22 results in Children of the 21st century (Volume 2)
twelve - Teacher assessments in the first year of school
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Summary
Introduction
Children's development in the early years has been shown to be related to their success in later life in a range of areas including: education, employment, and avoiding crime and early parenthood (see Carneiro and Heckman, 2003; Feinstein and Duckworth, 2006). Determining why some children do better than others in the early years is a key issue for policy and is crucial in attempts to reduce inequalities. This chapter examines differences in Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children's achievements at age 5 as rated by teachers. These teachers’ assessments provide another view of MCS children's development at age 5, complementary to the cognitive and behavioural development indicators described in Chapters 9, 10 and 14 in this volume. In some cases, the teachers’ assessments provide information for children who did not do the cognitive assessments that were part of the MCS 3 instruments, so this is an additional benefit of Foundation Stage Profiles (FSPs).
FSP and devolved administration teacher surveys
In state schools in England, teachers record the performance of pupils during the first year of school to produce FSP scores. These scores were collected by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) for cohort members in state schools in England and linked to the survey data. Of 9,084 MCS children, 8,671 were successfully matched to their FSP scores. This constitutes a success rate of around 95%. Data were linked by fuzzy matching on: first name; gender; date of birth; child's home postcode; school establishment number; and surname. However, for children in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where FSP data were not routinely available, the information was collected by asking the same questions to the teachers in a postal survey. The response rate to this teachers’ survey was 68% but this rate varied by country, being highest in Northern Ireland, with a response rate of 73%, and lowest in Wales, with a response rate of 63%. For the rest of this chapter the data will be collectively referred to as FSP scores. There is only a low coverage of children attending private schools in England (around 5% of the sample in England) unless these schools voluntarily submit their scores to the local education authority (LEA).
References
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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fifteen - Parental and child health
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
Healthy development in early childhood encompasses physical health, socioemotional behaviour and cognitive ability. Early to mid-childhood is a crucial time in the life course, with concurrent rapid development and transition into formal education. Markers of early childhood health and development have been found to be socially patterned, with children from advantaged backgrounds doing better compared with their disadvantaged peers. A range of environmental factors influences early childhood health and development, including the health of their parents, suggesting possible intergenerational transmission of health. However, little is known about the pathways via which the health of parents influences child health and developmental outcomes. This chapter examines the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) for evidence on a number of alternate pathways for parents’ health to influence children's health and development, assessing the contribution of parents’ psychosocial and health-related behavioural factors to children's outcomes.
Existing literature
A large body of research has linked parental health-related behaviours to markers of child health and development including smoking, alcohol consumption (Jones et al, 1973; Kelly et al, 2008) and body mass index (BMI) (Owen et al, 2005; Sharma et al, 2005). Parental health reflects contemporary circumstances as well as the accumulation of lifetime influences. Parental health status, as opposed to health behaviours, is less frequently investigated, although the effects of parental illness is an obvious pathway for the transmission of risks in the close environment from adults to children.
There are also socioeconomic factors that affect early childhood health and development including household income, parental occupation and education, nutrition, environmental stimulation, parenting, family relationships, housing, social networks and residential area (McLoyd, 1998; Evans, 2004; Duncan and Magnuson, 2005; Grantham-McGregor et al, 2007; Irwin et al, 2007). The underlying pathways by which environmental factors influence child health and development vary according to the particular marker of child health and development under consideration. Social gradients are evident for markers of childhood health and development including obesity (Jotangia et al, 2005), illness and morbidity (Aber et al, 1997; Berntsson and Kohler, 2001; Chen et al, 2002; Spencer and Coe, 2003), socioemotional behaviour (Meltzer et al, 2000; Kelly et al, 2001) and cognitive test scores (Evans, 2004; Duncan and Magnuson, 2005; George et al, 2007; Jones and Schoon, 2008; also discussed in Chapters 9, 10, 12 and 14, this volume).
thirteen - Childhood overweight and obesity
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
The rising prevalence of being overweight and obese is well recognised. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.2 billion people are overweight, 300 million of whom are obese (Government Office for Science, 2007). The most startling increases have taken place in the US and UK where the prevalence of overweight and obesity has almost doubled in the last 25 years (Wardle and Boniface, 2008). These increases are not just confined to adult populations. Data from the Health Survey for England, using the UK national body mass index (BMI) percentile classification, indicates that the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) among 2- to 10-year-olds rose from 23% in 1995, to 28% in 2003, with the prevalence of overweight and obesity, and the rate of increase, being similar for boys and girls (Jotangia et al, 2005). These secular changes appear to be accelerating (Stamatakis et al, 2005; Jackson-Leach and Lobstein, 2006), and the age at onset of obesity is occurring at ever younger ages.
