Change and continuity in family formation among young adults in Britain

Data from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts permit comparison of family formation patterns among young adults. We present evidence of changes in the speed and extent to which young adults enter first partnership, marry and become parents, and the relationships between these events. There remain remarkable continuities in social class differences. The intergenerational perspective demonstrates how persistent class differences in the family formation trajectories of young adults are in part a reflection of social inequalities in access to further and higher education

Relativistic fine structure oscillator strengths for Li-like ions: C IV - Si XII, S XIV, Ar XVI, Ca XVIII, Ti XX, Cr XXII, and Ni XXVI

Ab initio calculations including relativistic effects employing the Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) method are reported for fine structure energy levels and oscillator strengths upto n = 10 and 0.leq. l .leq.9 for 15 Li-like ions: C IV, N V, O VI, F VII, Ne VIII, Na IX, Mg X, Al XI, Si XII, S XIV, Ar XVI, Ca XIII, Ti XX, Cr XXII, and Ni XXVI. About one hundred bound fine structure energy levels of total angular momenta, 1/2 .leq. J .leq. 17/2 of even and odd parities, total orbital angular momentum, 0 .leq L .leq. 9 and spin multiplicity (2S+1) = 2, 4 are considered for each ion. The levels provide almost 900 dipole allowed and intercombination bound-bound transitions. The BPRM method enables consideration of large set of transitions with uniform accuracy compared to the best available theoretical methods. The CC eigenfunction expansion for each ion includes the lowest 17 fine structure energy levels of the core configurations 1s^2, 1s2s, 1s2p, 1s3s, 1s3p, and 1s3d. The calculated energies of the ions agree with the measured values to within 1% for most levels. The transition probabilities show good agreement with the best available calculated values. The results provide the largest sets of energy levels and transition rates for the ions and are expected to be useful in the analysis of X-ray and EUV spectra from astrophysical sources.Comment: 16 pgs., to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Improving customer satisfaction: changes as a result of Customer Value Discovery

Objective: To identify Gold Standard Services for customers in an academic library and determine whether interventions following the identification of customer value increased student satisfaction. Methods: “Customer Discovery Workshops” were undertaken with academic staff and undergraduate on‐campus students to provide managers and library staff with information on the services and resources that customers valued, and what irritated them about existing services and resources. The impact of interventions was assessed two years after the research using a university student satisfaction survey and an independent national student satisfaction survey. Results: The findings resulted in significant changes to the way forward‐facing customer services were delivered. A number of value adding services were introduced for the customer. Overall customer satisfaction was improved. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2008, 3:1 34 Conclusions: The Customer Value Discovery research has created a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. An operational plan was introduced to track activity and performance against the objectives identified in the customer value research. However, there is a constant need to innovate

Civil partnership five years on

The Civil Partnership Act 2004, which came into force in December 2005 allowing same-sex couples in the UK to register their relationship for the first time, celebrated its fifth anniversary in December 2010. This article examines civil partnership in England and Wales, five years on from its introduction. The characteristics of those forming civil partnerships between 2005 and 2010 including age, sex and previous marital/civil partnership status are examined. These are then compared with the characteristics of those marrying over the same period. Further comparisons are also made between civil partnership dissolutions and divorce. The article presents estimates of the number of people currently in civil partnerships and children of civil partners. Finally the article examines attitudes towards same-sex and civil partner couples both in the UK and in other countries across Europe

The changing determinants of UK young adults´ living arrangements

The postponement of partnership formation and parenthood in the context of an early average age at leaving home has resulted in increased heterogeneity in the living arrangements of young adults in the UK. More young adults now remain in the parental home, or live independently of the parental home but outside of a family. The extent to which these trends are explained by the increased immigration of foreign-born young adults, the expansion in higher education, and the increased economic insecurity faced by young adults are examined. Shared non-family living is particularly prominent among those with experience of higher education, whilst labour market uncertainty is associated with an extended period of co-residence with parents.higher education, labour market, NEET, non-family living, parental home, transition, young adulthood

Childlessness in the UK

Levels of childlessness in Britain are high in comparison with many other European countries, with just under one in five women currently reaching age 45 with no biological children of their own. This chapter provides new insights in two ways: First we combine childbearing data from repeated rounds of the General Household Survey and United Kingdom Household Panel Survey to identify how childlessness has increased at a similar rate among all educational groups, but that levels remain far higher among women with academic degree-level education. Secondly, the paper examines childlessness from a life course perspective among men and women born in 1970 who have been followed up within the British Cohort Study. Focusing on cohort members who were childless at age 30, we examine the relationship between fertility intentions expressed at age 30 and achieved childbearing by age 42. At age 42, those men and women who remained childless were invited to give their reasons for remaining childless. Some report that they did not have children 'due to health reasons', many more responded that they 'did not ever want children', whilst others said that they had 'not met the right partner to have children with'. Only a few suggested that they 'had been focused on their career'. We examine these responses in the context of the individual's partnership history and contribute to the debate as to whether the 'perpetual postponement' of childbearing to later ages is acting to increase the proportion who ultimately remain childles

