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

The evaluation of a self-enumerated scale of quality of life (CASP-19) in the context of research on ageing : a combination of exploratory and confirmatory approaches

This paper describes the conceptual development of a self-enumerated scale of quality of life (CASP-19) and presents an empirical evaluation of its structure using a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches across three different survey settings for older people living in England and Wales in the new millennium. All evaluations are conducted using MPlus which allows the analyst to evaluate the properties of the scale for a set of multivariate categorical items which are subject to item non-response. CASP-19 is a subjective measure of well-being derived from an explicit theory of human need spanning four life domains: control, autonomy, self-realisation and pleasure. Put formally, CASP-19 is a self-reported summative index consisting of 19 Likert scale items. The three survey settings include a postal survey of 263 people in early old age followed up from childhood when the respondents were first interviewed in the 1930's, the first wave (2002) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA_1) and the eleventh wave of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS_11) also conducted in 2002. These nationally representative surveys consisted of 9300 and 6471 respondents aged 55 years and older. The Boyd-Orr sample provides an exploratory context for the evaluation and ELSA_1 together with BHPS_11 provide the opportunity for confirmatory analyses of three measurement models. There is some support for the use of CASP-19 as a stand alone summative index. However, the analysis reveals that a shortened 12-item scale which combines the life domains 'control and autonomy' in a second order measurement model is the recommended model for analysts. The work was funded under the UK's Economic and Social Research Council's Growing Older Programme and their Priority Network on Human Capability and Resilience. Grant Nos. L480254016 & L326253061. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007

Changing trust in the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic: influences of country, generation and previous voting behaviour

This paper compares self-reported trust in the British Conservative government and an evaluation of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, over three time-points between May 2020 – February 2021, for two birth cohort studies, representing ‘baby boomers’ (sixty-something’s) and ‘Generation X’ (fifty-something’s). Our two outcomes are examined in the context of socio-demographic status, living arrangements, labour market position, social contact, expressions of loneliness, vaccine hesitancy, political attachment to the Conservative party and country of residence (England, Wales and Scotland) using regression models which condition on prior trust scores. In the early waves political attachment has a strong relationship with trust until the negative influence of vaccine hesitancy is included in the final wave model for both cohorts. For Generation X a country difference persists for people living in Scotland (vs. England and Wales). Amongst baby boomers, women are more positive than men and graduates are more negative in their expression of trust in government, but these differences are not found for Generation X. When it comes to the government’s handling of the pandemic the cohorts are similar in two key respects: the positive influence of political attachment to the Conservatives and negative association of graduate status. Vaccine hesitancy results in a negative influence amongst baby boomers but not for Generation X. In conclusion, trust in government and the government’s handling of the pandemic are not independent of political orientation or graduate status. Sex, vaccine reluctance and country of residence nuance our conclusions and warrant further investigation

Trust in government, trust in others during and compliance with social distancing: findings from the CLS COVID-19 web survey across four National Longitudinal Studies

This paper focuses on the changes in self-reported trust in government, others and compliance with social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic for a subgroup of 9137 individuals who provided evaluations on three consecutive waves of a web survey (May 2020, September 2020 and February 2021). Sample members belong to four national longitudinal studies, covering ‘baby boomers’ (sixty-something’s), ‘Generation X’ (fifty-something’s), ‘Millennials’ (thirty-somethings) and ‘Generation Z’ (twenty-somethings). During the early days of the first lockdown (May 2020) members of the two older generations reported the highest levels of trust in government in contrast to their younger counterparts. This disparity between the generations held over time and whilst the tendency amongst all age groups was towards lower levels of trust a notable minority of respondents hardly changed their evaluations at all and, some cases reported higher levels of trust. At the outset of the pandemic older women tended to be more trusting of and in the younger age groups non-White (BAME) respondents reported lower levels of trust in contrast to White respondents. Longitudinal analysis consists of is a series of conditional regression models which include the influence of socio-demographic characteristics, living arrangements, work status, social contact and expressions of loneliness across each generation. Notably, women remain more trusting of government than men in the oldest cohort and having a degree is associated with a negative influence on trust for the oldest and youngest. Loneliness diminishes trust in government for the youngest cohorts whereas vaccine reluctance only appears to matter for the oldest. For ‘trust in others’, there is little to differentiate between cohort members apart from the negative association of loneliness amongst the young. Findings for compliance with social distancing suggest that women are consistently compliant even, when reporting vaccine reluctance. The final wave included two measures to assess ‘government performance’; how the government handled the pandemic and whether or not the government was doing all it can to reduce the spread of COVID-19. In the case of the former those with a degree are consistently skeptical. Additionally, in the youngest cohort, women are typically negative in their assessment together with those who experience loneliness. For the latter measure, women together with BAME respondents are consistently positive in their evaluation whereas, vaccine reluctance tended to be associated with negative assessments

A methodological investigation of non sampling error: Interviewer variability and non response.