The health problems associated with adult obesity are well described and include type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease, sleep apnoea, pulmonary hypertension, hepatobiliary disease, cancers and reproductive and musculoskeletal disorders (Kopelman, 2007). Childhood obesity also has major implications in the short term for child health, development and well-being, and in the longer term for health in young and later adult life. However, the consequences of an increasingly early onset of childhood obesity are less clear (Reilly et al, 2003). Kimm and Obarzanek (2002) have consequently emphasised the need for prospective studies to delineate the morbidities associated with childhood obesity. Data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) provide the ideal opportunity to examine the development of obesity and its consequences from a very young age.
Tackling childhood obesity is a priority for the UK government, given the substantial rise in obesity and overweight among very young children. In 2007, a long-term public service agreement (PSA) target for addressing childhood obesity was set, with the aim to ‘reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020 in the context of tackling obesity across the population’ (HM Government, 2007)
two - Child poverty in the first five years of life
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
The children in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) were born around a year after the then Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that it was the government's intention to eradicate child poverty in a generation by 2020. In fact these children are the generation over which it is hoped child poverty will be eradicated. In Figure 2.1 we can see that child poverty fell after 1998/99. However, the government just missed the first five-year target to reduce child poverty by a quarter by 2004/05, and, according to the latest data available, there has been no further improvement.
This chapter explores family poverty in the MCS 3 when the children were aged 5 and traces changes in poverty between MCS 1 and 3, from 9 months to age 5. It is not possible to replicate exactly the measures that the government has been using to monitor the child poverty strategy using the MCS data, however. The MCS collects income data but records the responses in income bands, before housing costs (BHC). Over the three MCS surveys, data on deprivation has also been collected although there are differences between the MCS and the ‘official’ measures based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) as well as with the nature of the samples. The MCS is a sample of families with a child of a certain age and cannot be used to compare with the results of the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) analysis of the FRS that produces data on the proportion of all dependent children in poverty.
Nevertheless there are a number of reasons why it is important to analyse poverty in the MCS:
• The children are being surveyed repeatedly over their childhood. The MCS therefore represents an opportunity for the analysis of change over time and in particular the persistence of poverty and the factors associated with movements into and out of poverty.
• The children constitute a very large sample that is deliberately stratified to include a large ethnic sample and families living in poorer areas.
• Poverty is an important variable in understanding other aspects of the development and well-being of children. Others who study the cohort children can use the variables created in this analysis.
ten - Ethnic inequalities in child outcomes
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
This chapter reports some findings from the first three surveys of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) on the nature and extent of ethnic differences in early childhood environment and outcomes up to age 5. Due to the lack of suitable data, it has not been possible to consider these issues in the UK before – the MCS is one of the first longitudinal surveys in the UK that has the ability to look at this important issue, particularly as the MCS design involved over-sampling individuals from minority ethnic groups and individuals living in disadvantaged areas of the country.
In this chapter we examine ethnic differences in child outcomes, together with background and mediating factors that are likely to have impacted on these outcomes. This draws on earlier work using the MCS looking at ethnic differences in birth outcomes (see Dearden et al, 2006). Our results suggest that in explaining ethnic differences in child outcomes, it is important not only to consider differences in socioeconomic and family characteristics, such as parental education and socioeconomic status (SES), but also family background, family structure and child demographics. It is also important to consider other mediating factors such as family interactions, family health and well-being, the early home learning environment (HLE) and parenting styles and rules. It turns out that these other mediating factors point to possible policy responses to reducing ethnic differences in child outcomes.
