Working papers

Scott Montgomery, Mel Bartley and Richard Wilkinson observe associations between small stature at 7 years (lowest quintile) in the NCDS 1958 birth cohort study, and family conflict in early life, controlling for overcrowding, social class,  sex and genetically pre-determined height.    After adjustment, family conflict was significantly associated with slow growth, and overcrowding also had an independent effect.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childhood adversity, slow growth, family conflict, social class, overcrowding, height.

David R. Jones and Philip Sedgwick look at earlier-life factors predicting  accidents between 16-23 in the NCDS 1958 cohort.  They report gender differences and also the propensity for thoe who reported more accidents between 11-16 to have a higher probability of an accident between 16-23.  There is a discussion of the hypothesis of ‘accident-proneness.’

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, accident, accident-prone.

David R. Jones and Philip Sedgwick look at 11,009 accidents leasing to hospitalisation bewtween ages 16 and 23 in the NCDS 1958 cohort.  They report gender differences, with female accidents being more likely to happen at home and males at work.  Other life events are explored for associations, such as death of father/mother, termination of marriage, death of child, miscarriage/abortion, termiantoin of job and periods of unemplyemnt.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, accident, unemployment, bereavement, divorce, separation.

John Bynner finds a gender-divide in the ability to utilise skills in the workplace, with women either being kept out of the labour market by childcare repsonsibilities, or else they enter jobs where the skills they have tend not to be used to the same extent as men’s.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, skills, gender differences, employment, childbearing.

John Bynner, Leslie Morphy and Sam Parsons explore the gender-gap in employment opportunities, showing there is strong evidence that for every work-related skill that women say they are good at, those with children are less likely to be using them in employment than men, regardless of whether they have had children and regardless of whether they have basic skills difficulties.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, basic skills, gender differences, employment, childbearing.

John Bynner, U. Ukoumunne and Dick Wiggins use structural equation modelling to show that the main influences on political cynicism come fro performance in the educational system, originating early in life and reinforced by subsequent achievements up to age 16.   Participation in youth culture was the only other factor shown to have a significant effect.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, voting, politics, cynicism, childhood, structural equation modelling, SEM, youth culture, education.

Pamela Di Salvo’s analysis looks at: household, partnership and childbearing; economic and occupational status; income and benefits; adult basic skill difficulties; qualifications, health status, attitudes to life so far and plans for the future.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, housing, family home, occupatoin, employment, SES, basic skills, income, partnership, family formation.

The paper models the transition rates between the three main housing tenures in Britain. “Surprises” like partnership break-up, acquisition of a partner, and spells of unemployment are found to have large impacts on tenure changes. Through their effects on these transition rates, variation in the rate of arrival of such surprises affects the “equilbrium” housing tenure distribution of people. The transition rate models are estimated using two sources of longitudinal data: the first four waves of the British Household Panel Study (1991–1994) and data for the 1958 birth cohort from the National Child Development Study, covering their housing experiences from the ages of 16–33.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childbearing, career break, employment gap, child care.

Susan Macran, Heather Joshi and Shirley Dex use longitudinal data from two cohorts of women born in 1946 and 1958 to describe the break in employment experienced by women after childbearing. This is reducing in length. The decline in the employment gap, observed for women born in 1958 has largely been confined to those women who delayed their childbearing until their late twenties and early thirties and women who were more highly educated. What seems to be occurring is a polarisation between mothers in the more and the less privileged social groups, in terms of their ability to enter and stay in paid employment once they have responsibility for children. Although mothers at both ends of the social scale have to balance the dual demands of paid and domestic work, older and better educated mothers are more likely to be in higher status occupations, to earn adequate income to pay for childcare and to be better placed to take advantage of any changes in employer provisions for working mothers.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childbearing, career break, employment gap, child care.

This contribution from Dick Wiggins and C.J. Wale presents a multilevel analysis of intergenerational processes. The methodological issues of standardization and selection effects are considered. The results show that age standardization does not work by itself, but age must be introduced in the models as well.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, intergenerational, multilevel modelling, age standardisation, selection effects