Two principal sources of error in data collected from structured interviews with respondents are the methods of observation itself, and the impact of failure to obtain responses from selected individuals. Methodological strategies are developed to investigate practical ways of handling these errors for data appraisal. In part one, the differential impact of each of a group of interviewers on the responses obtained in two separate epidemiological studies is examined. Interviewer effect is measured and its impact on the interpretation of individual responses, scale scores and modelling is shown. The analysis demonstrates that it is possible to achieve four objectives with slight modification of survey design. First, estimates of precision for the survey results can be improved by including the component due to interviewer variability. Secondly, items with high sensitivity to interviewer effect can be identified. Thirdly, the pattern of distortion for different types of items can be discovered. Replicate analyses appear to indicate that deviations between interviewers are not always consistent over time. Fourthly, by means of 'variance component modelling' the presence of interviewers on the interpretation of linear models can be evaluated. These models are used to show how interviewer characteristics may be used to account for variation in the responses. Part two establishes an evaluative framework for the systematic review of interviewer call back strategies in terms of nonresponse bias and the costs of data collection. Use of an 'efficiency index', based on a product of 'mean square error' and cost for items in a survey of occupational mobility provides a retrospective evaluation. The empirical evidence had important practical consequences for fieldwork. The possibility of alternative call-back norms and the relative efficacy of appointment versus non-appointment calls is shown. The methodology develops from a review of adjustment procedures for nonresponse bias and models for survey costing. Logically, the methodologies for the three empirical investigations could be combined into an appraisal for a single survey. Only lack of resources inhibited such an outcome

Associations between friendship characteristics and HIV and HSV-2 status amongst young South African women in HPTN-068.

INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of HIV among young women in South Africa remains extremely high. Adolescent peer groups have been found to be an important influence on a range of health behaviours. The characteristics of young women's friendships might influence their sexual health and HIV risk via connections to sexual partners, norms around sexual initiation and condom use, or provision of social support. We investigated associations between young women's friendships and their Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) and HIV infection status in rural South Africa. METHODS: Our study is a cross-sectional, egocentric network analysis. In 2011 to 2012, we tested 13- to 20-year-old young women for HIV and HSV-2, and collected descriptions of five friendships for each. We generated summary measures describing friend socio-demographic characteristics and the number of friends perceived to have had sex. We used logistic regression to analyse associations between friend characteristics and participant HIV and HSV-2 infection, excluding likely perinatal HIV infections. RESULTS: There were 2326 participants included in the study sample, among whom HIV and HSV-2 prevalence were 3.3% and 4.6% respectively. Adjusted for participant and friend socio-demographic characteristics, each additional friend at least one year older than the participant was associated with raised odds of HIV (odds ratio (OR) = 1.37, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.82) and HSV-2 (adjusted OR=1.41, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.69). Each additional friend perceived to have ever had sex also raised the odds of HIV (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.63) and HSV-2 (OR=1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.35). DISCUSSION: We found good evidence that a greater number of older friends and friends perceived to have had sex were associated with increased risk for HSV-2 and HIV infection among young women. CONCLUSIONS: The characteristics of young women's friendships could contribute to their risk of HIV infection. The extent to which policies or programmes influence age-mixing and young women's normative environments should be considered

Does private schooling make you right-wing? An investigation using the 1970 British Cohort Study

This paper addresses the question of whether attending a private school (both at primary and secondary stages) affects voting behaviour and political attitudes in adulthood. The analysis is based upon the British Cohort Study, a nationally representative cohort of children born in one week in April 1970 at age 42 years. A path analysis was adopted to test the impact of attending a private school on the tendency to vote Conservative in four consecutive General Elections, and on the expression of left-right attitudes in mid-life for a sample of 6917 study members. A constellation of antecedents were included in the modelling covering social origins at birth, cultural and material capital and academic achievement prior and post-secondary school entry together with an individual’s early social class destination. Our findings suggest that once these aspects of the life course are included in the model that there is evidence for a direct relationship between attending private school and the expression of right wing attitudes for both men and women

The path from social origins to top jobs: social reproduction via education

This paper provides a comprehensive account of the way in which cognitive and educational attainment mediate the link between social origins and elite social class destinations in mid-life. Using the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), we assess the roles of a range of pathways through which educational advantage may lead to occupational attainment: cognitive development; private and selective secondary schools; school level qualifications; and higher education, including institution and field of study. Whereas past research has shown a residual direct effect of social origins on class destinations, we find that, once a sufficiently detailed picture of educational attainment is taken into account, education fully explains the link between social origins and top social class destinations. In contrast, the gap between men and women in achieving top social class positions is in no part accounted for by education

Are Right-Wing Attitudes and Voting Associated with Having Attended Private School? An Investigation Using the 1970 British Cohort Study

This article addresses the question of whether attending a private school affects voting behaviour and political attitudes in adulthood in Britain. The analysis is based upon the British Cohort Study, a nationally representative cohort of children born in one week in April 1970. The ‘effect’ of attending a private school on the tendency to vote Conservative in four consecutive General Elections, and on the expression of conservative attitudes in mid-life is assessed using path analysis. The model includes multiple indicators for a range of antecedents: social origins at birth, cultural and material capital, academic achievements and early social class destination. Once these antecedents are included in the model, for both men and women a direct positive relationship remains between attending private school and voting Conservative and holding right-leaning attitudes. The main significance of these findings follows from the high proportion of private school alumni in influential positions in public life