The rest of the chapter is organised as follows. First, we outline how we define our ethnic groups used in the rest of the chapter. We then show how our outcomes of interest vary by ethnic groups. This shows that ethnic gaps in childhood development start early in life. Following that, we examine how some possible explanatory factors of this gap vary by ethnic group, namely selected family background characteristics and selected measures of the early childhood environment. We present the multivariate analysis we carried out to see the extent to which family background characteristics and the early childhood environment can act as mediating factors – in some sense ‘explaining’ the ethnic divide in early child development. This analysis is purely descriptive, but provides some clues to policy makers where interventions may be fruitful to lessen the ethnic differences.
five - Partnership trajectories, parent and child well-being
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
The structure of British family life has undergone substantial changes over recent decades. Rises in extra-marital childbearing, cohabitation and parental separation coupled with declines in marriage have translated into more diverse, complex, transient and often inequitable family settings for children. Very large movements in financial circumstances of families can often be associated with these family changes and family changes can also affect the emotional well-being of family members. Consequently, there has been growing concern about the instability of family life and the impact on the well-being of children which has led to a plethora of inquiries, reports and initiatives around children, for example, A good childhood (Layard and Dunn, 2009), Social Justice Policy Group (2006), Every Child Matters (HM Treasury, 2003), and The Children's Plan (DCSF, 2007).
A substantial body of research already exists on the consequences of divorce and remarriage for British children both in the short and the long term (see Kiernan, 1997; Rogers and Pryor, 1998) but much less is known about the potential consequences for children of being born into different family settings and whether subsequent family trajectories matter. This chapter explores these issues. We start by looking at changes over the first five years of the children's lives and map the family trajectories of children born into four different settings: to married parents, cohabiting parents, to solo mothers who were in a relationship with the father at the time of the birth and those who were not in a relationship at that time. By following the partnership behaviour of these parents over the first five years of the child's life we can assess the extent to which there is stability or change in the lives of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children. Given there is a good deal of ethnic diversity in the parental context within which children are born, we also examine the trajectories for mothers from different ethnic groups. Frequent accompaniments to family transitions are changes in the economic circumstances of families and in the emotional well-being of the parents and children; the second half of the chapter is devoted to these issues.
eight - Childcare in the pre-school years
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
For the children born around the turn of the millennium pre-school care and education became a near universal experience. This reflects the spread of education to younger children and the increasing ‘normality’ of mothers taking paid work outside the home. This chapter is concerned with the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children's experience of care from people other than the mother, with an emphasis on those children who attended group childcare settings at some point during their pre-school years. It begins by outlining the evolving experience of non-maternal care for all the children in the MCS, across the UK, from infancy to primary school. It goes on to put a microscope on 301 childcare settings attended by a sub-group of children in England in 2005, providing a detailed picture of the services that children received in an unprecedented era of public and private provision. We compare the families who did, and did not, use centre-based care, then describe the quality of centre-based care experienced by the children who did attend, and explore differential access to high-quality services. We also describe the characteristics of centres that were providing high-quality care because they may provide guidance for good practice. Finally, we discuss the results in terms of government policy, ending with recommendations that could improve the quality of childcare provision.
Four questions are addressed in this chapter:
1) What are the childcare experiences of children in the MCS?
2) Is social class related to patterns of childcare use?
3) What is the quality of the group childcare experienced by the MCS, and does it vary according to family and child characteristics?
4) Which characteristics of childcare centres are related to high-quality provision?
What is childcare?
The term ‘childcare’ has various, overlapping, definitions. It refers to services that provide custody and nurture to children whose parents are not present, for a variety of reasons, and a variety of timespans. The parents may be unable to take direct care of their children, because a mother is working outside the home, because the parents are incapable of looking after their children or because they choose to delegate at least some of the care to others, particularly specialists.
sixteen - Conclusions
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Summary
To round off this collection of contributions we pick out some themes that have emerged from the different aspects of the children's lives covered in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). We then draw together a few implications for the future.
The threads running through this volume and this study tell of diversity, mobility and intergenerational transmission. The diversity of the points from which the MCS children have started out on life include inequality in their family origins, while variation and inequality are beginning to emerge in the development paths of the children themselves. On mobility, the longitudinal data permits a view of the fluidity of the families’ situation over the first five years in almost as many dimensions: family composition, poverty, parental employment, location and childcare. The study also provides an important building block to assess secular change in intergenerational social mobility, and detailed evidence on the various routes through which parents transmit well-being and also social advantage to their children.
Diversity and equality
Taking a view over five years, it may be surprising that so many families of these young children have been touched by inadequate income at some time. On one measure of income poverty available from the MCS data, 39% of MCS families and their children have been affected. If subjective accounts of financial stress are included, nearly two thirds have not had enough financial resources on at least one of the three MCS surveys. The MCS shows that low income goes along with a number of other indicators: workless lone parenthood, workless couples, low parental education, low social class in terms of occupations, social housing, disadvantaged neighbourhoods or poor parental health. These are all different facets of socioeconomic disadvantage, which also tend to be associated with poorer outcomes for children, as measured at ages 3 and 5, on learning and behaviour ratings. This is illustrated by the figures in Chapter 9 (this volume) and replicated in many other chapters of this volume.
