Developing ethnic identity questions for Understanding Society

Ethnic identity, its formation, expression and consequences are sources of extensive discussion and debate within multicultural societies. Analysis of identity is increasingly finding its way into survey based analysis and is being explored by disciplines beyond psychology, and qualitative and theoretical sociology. However, effective and appropriate survey measures of ethnic identity that are suitable for inclusion in a general purpose sample survey and which allow estimation of change and development across the age range are in short supply. Here, we describe the process of development of a series of new ethnic identity questions, designed specifically for inclusion in Understanding Society but with applicability for longitudinal studies further afield. We detail the rationale for the development and the process by which the final set of questions was arrived at, and outline the implications for future research agendas

Understanding the religious behaviour of Muslims in the Netherlands and the UK

The position of Muslims in Western societies is the subject of intense study and debate. However, remarkably little attention has been paid to the practice of European Muslims and how Muslim religiosity relates to conventional measures of social and economic integration. In this paper we draw on theories of secularization, assimilation, revitalization and integration to explore the correlates of attendance at religious meetings for Muslims of different backgrounds in the Netherlands and the UK. We conclude that patterns of religiosity and secularisation cannot be generalised across national contexts.Religion, Muslim, Religiosity, Immigrant, Netherlands, UK

Conducting qualitative and quantitative research with children of different ages

Even from young ages, children can provide rich and accurate information about their lives. They can also help to tell us which questions we should be asking them. But there are specific issues to consider when carrying out research with children in order to obtain the most accurate and meaningful information about their lives, attitudes and perspectives. This Guide outlines these issues, which include question comprehension, recall of events over different time periods, compliance or willingness to provide the expected answer, salience of the information sought, and peer influences. It maps how they evolve with the age of the child and the implications for the design of research instruments. It also reflects on specific issues that may arise when researching children’s lives in the global South and in relation to digital technologies. The Guide emphasises the need for thorough formative research and pre-testing, in the context of an ethical approach that treats children as active research participants. It provides some examples of good practice in researching children, as well as specific guidance and a short summary checklist

Girls like pink: Explaining sex-typed occupational aspirations amongst young children

There is a high degree of sex-typing in young children's occupational aspirations and this has consequences for subsequent occupational segregation. Sociologists typically attribute early sex-differences in occupational preferences to gender socialization. Yet we still know surprisingly little about the mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of sex-typical preferences and there is considerable theoretical controversy regarding the role of individual agency in the process of preference formation. This study analyzes the determinants of sex-typed occupational aspirations amongst British children aged between 11 and 15. We specify different mechanisms involved in the transmission of sex-typical preferences and propose an innovative definition of individual agency that is anchored in observable psychological traits linked to self-direction. This allows us to perform a simultaneous test of socialization and agency predictors of occupational sex-typing. We find that parental influences on occupational preferences operate mainly through three distinctive channels: 1) the effect that parental socio-economic resources have on the scope of children‘s occupational aspirations, 2) children's direct imitation of parental occupations, and 3) children's learning of sex-typed roles via the observation of parental behavior. We also find a strong net effect of children's own psychological predispositions —self-esteem in particular— on the incidence of sex-typical occupational preferences. Yet large differences in the occupational aspirations of girls and boys remain unexplained.Gender segregation; occupational aspirations; children; socialization; agency; personality traits; mechanisms; british household panel survey

COVID-19 and the mortality rates of different ethnic groups in England

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of different ethnicities in England has invited a lot of attention, but poorer outcomes among some groups have still not been fully explained. Lucinda Platt (LSE) explores the reasons why it is important to recognise the complex background factors involved that may influence both infection and severity, and how they are interlinked

Family stressors and children's outcomes

The research reported here aimed to identify:1.which family stress factors and parental behaviours were associated with worse outcomes for children at age 7 andwhich factors helped children to succeed2.whether stressful life events experienced at different periods of childhood were associated with worse outcomes in adolescence.Differences in children’s outcomeshave been shown to emerge early in life, and to be linked to both family circumstances, such as social disadvantage, and parenting behaviours, such as parenting style and activities with the child. Both these aspects of a child’s environment are important for their early cognitive and emotional development. But it is not clear whether these early differences, and the factors associated with them, persist up to age 7. Previous research has also shown that stressful life events are associated with worse outcomesfor children. However, it has not previously been possible to explore whether particular life events are especially detrimental, whether they impact across different sorts of children’s outcomes(educational, social etc.), and whether the effects of early childhood events persist into adolescence. In order to target interventions, it is clearly important to understand which family circumstances are significant for child wellbeing at different ages, and how that varies across outcomes. A range of children’s outcomeswere examined using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). At age 7, these were verbal cognitive skills, non-verbal skills, maths skills, Key Stage 1 (KS1) attainment and behavioural difficulties. For teenagers, the following outcomes were explored at age 13-14: Key Stage 3 (KS3) attainment; emotional, behavioural, social, and school wellbeing; and Key Stage 4 (KS4) results at age 16. Key findingsA wide range of family background factors and parental behaviours are associated with children’s outcomesat age 7. These tend to be the same factors that are important at earlier ages, and include parenting behaviours, family structure andsocio-economic position of the family.Family poverty, child disability and the child’s mother having higher qualifications are consistently associated with children faring respectively worse (poverty and disability) and better (higher maternal qualifications) across all five age 7 outcomes, holding other factors constant.No other factors are associated with all five outcomes.Different aspects of family background matter for different outcomes.Children can experience a range of stressful life events. Extreme stressful events, such as homelessness, victimisation or abuse, can have long-term effects on children’s outcomes