Working papers

Valerie Estaugh and Chris Power examine the relationship between family disruption early in life and subsequent drinking in young adulthood in the NCDS age 23 follow-up. Contrary to popular belief, parental loss was not an antecedent to heavy drinking in young adults. This finding was observed within social class of origin groups and when the nature and timing of the disruption were considered separately.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childhood, young adult, drinking, alcohol, family break-up, divorce, separation.

Chris Power and Catherine Peckham investigate the relationship between the state of health in childhood and ill health in early adult life. DESIGN–The study using NCDS4 data as otcomes and NCDS1 data on childhood health.  A broad measure of health status was constructed form the available age 7 information.  Of the target population of 17,733 births, 12,537 (76%) were retraced and interviewed at 23.  Children at age 7 were allocated to 13 morbidity groups; 20% of children had reported no ill-health apart from the common infectious diseases, but 10% were included in four or more of the morbidity groups. Children with no reported morbidity retained their health advantage into early adulthood: ratios of observed to expected ill health for four of the five indices examined at age 23 were all significantly below one (self rated health 0.81, asthma and/or wheezy bronchitis 0.63, allergies 0.79, emotional health 0.75). Children with more morbidity at age 7 had higher ratios of ill health in adulthood. A chronic condition in childhood was associated not only with excess morbidity in the short term but also with a poor health rating in early adult life (ratio = 1.38). Morbidity was significantly increased for most of the adulthood indices among children with asthma and/or wheezy bronchitis. However most ill health in young adulthood occurred in study members with a relatively healthy childhood. CONCLUSIONS–Although the state of health in childhood has long term implications, it does not form a substantial contribution to ill health in early adult life.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childhood, young adult, health.

Judith Glover applies two models of occupational choice, one based on developmental theory emphasising individual choice, and the other based on the ‘opportunity structure’ approach, stressing social and structural constraints on occupational selection.  The outcomes show the strength of association between occupational expectations and outcomes is generally weak, supporting the ‘opportunity structure’ theory, except where the availability of jobs is high.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, choice of career, social class, SES, class mobility, occupation, job availability, unemployment.

Angelika Hibbett and Ken Fogelman expand on Hibbett’s earlier CLS Working Paper (CLS WP 1987/5) to include other covariates in accounting for the effects of truancy: social class during primary school, rate of school attendance and qualification level.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, social class, SES, class mobility, school-attendance, truanting.

Mayer Ghodsian and Ken Fogelman look at social class factors and housing during childhood as predictors of type of housing and age at marriage in early-adulthood: overcrowding, amenities and equivalent family net income.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, housing, social class, SES, class mobility, marriage, overcrowding, deprivation.

Chris Power, Orly Manor, John Fox and Ken Fogelman observe that self-rated health and emotional health were generally poorer in lower social classes.   But some reductions in class differences occurred when adjustment was made for ill-health in adolescence.  They examine to what extent those unhealthy-in-adolescence move down the social scale in comparison to healthier adolescents.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, health, selection effect, social class, SES, class mobility.

Ken Fogelman follows up analyses of data on the NCDS 1958 cohort which had shown that effects of smoking in pregnancy on physical and intellectual development contained  differences in outcome between boys ands girsl which were small and might be explained by other factors. The analyses had taken account of birth weight and have therefore examined the effects of smoking on subsequent development in addition to this variable. To assess the importance of smoking on development in early adult life and whether the effect is independent of birth weight, data from the age 23 folow-up were analysed. Only weak evidence for a relation between smoking in pregnancy and self reported height of the offspring was apparent once social class, size of family, mothers’ height, and birth weight for gestational age were taken into account. After omission of birth weight from the analyses, however, the average difference in height between subjects whose mothers smoked 20 cigarettes a day or more during the second half of pregnancy and those whose mothers did not was 0.93 cm in men and 1.83 cm in women. A strong association was also evident with the highest qualification achieved by subjects at this age, suggesting a long term relation between smoking in pregnancy and the intellectual development of the offspring.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, health, smoking, birthweight, social class, physical and intellectual development.

John Fox and Ken Fogelmanargue that, in the planning of the next follow-up of the NCDS 1958 cohort, questions should be included about other members of the immediate family (eg children of the cohort members) in order to shed more light on the influences of family and inter-generational factors in child health and development.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, health, social mobility, housing tenure, SES, social class, inter-generational analysis.

Ken Fogelman, Chris Power and John Fox expand their earlier paper (CLS WP 1986/2: health & social mobility during the early years of life) to include outcomes in the NCDS 1958 cohort up to the age of 23.  They investigate the effects on health of social mobility, both inter- and intra-generational.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, health, social mobility, housing tenure, SES, social class.

Angelika Hibbett finds that truancy in th NCDS 1958 cohort is associated with lower status occupations, less stable career patterns and more unemployment. Among those who were working, former truants’ incomes were not lower, but they were considerably less well off once their family situation was taken into account. Differences remained after controlling for the effects of social background, educational ability, poor attendance due to other reasons, and end-of-school qualifications. The conclusoin is that truancy is a predictor of employment problems, and of a more severe kind than will be experienced by others who share the disadvantaged background and low attainment which typify the truant.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, unemployment, jobs, truancy, non-school-attendance.