The Rise in Single-Mother Families and Children's Cognitive Development: Evidence From Three British Birth Cohorts.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Harkness S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9328442 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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The Rise in Single-Mother Families and Children's Cognitive Development: Evidence From Three British Birth Cohorts.
Harkness Susan S Gregg Paul P Fernández-Salgado Mariña M
Child development 20191120 5
This article assessed changes in the association between single motherhood and children's verbal cognitive ability at age-11 using data from three cohorts of British children, born in 1958 (n = 10,675), 1970 (n = 8,933) and 2000 (n = 9,989), and mediation analysis. Consistent with previous studies, direct effects were small and insignificant. For those born in 1958 and 1970 indirect effects, operating through reduced economic and parental resources, were associated with -.107-SD to -.156-SD lowe ...[more]
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Project description:Background/objectivesCombining work and family responsibilities has previously been associated with improved health in mid-life, yet little is known about how these associations change over time (both biographical and historical) and whether this extends to body mass index (BMI) trajectories for British men and women. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between work-family life courses and BMI trajectories across adulthood (16-42 years) for men and women in three British birth cohorts.Subjects/methodsMultiply imputed data from three nationally representative British birth cohorts were used-the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD; 1946 birth cohort, n=3012), the National Child Development Study (NCDS; 1958 birth cohort, n=9614) and the British Cohort Study (BCS; 1970 birth cohort, n=8140). A typology of work-family life course types was developed using multi-channel sequence analysis, linking annual information on work, partnerships and parenthood from 16 to 42 years. Work-family life courses were related to BMI trajectories using multi-level growth models. Analyses adjusted for indicators of prior health, birthweight, child BMI, educational attainment and socioeconomic position across the life course, and were stratified by gender and cohort.ResultsWork-family life courses characterised by earlier transitions to parenthood and weaker long-term links to employment were associated with greater increases in BMI across adulthood. Some of these differences, particularly for work-family groups, which are becoming increasingly non-normative, became more pronounced across cohorts (for example, increases in BMI between 16 and 42 years in long-term homemaking women: NSHD: 4.35 kg m-2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.44, 5.26; NCDS: 5.53 kg m-2, 95% CI: 5.18, 5.88; BCS: 6.69 kg m-2, 95% CI: 6.36, 7.02).ConclusionsBecoming a parent earlier and weaker long-term ties to employment are associated with greater increases in BMI across adulthood in British men and women.
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Project description:BackgroundBody mass index (BMI) tracks from childhood-to-adulthood, but the extent to which this relationship varies across the distribution and according to socio-economic position (SEP) is unknown. We aimed to address this using data from three British cohort studies.MethodsWe used data from: 1946 National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD, n = 2470); 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS, n = 7747); 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS, n = 5323). BMI tracking between 11 and 42 years was estimated using quantile regression, with estimates reflecting correlation coefficients. SEP disparities in tracking were investigated using a derived SEP variable based on parental education reported in childhood. This SEP variable was then interacted with the 11-year BMI z-score.ResultsIn each cohort and sex, tracking was stronger at the upper end of the distribution of BMI at 42 years. For example, for men in the 1946 NSHD, the tracking estimate at the 10th quantile was 0.31 (0.20, 0.41), increasing to 0.71 (0.61, 0.82) at the 90th quantile. We observed no strong evidence of SEP inequalities in tracking in men in the 1946 and 1958 cohorts. In the 1970 cohort, however, we observed tentative evidence of stronger tracking in low SEP groups, particularly in women and at the higher end of the BMI distribution. For example, women in the 1970 cohort from low SEP backgrounds had tracking coefficients at the 50th, 70th, and 90th quantiles, which were 0.05 (-0.04; 0.15), 0.19 (0.06; 0.31), and 0.22 (0.02; 0.43) units higher, respectively, than children from high SEP groups.ConclusionTracking was consistently stronger at the higher quantiles of the BMI distribution. We observed suggestive evidence for a pattern of greater BMI tracking in lower (compared to higher) SEP groups in the more recently born cohort, particularly in women and at the higher end of the BMI distribution.