Ethnic diversity can be thought of as another dimension of inequality. It has become an important feature of life in the UK. The MCS was designed to allow for this, by over-sampling areas with high minority ethnic populations, which has indeed resulted in sufficiently large samples of the more sizeable minority ethnic groups to analyse separately.
Frontmatter
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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eleven - School choice
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
In 1988, the Education Reform Act for England and Wales strengthened parents’ rights to choose the school their child attended at primary and secondary school levels. Similar legislation was applied in Northern Ireland. The 1988 Act was introduced to encourage competition between schools, as they sought to attract pupils, with the idea that this would lead to higher standards of teaching and children's achievement. Despite obvious policy interest in the extent and consequences of school choice, there is remarkably little evidence on the process of school choice itself (at least from the parental perspective) and indeed there is only limited research into the factors that are uppermost in parents’ minds when choosing their children's primary school. The introduction of a policy on school choice has also left the lingering concern that school choice will lead to social segregation or ‘sorting’ across different schools. Others argue that school choice is actually not a reality for most parents, particularly in rural areas, who have no choice but to send their child to their local school. School choice in the state sector may largely be, therefore, an issue for parents living in specific urban areas, such as London, where there may be a number of local schools potentially available to them and the schools may vary substantially in quality. This chapter provides new information from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to examine the extent to which parents do actually choose the schools their children attend, as opposed to simply enrolling them in their local school. We also explore how successful parents are in securing their first choice of school and the reasons for their choice.
Existing evidence on the extent of school choice by parents contains mixed results that are difficult to interpret. Some quantitative evidence is available, based on examining the extent to which children attend their nearest school. The assumption here is that if a child does not attend his or her nearest school, this implies that either the parent has exercised their right to choose their child's school, or perhaps that the child was unable to get a place at his or her nearest school. Allen and Vignoles (2007) have suggested that only around 1 in 5 children in England and Wales are benefiting from parental school choice.
one - Introduction
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
This book takes up the story of the 19,000 children recruited into the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) at the beginning of the new century, following their progress from birth to primary school. The origins and objectives of the study, along with the results of its first survey, were covered in a companion volume, Children of the 21st century: From birth to nine months (Dex and Joshi, 2005). In brief, the MCS is the fourth of a set of world-renowned national cohort studies in Britain, each following a group of individuals drawn from the population at large from the time of their birth and onwards through later life. The first of these nationally representative cohort studies, the MRC's National Study of Health and Development, is still following people born in 1946, who by 2010 are well into their 60s. This was followed by the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a 1958 cohort, and later by the British Cohort Study of 1970 (BCS 70), which are following cohort members into mid-life, complete with records of their childhood, education, health, employment and family formation.
Each cohort study forms a resource for a wide range of research into many social and medical areas. They all offer material for a holistic account of the dimensions of change as individuals grow older, and a view of the social dynamics as individuals move between stages of life and their positions relative to others. This provides a moving picture of the social mosaic, rather than a series of unlinked snapshots available from sources such as censuses or one-off cross-sectional surveys. These British studies, viewed together, offer an opportunity for understanding social changes, the processes behind them and the impact of policy (Bynner and Joshi, 2007). One example of inter-cohort comparison is contained in Chapter 9 of this volume, linking children's achievement to parents’ resources.
The MCS has several new features. It has a clustered sample design, featuring over-representation of children living in areas of high minority ethnic populations and high poverty rates, and the smaller countries of the UK, with Northern Ireland covered in the follow-up for the first time. It sought interviews from fathers as well as mothers, and its content was adapted to the 21st-century context.
seven - Neighbourhoods and residential mobility
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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In the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children's early years, many families had not settled permanently in the home and place in which they would spend most of their childhood. Nearly half had moved home at least once between the interviews at 9 months and age 5. This chapter is concerned with the families’ satisfaction with the area they were living in at age 5 and the moves that had been made to get there, from diverse social and spatial starting points.
