ALSPAC parents’ descriptions of childhood stresses in their parents and grandparents

Background: There is evidence that childhood stresses or traumas influence individuals’ descendants’ health and wellbeing through epigenetic mechanisms. However, few longitudinal studies have details of such ancestral data. Methods: Nearly 7,000 parents of the original Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort completed questionnaires concerning their parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods. As part of a questionnaire validation exercise  we conducted recorded interviews with 100 of these parents. Here we describe some of the vivid accounts from these interviews of stresses encountered by the parents’ ancestors. Results: The interviews provided insights into the childhoods of two previous generations of this cohort, most of whom had lived through one, if not two, World Wars. Many children were brought up, not by their parents but by relatives or acquaintances and/or left home very young to ‘go into service’ or start work. A few interviewees had wealthy relatives with nannies and governesses and attended expensive boarding schools but by far the most frequent accounts were of poverty, often severe, with related lack of education and illiteracy, alcoholism and violence, alongside devastating effects of the World Wars. Conclusions: Although the interviews focussed on stresses in childhood and therefore the accounts seemed somewhat negative, many interviewees described their relatives as having secure, stable childhoods. Of the many struggling families though, the predominant impression was their remarkable resilience; all went on to have children or grandchildren who are stable enough to participate for three decades, entirely altruistically, in ALSPAC

Parental spiritual and religious beliefs and behaviour data collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, 2020

There are few studies that chart the ways in which the religious beliefs and practices of parents and their offspring vary over time. Even fewer can relate this to aspects of their physical and mental health or distinguish the different facets of the environment that may have influenced the development or loss of religious/spiritual belief and behaviours over time. This paper describes the recent data collection in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) on the beliefs and behaviours of the study parents some 27-28 years after the first measures were collected. Questions that were previously administered to the mother and her partner on religion, spirituality, behaviours, and beliefs (RSBB) were repeated for the fourth time, together with enhanced data on RSBB. The new data are described and compared with previous responses. The most notable difference between the 9 year and the 2020 sweep was the increase of professed non-believers in both the mothers (17.5% vs 29.8%) and partners (31.9% vs. 45.3%). As expected, on each occasion study partners were less likely to acknowledge RSBB compared to the study mothers. In the latest sweep, respondents were less likely to be unsure if they believed and more likely to not believe. Responses to “Do you believe in God or a divine power?” in mothers ranged from 49.9% stating ‘yes’ antenatally to 43.5% doing so in 2020; 14.9% vs 29.8% for ‘no’ and 35.2% to 26.6% for ‘not sure’. For partners, the corresponding figures are: ‘yes’ 37.0% vs. 30.0%; ‘no’ 28.6% vs. 45.3% and ‘not sure’ 34.5% vs. 24.6%. We plan to undertake detailed analyses of the antecedents and consequences of RBSS. All data are available for use by interested researchers

The housing environment of participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC):a resource for studies of influences on health [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations].

Background: Early life environmental health exposures related to housing can have a significant impact on an individual’s physical and mental health and physical development. Housing exposures can fall into two main areas – a representation of social circumstances and physical conditions.   Methods: During pregnancy and post-delivery, self-completion questionnaires concerning the housing environment were administered to the ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents & Children) study mothers and their partners until the study offspring were aged 18. Data collected included types of housing, housing tenure, numbers of rooms in the home, whether shared or sole use of kitchen and indoor flushing toilet, household moves, Council Tax band, difficulties in affording rent/mortgage and becoming homeless. Here we also describe the historic development of housing in the Bristol and surrounding Avon areas. Results: Data collected included the tenure (e.g., owned/rented) of the home, its size (indexed by the number of rooms), the presence of over-crowding (measured by the number of residents per room), presence of amenities, and frequency of household moves. This information was collected on over 13,000 women during pregnancy >8000 at age 10 and >4000 at 18 years. Council Tax bands were asked at 10 and 18 years.   Conclusions: This is the first of two Data Notes on the housing type and housing circumstances of the families enrolled in ALSPAC. The second Data Note will detail their internal housing conditions. The data provides an excellent resource for researchers when considering the influences of housing on physical and mental health and development