Measuring economic precarity among UK youth during the recession

What are the key aspects of economic precariousness and which are most relevant to analysing young people’s lives? In this study we use data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) to identify the proportion of men and women aged 18-34 who might be considered to be in an economically precarious situation and investigate how the dimensions of precariousness are interrelated. This paper summarises findings from the CPC Working Paper 55

Economic precariousness and living in the parental home in the UK

Today’s young adults are facing increased economic uncertainty as a result of unemployment, the continued growth of low-paid, insecure and often part-time employment, accelerated by the recent economic downturn. Recent media attention has focused on the trend for increased co-residence of adult children with their parent(s). It is generally assumed that this trend relates directly to the increased economic uncertainty of young adults, combined with the challenges of affordability in the housing market. This research is motivated by the need to identify which groups are most at risk of economic uncertainty and to investigate the consequences for young adults’ abilities to make successful transitions to adulthood. The paper contributes to the literature on both youth employment and housing transitions and the intersection of both. The aim of the paper is three fold: 1) To explore how different aspects of precariousness (labour market insecurity, employment insecurity, and income insecurity) can be operationalised using quantitative data; 2) To use these indicators to provide estimates of precarity amongst young men and women aged 18-34; 3) To examine how these indicators are related to the likelihood of living in the parental home. We use data from the first wave of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) which was conducted in 2009/10, at the height of the economic downturn. By disaggregating analyses by gender and age we get beneath aggregate summary statistics and provide new insights into how young people’s experience of employment changes across the transition from older teenager, to those in their twenties and for those in their early thirties. The survey data suggest considerable income inequalities between young adults. Not surprisingly, the unemployed and economically inactive are concentrated in the lowest income quartiles. Among employed young adults, income levels differ significantly according to the hours worked, and occupational status. Our analyses show that young people are over-represented in routine and semi-routine jobs, most of these jobs tend to be low-paid and are in the bottom income quartile. Whilst the proportion in routine and semi-routine jobs decreases with age as young people gain the necessary skills and experience to climb the occupational ladder, a sizeable proportion – about one in five men and women in their early thirties remain in a routine or semi-routine job.A significant minority of young adults are self-employed. Among this group, we find a bi-modal income distribution, suggesting that for some, self-employment is an entrepreneurial success story. However, over one half of the self-employed in their late twenties and early thirties are in the lowest quartile suggesting that for others, self-employment is a new form of precarity. This research also quantifies the extent to which different indicators of precarity are related. We find that young adults often face multiple dimensions of economic precarity. For example, male part-time workers tend to have lower personal incomes, and part-time work is associated with being on a temporary contract and being in semi-routine or routine jobs. Almost all the indicators of precariousness were found to be associated with a higher likelihood of living in the parental home, suggesting that these young adults face constraints on their ability to make the transition to residential independence. Some differences are seen according to age. For men and women aged under 25, both unemployment, being temporary or part-time employed, or being in a (semi)routine job are associated with a higher likelihood of remaining in the parental home. By their late twenties only a small proportion of women, but a higher proportion of men remain living with their parents. At these ages, it is unemployed and economically inactive and men in (semi) routine jobs, and men with lower levels of personal income who are significantly more likely to remain living with their parent(s). This research has implications for various actors including national and local government, housing agencies and employee groups as well as the self-employed. Young adults are concentrated in parts of the economy dominated by zero and short-hours contracts and governments should regulate these types of contracts. In addition, uncertainties associated with self-employment need to be recognised since they may have implications for making stable housing and family transitions. New policies need to consider the groups struggling most with housing costs; young single people, especially those without children, who are renting single bedroom properties, particularly in London. Furthermore, policies need to be developed to support pay and skills progression among young adults.<br/

Evaluation of the partnership histories in the Centre for Population Change GHS time series dataset

A combined time series of the General Household Survey datasets from 1979 to 2007 has been compiled by the Centre for Population Change (CPC). This dataset includes, along with socio-economic variables, the demographic histories collected in the Family Information section of the GHS questionnaire over the GHS rounds covered, in harmonised form. The present paper evaluates both the internal consistency of the marriage and cohabitation histories and their correspondence with external sources.The data are weighted using new weights generated by CPC for the analysis of these data. Overall, cumulative proportions married by each age for the cohorts of 1951-55 to 1966-70 correspond well with ONS figures for England and Wales, though there are some systematic disparities in selected years. As found in an earlier study, retrospective estimates from the 2000-07 histories of the proportions cohabiting at a point in time are somewhat above the cross-sectional estimates at survey 5 and 10years before