It is relatively common for families with young children to move home (Plewis et al, 2008). Such mobility often benefits both adults and children, for example when it is related to changes of job. The unemployed may move to improve their employment prospects (Boheim and Taylor, 2002). Residential mobility may be motivated by consideration of school choice, with families relocating close to ‘good’ schools (Gibbons and Machin, 2006). After a(nother) child is born, some families will move to larger/better accommodation or to a better/safer area. Others move in less favourable circumstances, for example, because they have been evicted, or because a couple splits up. Whatever the circumstances, moving home, and possibly moving job or school as well, can be very stressful for both adults and children. Moving can result in the loss of a supportive social network of friends and neighbours and this loosening of the ‘ties that bind’, as discussed in Chapter 3 (this volume), may have untoward consequences. Frequently moving couples have been found to have a high risk of union break up (Boyle et al, 2008).
Is there evidence that moving home disrupts children's lives? Cullis (2008) found no difference in cognitive and behavioural scores of MCS children at age 3 according to whether the families had moved home between the first two surveys. Verropoulou et al (2002) examined the relationship between moving home, family structure and children's well-being, using data collected on the schoolaged children of one third of the British 1958 cohort members (National Child Development Study, NCDS). They found little to no association between moving residence and children's well-being measured by attainment in mathematics and reading and on assessments of aggression and anxiety.
nine - Intergenerational inequality in Early Years assessments
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
One of the principal motivations for the launch of the new Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) was to gather up-to-date evidence on the extent to which family background impacts on child outcomes. In this chapter we use data from the MCS to provide some new empirical evidence on the extent to which one measure of parental background, family income, is correlated with two child outcomes, cognitive vocabulary ability and behavioural outcomes. The analysis we undertake considers the magnitude of age 3 and 5 test score gaps and gaps in behavioural (or non-cognitive) outcomes by family income group. We also use these data to describe the dynamics of child achievement and behaviour between these ages. Much of the interest in early age outcomes is motivated by the link between early achievement gaps and the longer run relationship between the economic fortunes of parents and their adult children. Hence there is a natural connection between income gradients in early age child outcomes and the extent of intergenerational income mobility, and we also consider these connections.
We explore cross-cohort comparisons, comparing the MCS findings with those from earlier birth cohort studies. Using up-to-date empirical analysis assessing changes over time in the impact of family background on young children is particularly important in the light of the government's focus on improving children's outcomes since 1997. This policy agenda has gradually gathered pace since the New Labour government took office, so that the millennium cohort have experienced some, but not all, of the raft of policy initiatives in this direction. The MCS children would have experienced the beginnings of Sure Start, and free nursery provision for the neediest 3-year-olds (also discussed in Chapter 8, this volume). In addition, the rate of child poverty began to drop in 1997 (Brewer et al, 2003), which should equate to fewer disadvantages for those at the bottom. By exploring changes over cohorts born since the mid-1980s we can get a sense of the success of government policy since 1997. Our consideration of both formal tests of achievement and behaviour is also in line with the Every Child Matters policy agenda launched in 2003, which sought to make more explicit the links between all the different aspects of children's lives, including achievement, enjoyment and ‘making a positive contribution’.
Glossary
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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List of contributors
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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three - Ethnicity, community and social capital
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Introduction
This chapter focuses on indicators of social capital in the lives of the mothers of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children. The mothers’ social networks, social support and experiences of their local areas will be relevant to their children as they grow up. The concept of social capital has been influential in policy circles, but is contested, and has been used for varying purposes by social theorists. For Coleman, social capital refers to ‘the set of resources that inhere in family relations and in community social organisation and that are useful for the cognitive or social development of a child or young person’ (Coleman, 1994, p 300). Social capital in the family consists of the time and attention given to the child by family members, while social capital within the school and the community consists of social networks that allow social norms to be established and enforced (Coleman, 1988). For Putnam, social capital describes ‘features of social organisation, such as trust, norms and networks’ (Putnam, 1993, p 167). Putnam is particularly concerned with a perceived decline in sociability, associational life and political participation. He uses a wide range of measures of social capital, including measures of community organisational life, engagement in public affairs, community voluntarism, informal sociability and social trust (Schuller et al, 2000). As such, he has been criticised for overstretching the concept of social capital (Portes, 1998).
