Non-resident parents: why are they hard to capture in surveys and what can we do about it?

The under-representation of non-resident parents in surveys has long hindered research on family separation, leaving key evidence gaps for those making policy and practice decisions related to separating and separated families, including (but not restricted to) issues around child support, child arrangements, welfare benefits and housing. In this paper, we articulate the importance of robust quantitative data collected directly from non-resident parents. We review the methods previously employed to attempt to achieve this, and we use the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) (University of Essex, ISER, 2017) to demonstrate where and how response biases occur. The main body of the paper reports findings from an experiment run on Wave 10 of the UKHLS Innovation Panel (Al Baghal et al., 2018; University of Essex, ISER, 2018) in which we compare two approaches to identifying non-resident parents from among the panel members. One method, a variant of that currently used in the UKHLS, asks panel members about living relatives with whom they do not live. The iv second method modifies the UKHLS standard fertility history questions collecting information on past births and then asks whether any such children are under 18 and living outside the household. Our findings are necessarily tentative, with around 100 non-resident parents identified across both arms of the experiment from among the 2,570 panel members interviewed in Wave 10. They nonetheless point towards a potential to improve the survey representativeness of non-resident parents, at least to some degree. While we found no statistically significant differences in the non-resident parent prevalence rates between the two methods, in combination they increased the non-resident parent sample by one quarter. Moreover, the data suggest that the fertility history approach improves the representativeness of the non-resident parent sample, in terms of both their socio-demographic profile and their levels of parental involvement. That said, even the combined approach results in a large underrepresentation of non-resident parents and a continued bias towards those who are more involved with their children

COVID-19: has the pandemic affected relationships between children and their non-resident parents?

The well-being and outcomes of children living in separated families are associated with the quality of their relationship with their non-resident parent, and child maintenance provided by that parent. It is therefore important to understand how COVID-19 has affected these. While the Understanding Society COVID-19 survey suggests a strong degree of stability in many children’s relationships with their non-resident parent, those relationships most at risk (of becoming less close or having less contact) during the pandemic are those which were of poorer quality beforehand. Child maintenance is most likely to have reduced during the pandemic where children had less contact beforehand

Metabolic effects of a high-fat diet post-weaning after low maternal dietary folate during pregnancy and lactation

Scope Investigate the influence of low-folate supply during pregnancy and lactation on obesity and markers of the metabolic syndrome in offspring, and how provision of a high-fat diet post weaning may exacerbate the resultant phenotype. Methods and results Female C57Bl/6 mice were randomized to low or normal folate diets (0.4 or 2 mg folic acid/kg diet) prior to and during pregnancy and lactation. At 4 wk of age, offspring were randomized to high- or low-fat diets, weighed weekly and food intake assessed at 9 and 18 wk old. Adiposity was measured at 3 and 6 months. Plasma glucose and triacylglycerol (TAG) concentrations were measured at 6 months. Maternal folate supply did not influence adult offspring body weight or adiposity. High-fat feeding post weaning increased body weight and adiposity at 3 and 6 months (p > 0.001). Maternal low folate lowered plasma glucose (p = 0.010) but increased plasma TAG (p = 0.048). High-fat feeding post weaning increased plasma glucose and TAG (p = 0.023, p = 0.049 respectively). Offspring from folate-depleted (but not folate-adequate) dams had 30% higher TAG concentration when fed the high-fat diet from weaning (p = 0.005 for interaction). Conclusion Inadequate maternal folate intake has long-term effects on offspring metabolism, manifested as increased circulating TAG, particularly in offspring with high-fat intake post weaning

DNA methylation as a potential mediator of environmental risks in the development of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

5-year survival rate for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has risen to approximately 90%, yet the causal disease pathway is still poorly understood. Evidence suggests multiple 'hits' are required for disease progression; an initial genetic abnormality followed by additional secondary 'hits'. It is plausible that environmental influences may trigger these secondary hits, and with the peak incidence of diagnosis between 2 and 5 years of age, early life exposures are likely to be key. DNA methylation can be modified by many environmental exposures and is dramatically altered in cancers, including childhood ALL. Here we explore the potential that DNA methylation may be involved in the causal pathway toward disease by acting as a mediator between established environmental factors and childhood ALL development

The influence of a single antenatal relaxation class (ARC) on perinatal psychological wellbeing and childbirth experience: an observational study.

This presentation discusses the results of a study to review the outcomes of an antenatal relaxation class. The study aimed to examine the influence of this class on perinatal psychological wellbeing and childbirth. The study used an observational approach, with a sample of 91 childbearing women and three sets of online surveys

A different way of being.

This presentation gives an overview of the findings from the author's PhD project, which aimed to explore the impact of an antenatal relaxation class on maternal psychological wellbeing and childbirth

A different way of being: the influence of a single antenatal relaxation class (ARC) on maternal psychological wellbeing and childbirth experiences: an exploratory sequential mix-method study.

This poster describes a study that aimed to evaluate the impact of an antenatal relaxation class on the psychology and wellbeing of pregnant women during childbirth

The Elasticity of Formal Work in African Countries

A key policy problem in most developing countries is the size of the informal sector and its persistence over time. At the same time, these countries also need to increase their tax take. However, this may slow down the formalization of the economy. Evidence on the wages and characteristics of jobs in di erent sectors and on the impact of tax changes on the size of the informal sector in developing countries is, however, very limited. This paper therefore estimates the tax responsiveness of the extensive margin of formality, i.e. the propensity to participate in formal work as opposed to working as an informal worker,for four Sub-Saharan African countries. Using repeated cross-sections of household data and applying grouping estimator techniques, this paper finds only very small or statistically insignificant effects of taxes on the extent of formal work