial behaviour and substance use – often thought to go hand-in-hand with mental ill-health – are on the decline. Instead, poor sleep, obesity and poor body image are becoming more common, suggesting the risk factors associated with mental ill-health might be changing.

Dr Praveetha Patalay, CLS, and Dr Suzanne Gage, University of Liverpool, used data from the Millennium Cohort Study and Bristol’s Children of the 90s to look at the changing trends of young people’s mental health and health-related behaviours. The research paper was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in March 2019. The findings were covered in numerous media outlets, including the BBC News website, Radio 4, Daily Telegraph and Mail.

Child development

Birth weight, verbal cognition in early adolescence, and lexical and reading skills in late adolescence: a formal mediation analysis using a potential outcomes approach by Anderson Ribeiro da Silva, Marina Leite Puglisi, Sabine Pompéia, George B. Ploubidis, Walter Swardfager and Hugo Cogo Moreira was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (National Child Development Study, 1970 British Cohort Study & Millennium Cohort Study)

The psychosocial health of children born after medically assisted reproduction: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study by Anna Barbuscia, Mikko Myrskylä, Alice Goisis was published in SSM Population Health (Millennium Cohort Study)

Developmental cascades of internalising symptoms, externalising problems and cognitive ability from early childhood to middle adolescence by Eirini Flouri, Efstathios Papachristou, Emily Midouhas, George B Ploubidis, Glyn Lewis, Heather Joshi was published in European Psychiatry (Millennium Cohort Study)

Paternal Psychological Distress and Child Problem Behavior from Early Childhood to Middle Adolescence by Eirini Flouri, Zahra Sarmadi, Marta Francesconi was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Millennium Cohort Study)

The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use  by Amy Orben and Andrew K. Przybylski was published in Nature Human Behaviour (Millennium Cohort Study)

A Population-Based Study of the Behavioral and Emotional Adjustment of Older Siblings of Children with and without Intellectual Disability by Nikita K Hayden Richard P Hastings, Vasiliki Totsika and Emma Langley was published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology (Millennium Cohort Study)

Physical activity among children with asthma: Cross-sectional analysis in the UK millennium cohort by Katharine C Pike, Lucy J Griffiths, Carol Dezateux and Anna Pearce was published in Pediatric Pulmonology (Millennium Cohort Study)

Education

Age of Menarche, Adolescent Sexual Intercourse and Schooling Attainment of Women by Jian Huang, Wim Groot, John G Sessions and  Yinyen Tseng was published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics (1970 British Cohort Study)

Why do so few low- and middle-income children attend a grammar school? New evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study by John Jerrim and Sam Sims was published in the British Educational Research Journal (Millennium Cohort Study)

How Do Academically Selective School Systems Affect Pupils’ Social-Emotional Competencies? New Evidence From the Millennium Cohort Study by John Jerrim and Sam Sims was published in the American Educational Research Journal (Millennium Cohort Study)

Families

Caught in the middle in mid-life: provision of care across multiple generations by Athina Vlachantoni, Maria Evandrou, Jane Falkingham, and Madelin Gomez-Leon was published in Ageing and Society (National Child Development Study)

Health and wellbeing

Associations of child and adolescent anxiety with later alcohol use and disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies by Maddy L Dyer, Kayleigh E Easey, Jon Heron, Matthew Hickman and Marcus R Munafò was published in Addiction (National Child Development Study)

Variations in reproductive events across life: a pooled analysis of data from 505 147 women across 10 countries by InterLACE Study Team, University of Queensland was published in Human Reproduction (National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study)

How much and why does the mum matter? Mechanisms explaining the intergenerational transmission of smoking by M Pasqualini, L Pieroni and C Tomassini was published in Advances in Life Course Research (1970 British Cohort Study)

Mother’s mental health after childbirth: Does the delivery method matter? by Valentina Tonei was published in the Journal of Health Economics (Millennium Cohort Study)

Longitudinal associations of affective symptoms with mid-life cognitive function: evidence from a British birth cohort by Amber John, Sarah-Naomi James, Urvisha Patel, Jennifer Rusted, Marcus Richards and Darya Gaysina was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (National Child Development Study)

Biomedical, psychological, environmental and behavioural factors associated with adult obesity in a nationally representative sample by Helen Cheng, Scott Montgomery, Andy Green and Adrian Furnham was published in the Journal of Public Health (National Child Development Study)

Biomedical research

Dysregulation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and cognitive capability at older ages: individual participant meta-analysis of five cohorts by Michael Gardner et al was published in Scientific Reports (National Child Development Study)

Social mobility

Life Narratives and Personal Identity: The End of Linear Social Mobility? By Mike Savage and Magne Flemmen was published in the Journal of Social History Society (National Child Development Study)