Social capital has been seen as particularly important for minority ethnic groups, because economic disadvantages, and even a lack of education, may be counterbalanced by high levels of social capital within the home and community (Lauglo, 2000). It may be possible, therefore, for minority ethnic communities who are economically disadvantaged still to promote high educational aspirations and educational success within their community (Gibson, 2000; Portes and Rumbaut, 2001). Conversely, the ability of strongly bonded social groups to enforce social norms can have negative consequences if anti-achievement norms prevail within such groups. Portes and Rumbaut put forward a model of ‘segmented assimilation’, suggesting that assimilation of immigrant groups into the norms of the native community is not always positive. Strong minority ethnic communities and families can act together to protect children against ‘downward assimilation’ into the under-class norms of gangs, crime, teen pregnancy and resistance or indifference to schooling.
four - Parental relationships and parenting
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
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Summary
Introduction
A large body of research suggests that the quality of the relationship between parents is related to parenting behaviours, the interactions between parent and child and child behavioural and cognitive outcomes. The quality of a relationship may affect child outcomes directly or may have an effect through parenting behaviours – that is, relationship quality may affect parenting behaviours that in turn affect child outcomes. Theoretical models have been proposed to explain both direct and indirect pathways for such effects.
This chapter uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to examine the self-reported perceptions of parents about their relationships, how well they predict later break-up of relationships and whether they are related to parenting behaviours and to child outcomes at age 5.
Literature review
Conflict in the relationship between parents has been found to have an effect on parenting behaviours. Brody et al (1997) asked parents to give their perceptions of the level of conflict in their relationships with their spouses. Higher levels of perceived conflict were related to lower involvement with children and harsher parenting. Interparental conflict has also been found to be related to lower acceptance of children, less consistency in discipline and greater hostility in the parent–child relationship (Gonzales et al, 2000).
In a meta-analysis of research on the relationship between parents and its relation to parenting behaviours, Erel and Burman (1995) found that parents who reported lower levels of conflict and higher levels of satisfaction with the marital relationship were less likely to use emotional forms of control and less likely to use harsh discipline practices. Marital conflict was also found to have a moderate relationship with parents’ use of harsh discipline and lower acceptance of their children in a meta-analysis carried out by Krishnakumar and Buehler (2006).
In turn, parenting behaviours have an effect on child outcomes. An authoritarian parenting style, characterised by expectations that children unquestioningly obey parents, was found to be associated with overt aggression in children, while a permissive style was found to be associated with children's higher levels of relational aggression (Sandstrom, 2007). Having at least one authoritative parent was found to be related to lower levels of delinquency and depression and higher levels of school commitment in children (Simons and Conger, 2007).
Contents
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
-
- Book:
- Children of the 21st century (Volume 2)
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 01 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 February 2010, pp iii-iii
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- Chapter
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fourteen - Resilience in children's development
- Kirstine Hansen, University College London Institute of Education, Heather Joshi, University College London, Shirley Dex, University College London
-
- Book:
- Children of the 21st century (Volume 2)
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 01 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 February 2010, pp 235-248
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to assess early childhood influences on the cognitive and behavioural development of children in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) at age 5. In particular we consider the role potential protective factors in the family environment may play and whether they can ameliorate some of the disadvantages known to influence children's development, such as family financial hardship.
The association between limited family material resources and poor child and adolescent development is well documented (Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Bradley and Corwyn, 2002; Engle and Black, 2008). Children growing up in circumstances characterised by socioeconomic disadvantage are at greater risk of developing cognitive and behavioural adjustment problems during childhood, which in turn have consistently been found to influence later outcomes regarding education, employment, health and social integration (Rutter and Madge, 1976; Essen and Wedge, 1978; Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Schoon, 2006). Persisting social inequalities in children's behaviour and development are of ongoing concern for policy makers and social scientists, as indicated, for example, in the Every Child Matters framework (HM Treasury, 2003) and The Children's Plan (DCSF, 2007).
The UK has been identified as a highly privileged country, according to the United Nations (UN) Human Development Index, measured in terms of longevity, knowledge and income (UNDP, 2001). Nonetheless about one million British children (8%) were living in severe poverty at the turn of the millennium (ie poor on three possible counts, Adelman et al, 2003). 21% of children lived in households with an equivalised household income (before housing costs [BHC]) below 60% of the median (DWP, 2003). A report by the UN suggests that poverty rates for children in the UK were several times higher than those in most Western industrialised countries (UNICEF, 2007), although the situation appears to have improved since then (OECD, 2008). Given the persistence of poverty even in highly developed countries it is essential (a) to develop strategies to reduce poverty in the first place, and (b) to learn more about the impact of material hardship on children's early development, and to identify factors that enable successful development in the face of adversity.
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