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Project description:Becoming a father, particularly for the first time, is a central transition in men's lives, and whether this transition takes place early or later in life may have important ramifications on the whole later life course. Previous research has shown that men who father their first child early in life have poorer later-life health than men who postpone having children. However, it is not known how selection by cognitive ability and other childhood characteristics confound the association between the timing of fatherhood and later-life health, or how the association is changing over time as parenthood is postponed to an older age. We investigate the association between men's age at the birth of their first child and midlife self-rated health in two British cohorts born in 1958 and 1970. The study employs logit models. Relative to men who had their first child when they were between 25 and 29 years old, men who had their first child before the age of 20 have the poorest health, followed by men who had a child when they were 20-24 years old. This result was observed in both cohorts. Childhood cognitive ability, which previous research has not analyzed, strongly contributed to this association, and to a greater extent than other childhood characteristics. For the 1970 cohort, those who became fathers at age 35 or older had the best health. This advantage was not found for the 1958 cohort. These findings suggest that the relationship between young age at fatherhood and midlife health is strongly confounded by cognitive ability, and that in recent cohorts a new pattern of advantage among older fathers has emerged.
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Project description:BackgroundEducational attainment is highly correlated with social inequalities in adult cognitive health; however, the nature of this correlation is in dispute. Recently, researchers have argued that educational inequalities are an artefact of selection by individual differences in prior cognitive ability, which both drives educational attainment and tracks across the rest of the life course. Although few would deny that educational attainment is at least partly determined by prior cognitive ability, a complementary, yet controversial, view is that education has a direct causal and lasting benefit on cognitive development.MethodsWe use observational data from three birth cohorts, with cognition measured in adolescence and adulthood. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model the relationship between adolescent cognition and adult fluid cognition and to test the sensitivity of our analyses to sample selection, projection and backdoor biases using propensity score matching.ResultsWe find that having a university education is correlated with higher fluid cognition in adulthood, after adjustment for adolescent cognition. We do not find that adolescent cognition, gender or parental social class consistently modify this effect; however, women benefited more in the 1946 sample from Great Britain.ConclusionsIn all three birth cohorts, substantial educational benefit remained after adjustment for adolescent cognition and parental social class, offsetting an effect equivalent of 0.5 to 1.5 standard deviations lower adolescent cognition. We also find that the likelihood of earning a university degree depends in part on adolescent cognition, gender and parental social class. We conclude that inequalities in adult cognition derive in part from educational experiences after adolescence.
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Project description:BackgroundExisting evidence on profiles of psychological distress across adulthood uses cross-sectional or longitudinal studies with short observation periods. The objective of this research was to study the profile of psychological distress within the same individuals from early adulthood to early old age across three British birth cohorts.MethodsWe used data from three British birth cohorts: born in 1946 (n = 3093), 1958 (n = 13 250) and 1970 (n = 12 019). The profile of psychological distress - expressed both as probability of being a clinical case or a count of symptoms based on comparable items within and across cohorts - was modelled using the multilevel regression framework.ResultsIn both 1958 and 1970 cohorts, there was an initial drop in the probability of being a case between ages 23-26 and 33-34. Subsequently, the predicted probability of being a case increased from 12.5% at age 36 to 19.5% at age 53 in the 1946 cohort; from 8.0% at age 33 to 13.7% at age 42 in the 1958 cohort and from 15.7% at age 34 to 19.7% at age 42 in the 1970 cohort. In the 1946 cohort, there was a drop in the probability of caseness between ages 60-64 and 69 (19.5% v. 15.2%). Consistent results were obtained with the continuous version of the outcome.ConclusionsAcross three post-war British birth cohorts midlife appears to be a particularly vulnerable phase for experiencing psychological distress. Understanding the reasons for this will be important for the prevention and management of mental health problems.
| S-EPMC9226427 | biostudies-literature