Postponement and childlessness: Evidence from two British Cohorts

This paper starts by reviewing existing projections of childlessness among British men and women. Low current fertility implies high eventual childlessness unless the postponement of parenthood is taken into account. Such re-timing of first births appears to be occurring differentially across social groups. Exploiting the disaggregated evidence of two British cohort studies, the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Survey, this paper investigates the extent of postponement across cohorts and projects its impact on eventual levels of childlessness. Men and women are considered separately in our models of a population stratified by educational attainment. We find the most striking postponement occurring among graduate men. Among graduate women, after taking family building intentions into account, we estimate that about a quarter of 1970 born graduate women will remain childless, rather than something nearer 40 per cent as had been conjectured elsewhere

Postponement and childlessness - Evidence from two British cohorts

This paper starts by reviewing existing projections of childlessness among British men and women. Low current fertility implies high eventual childlessness unless the postponement of parenthood is taken into account. Such re-timing of first births appears to be occurring differentially across social groups. Exploiting the disaggregated evidence of two British cohort studies, the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Survey, this paper investigates the extent of postponement across cohorts and projects its impact on eventual levels of childlessness. Men and women are considered separately in our models of a population stratified by educational attainment. We find the most striking postponement occurring among graduate men. Among graduate women, after taking family building intentions into account, we estimate that about a quarter of 1970 born graduate women will remain childless, rather than something nearer 40 per cent as had been conjectured elsewhere.childlessness, event history, fertility, graduate women, intentions, parenthood, postponement

Are there neighbourhood effects on teenage parenthood in the UK, and does it matter for policy? A review of theory and evidence

This paper is a forerunner to an empirical study of neighbourhood effects on teenage parenthood using the British Cohort Study (BCS70). It reviews evidence for the existence of such effects within the quantitative 'neighbourhood effects' literature. It also draws on the wider literature on teenage parenthood to identify three explanatory frameworks for the phenomenon (opportunity costs, differential values and social networks), and to examine the qualitative and quantitative evidence that these mechanisms vary over space in ways that create distinctive 'place effects' at different spatial scales. We conclude that while there is good reason to believe that neighbourhood and wider area influences might be associated with planned or unplanned teenage pregnancies and with the propensity to continue to parenthood, statistical evidence is mixed, and relatively sparse for the UK. Policy makers need to draw on the wider body of literature, including qualitative studies and practitioner knowledge as well as 'hard' proof of neighbourhood effects. Finally we consider implications for policy. We critically interrogate the notion that area effects and area-based policies are necessarily related and instead offer some more specific conclusions as to what the evidence implies (and does not imply) for the purpose and design of policy interventions.neighbourhood, neighbourhood effects, area effects, teenage parenthood

Teenage housing tenure and neighbourhoods and the links with adult outcomes: evidence from the 1970 cohort study

This study is one of a pair funded by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority. The other report can be found at http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/. This pair of studies develops the findings of two previous reports on the relationship between housing and life chances (Feinstein et al, 2008, Lupton et al, 2009). These previous reports examined housing circumstances in childhood for those born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000, and the relationship between childhood housing and adult outcomes across a range of measures for those born in 1946, 1958 and 1970. They found as yet unexplained connections between being ‘ever’ in social housing in childhood and worse adult outcomes on an overall measure of deprivation and a range of individual measures for those born in 1958 and in 1970 (but not for those born in 1946) (Feinstein et al, 2008, Lupton et al, 2009). Statistically significant associations remained after using a very large set of more than 50 controls for family and individual characteristics, for many outcomes and many ages, although the size of all of the associations was substantially reduced

Inequalities in mental health, self-rated health, and social support among sexual minority young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: analyses from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

