FW: MCS2 Policy Briefings: June 2007

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Plenty of interesting reading here - see links below

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» Policy Briefings Newsletter

Dear Soo Downe,

Find below, links to a set of twelve briefings on key topics from the second survey of the Millennium Cohort Study

MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - ParentingPublished date:11/06/2007The Millennium Cohort offers a rich resource of data on different aspects of parenting, particularly in relation to fathers. Both resident parents (where there were two) were asked about their activities and behaviours with their children and their different parenting styles. This information provides a unique picture of what parents do with their children, and also how well they felt they were managing as parents. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Child BehaviourPublished date:11/06/2007The acquisition of emotional intelligence is an important element of success in life. A child’s emotional and behavioural problems help predict difficulties at school and delinquency later on. Emotional adjustment was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). This is a behavioural screening questionnaire for 3 to 16-year-olds and is also a wellvalidated tool for screening psychiatric disorder. Within the normal range of scores, it taps into variations in selfregulation which may reflect the outcomes of earlier experience. It also helps to predict what may happen to the child in the future. The SDQ consists of 25 items generating an overall score as well as scores for five sub-scales measuring: conduct; hyperactivity; emotional symptoms; peer problems and pro-social behaviour. The items were assessed, for all children, via parental report, usually by the mother, in the computer-assisted selfcompletion module. In families with twins or triplets only one child was assessed. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Parental Health and WellbeingPublished date:11/06/2007The health of parents matters in our account of the millennium children’s lives as it forms an important part of the context in which children grow up. The second sweep of the MCS collected data on health and related behaviours, including general self-rated health, longstanding illnesses, cigarette smoking, alcohol and recreational drug use, psychological morbidity, life satisfaction and height and weight. In this briefing, each of these is considered for mothers and fathers in relation to age, country of residence, ethnicity, occupation, educational qualifications, family structure and employment status. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Employment and EducationPublished date:11/06/2007The economic activity and employment of parents is one vitally important element of the context in which the cohort child is growing up. It influences the time available to spend with the child, the income level and household resources. The well-documented increases in women’s employment have been largely due to mothers with young children, such as the Millennium Cohort, taking paid jobs. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Family DemographicsPublished date:11/06/2007This briefing puts a spotlight on the family with whom the cohort children share a home, the setting in which so many aspects of the child’s life take place. Whether they live with one or two parents makes many differences to the child’s experience of growing up. It also affects whether the study is able to interview fathers as well as mothers. This summary provides information on the number of parents in the home at the first and second surveys, parents living elsewhere, whether couples were married and whether the child had siblings or grandparents living at home. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - GrandparentsPublished date:11/06/2007Grandparents often provide vital financial, emotional and childcare support for their families. They also shape a child’s identity and upbringing, even though, as in the case of the MCS children, they seldom live at the same address. Grandparents’ characteristics are likely to have influenced not only the cohort members’ parents, but the children studied. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - PovertyPublished date:11/06/2007The economic situation of the families in which children are growing up determines current standards of living and is linked to prospects for the children’s development. Eradicating the number of children growing up in poverty is a key long-term aim of government policy. In the sweep 2 survey (MCS2), respondents were asked to specify where their family income fell in one of 18 bands. Separate bands were used for lone parents and for couples. The median income band for couples was £22,000 - £28,000 per annum, and for single parents £5,500 - £7,500. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - ChildcarePublished date:11/06/2007The involvement in the care of children by people other than their mothers has increased over time, and the majority of pre-school infants now experience some non-maternal care. Childcare provision outside the family takes a range of forms. It is no longer solely a ’custodial’ service for working mothers. Just as early education has come to be seen as a form of non-maternal care, so too have many childcare services begun to offer education as well as ‘care’. This analysis looks at childcare arrangements detailed at the age three interview, by those families reporting any care arrangement. The data gathered refer not only to mothers who were working but those who were not employed. Information on childcare arrangements was also collected at sweep 1, when the child was about nine months old. Where individuals had changed their childcare, or stopped or started a new arrangement, this was recorded. Around six out of ten families had some childcare arrangement to report. The focus is on the main type of arrangement reported. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Cognitive DevelopmentPublished date:11/06/2007Child development assessments, even very early in life, have been found to be good indicators of future educational performance and levels of health. If early outcomes are differentially related to demographic and socio-economic factors this may mean that inequalities are established early in life. These, in turn, promote or limit children’s trajectories through life depending on the families into which they are born. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Housing, Neighbourhood and CommunityPublished date:11/06/2007The Millennium Cohort Study was set up to examine children’s lives in their neighbourhood as well as family context. Many social policies are targeted at areas. The longitudinal survey can produce the evidence on the extent to which families move around. Families can move home for many reasons – dissatisfaction with their accommodation or their local area, a change of employment, or the location of other family members. Often, mobility will bring benefits to both parents and children but it can also result in a loss of contact with services, or a supportive network of neighbours, and entail more difficult travel arrangements. Here we look at the association of mobility with some socio-economic and sociodemographic factors, and respondents’ views about their local area. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Child HealthPublished date:11/06/2007The majority of pre-school-aged children, in all four countries of the UK, are growing up healthily but there are important inequalities in health across different social, ethnic and income groups. The second survey of the MCS also identified some important differences in the health and development of boys relative to girls. Most of the findings draw on mothers’ reports. MCS2 Briefing July 2007 - Childhood ObesityPublished date:11/06/2007The proportion of overweight and obese children in the UK has been increasing in recent decades, even amongst the pre-school population. The Health Survey for England showed a marked rise in the proportion of overweight (including obese) two to five-year-olds between 1995 and 2002, with an increase in boys from 17 to 22 per cent and in girls from 20 to 25 per cent. Obese children are at increased risk of health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as psychosocial problems, such as low self-esteem. They are also more likely to be obese in adolescence and adulthood.

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