PURPOSE: Young adults who self-identify as a sexual minority may have been particularly harmed by the consequences of lockdown, closure of educational institutions, and social distancing measures as they are likely to have been confined in households that may not be supportive of their sexual orientation. We examine inequalities in the mental health and self-rated health of sexual minority young adults, compared to their heterosexual peers, at the height of lockdown restrictions in the UK. METHODS: We analysed data from singletons who participated in waves 6, 7, and the wave 1 COVID-19 survey (n = 2211) of the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of infants born in the UK between September 2000 and January 2002. Regression models compared the mental health, self-rated health, and social support of sexual minority young adults to that of their heterosexual peers. RESULTS: One in four young adults self-identified with a sexual orientation or attraction other than completely heterosexual. Sexual minority young adults had significantly lower levels of social support (β =  - 0.38, SE 0.08), poorer self-rated health (OR 3.91, 95% CI 2.41-6.34), and higher levels of psychological distress (β = 2.26, SE 0.34), anxiety (β = 0.40, SE 0.15), and loneliness (β = 0.66, SE 0.18) when compared to heterosexual young adults. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual minority young adults in the UK have been detrimentally impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, experiencing inequalities in mental health, self-rated health, and social support when compared to heterosexual young adults. Implications for policy and practice include a stronger provision of safe spaces in the community and in institutions, and policies that address marginalisation and harassment

Growing Up in Social Housing in the New Millennium: Housing, Neighbourhoods, and Early Outcomes for Children Born in 2000

This study draws on the Millennium Cohort Study to explore the housing and neighbourhood circumstances of children born in England in 2000 at the age of 5 in 2006. The majority of children experienced good housing conditions. Those in social rented homes, and to a lesser extent in private rented homes too, were markedly disadvantaged in terms of family circumstances and neighbourhood deprivation, while housing conditions and other neighbourhood characteristics also varied somewhat between tenures. Links were found between children's housing tenure and test scores. These were largely explained by a combination of family characteristics and neighbourhood deprivation.Millennium Cohort Study, housing conditions, neighbourhood conditions, housing tenure effects, neighbourhood effects

A cross-cohort description of young people's housing experience in Britain over 30 years: An application of Sequence Analysis

Methods. Sequence Analysis supported by Event History Analysis. Key Findings. Despite only 12 years separating both cohorts, the younger 1970 cohort exhibited very different patterns of housing including a slower progression out of the parental home and into stable tenure, and an increased reliance on privately rented housing. Returns to the parental home occurred across the twenties and into the thirties in both cohorts, although occurred more frequently and were more concentrated among certain groups in the 1970 cohort compared to the 1958 cohort. Although fewer cohort members in the 1970 cohort experienced social housing, and did so at a later age, social housing was also associated with greater tenure immobility in this younger cohort. Conclusions. The housing experiences of the younger cohort became associated with more unstable tenure (privately rented housing) for the majority. Leaving the parental home was observed to be a process, as opposed to a one-off event, and several returns to the parental home were documented, more so for the 1970 cohort. These findings are not unrelated, and in the current environment of rising house prices, collapses in the (youth) labour market and rising costs of higher education, are likely to increase in prevalence across subsequent cohorts.Housing, Young People, Sequence Analysis, Housing Tenure

Inequalities in health and care among lesbian, gay and bisexual people aged 50 and over in the United Kingdom: a systematic review and meta-analysis of sources of individual participant data

Objectives Modelling the health and care trajectories of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) is essential to identify inequalities and support needs, yet because of the small sample of LGB people in any one survey, current evidence relies on studies that have poor generalisability and low power. This study assesses the magnitude of health inequalities among older LGB people across ten outcomes, informed by evidence on the health trajectories and distinct LGB history of the United Kingdom (UK). Methods A systematic review was conducted of representative data sources on older LGB and heterosexual people’s health and care status in the UK. Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis was employed to synthesise data from up to 25 different sources. To account for the intricacies of individual datasets, the analysis employed a two-stage approach where an odds ratio (OR) and standard error was calculated for each dataset individually, before being meta-analysed through DerSimonian and Laird random effects models. Results Among men aged 50+, being gay, bisexual or having another non-heterosexual orientation is associated with an increased risk of reporting long-term illness and health-related limitations. Indicators of mental health also suggest that gay and bisexual men are more likely to report low life satisfaction and to have attempted suicide over their life time. Among women, differences are apparent with regards to self-rated health as well as with engagement with risky health behaviours. Discussion The findings corroborate the minority stress theory, but they also generate new questions for researchers around when and how these inequalities emerge