The Education of Multiple Family Members and the Life-Course Pathways to Cognitive Impairment

OBJECTIVES: This article asks how the educational attainments of multiple family members, including parents and offspring, are associated with the cognitive health of older adults in the United States. METHODS: We use panel data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000-2012) to examine how the education of an individual, their parent(s), and their offspring are associated with the prevalence of moderate/severe cognitive impairment and the onset of cognitive impairment among older adults using logistic regression and discrete-time event history analysis, respectively. RESULTS: We found that when combined, only the education of the individual is inversely associated with cognitive impairment at baseline. However, both the educational attainments of an individual and their offspring are negatively associated with the risk of becoming cognitively impaired, among individuals who were not already cognitively impaired. Conversely, parental education was not predictive of being cognitively impaired or the onset of impairment. Furthermore, we found that respondent gender did not moderate the relationship between a family member\u27s education and respondent cognitive health. DISCUSSION: This study adds to current research by asking how resources from earlier and subsequent generations matter for older adults\u27 cognitive health. Although we found little evidence that parental education matters at this life stage, results suggest that offspring education has a salient positive effect on later-life cognitive health. This finding underscores an overlooked source of health disparities-offspring resources-and highlights how a family perspective remains a powerful tool for understanding health inequalities in later life

Impact of Initial Delay and Stallings on the Quality of Experience of the User

Context: In telecommunications, it is important for network providers to have a knowledge of generic relationships between multi-dimensional QoE and QoS parameters to be able to provide quality service to the customers, keeping in mind the real-time constraints such as time, money and labor. So far, there have been several research works on formulating a generic quantitative relationship between a single QoE and a single QoS parameter in literature. As per the research conducted, the most common examples of mapping between a QoS parameter and QoE were found to be the exponential model (the IQX hypothesis), the logarithmic model (the WeberFechner law), and the power model. However, it has been less common to study the multi-dimensional relationship between QoE and QoS parameters. Objective: The purpose of this paper here is to discuss the impact of several QoS parameters on QoE. The proposal put forth by existing literature is that a multiplicative model better explains the impact of QoS parameters on the overall quality as perceived by the user. The proposal was, however, never backed by subjective data. Method: We have performed several subjective tests in this regard to test our hypothesis. Non-adaptive streaming of videos in a monitored server-client setup was used. In these tests, the objective was to obtain the Mean Opinion Scores(MOS) for varying QoS parameters such as the initial delay and the number of stalls. Network shaping was used for introducing the disturbances in the videos. The experimental setup consisted of a total of 27 experiments per user and each user was handed over a questionnaire. The questionnaire mainly consisted of four questions aimed at gathering feedback from the users regarding the quality of the videos shown to them. Users were asked to mark their MOS on a continuous scale. The videos were subjected to three different values of Initial Delay, Stalls and Resolution, each. The average duration per stalls throughout the experiments was maintained at 2 seconds. Results: Data was collected from 15 users. Thus, in total 405 MOS values were recorded for 27 combinations of Initial Delay, number of Stalls and Resolution. The impact of initial delay and stalls on the QoE as indicated by the MOS was then categorized and studied for each Resolution. With the help of regression tools in MATLAB and Solver in Excel, possible models that explain the multi-dimensional QoS-QoE relationship were studied. Conclusion: The results mostly indicated towards the multiplicative model just as proposed by the existing literature. Also, it was observed that Initial Delay alone has not much impact on the overall QoE. So, the impact of Initial Delay could be described either by an additive or a multiplicative model. However, the impact of Stalls on QoE was found to be multiplicative

Labour market adjustment to third-party competition:evidence from Mexico

China's exports reduce wages in importing countries, but few studies have looked at competition in third-party markets. We examine labour market outcomes in Mexico's apparel and textile sectors associated with US apparel and textile imports from China. Using data on US imports in conjunction with quarterly Mexican labour force surveys, we show that US imports from China are associated with a reduction of employment in Mexico's apparel and textile sectors. These effects are the most pronounced for the least educated. Wages were not impacted on net except for possibly the poorest which would indicate stronger local labour market ties in the left tail of the wage distribution. Finally, the effects of trade-induced demand shocks dissipate after about two quarters indicating low firm-level adjustment costs.</p

The education of multiple family members and the life course pathways to cognitive impairment

OBJECTIVES: This article asks how the educational attainments of multiple family members, including parents and offspring, are associated with the cognitive health of older adults in the United States. METHODS: We use panel data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000–2012) to examine how the education of an individual, their parent(s), and their offspring are associated with the prevalence of moderate/severe cognitive impairment and the onset of cognitive impairment among older adults using logistic regression and discrete-time event history analysis, respectively. RESULTS: We found that when combined, only the education of the individual is inversely associated with cognitive impairment at baseline. However, both the educational attainments of an individual and their offspring are negatively associated with the risk of becoming cognitively impaired, among individuals who were not already cognitively impaired. Conversely, parental education was not predictive of being cognitively impaired or the onset of impairment. Furthermore, we found that respondent gender did not moderate the relationship between a family member’s education and respondent cognitive health. DISCUSSION: This study adds to current research by asking how resources from earlier and subsequent generations matter for older adults’ cognitive health. Although we found little evidence that parental education matters at this life stage, results suggest that offspring education has a salient positive effect on later-life cognitive health. This finding underscores an overlooked source of health disparities—offspring resources—and highlights how a family perspective remains a powerful tool for understanding health inequalities in later life

Twenty years of having babies across different countries of the UK: How has parents' partnership status changed?

In the past 20 years in the UK, the partnerships that people are in when they have a baby have changed dramatically. In all four constituent countries of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) the proportion of live births that occur within marriage has decreased. It has become much more common for unmarried women to have babies (nonmarital births). However, not all nonmarital births are the same. Births outside of marriage might be to a couple who are living together but not married (cohabiting), or to single women (who may or may not register the birth jointly with their partner). The composition of nonmarital births has changed over time and in different ways between the UK’s countries. To explore this, we have used birth registration data to examine live births in different types of partnerships from 1998 to 2017. As having children outside of marriage has become the norm across the UK, this policy briefing unpacks the nature of these partnerships.<br/

Education and fertility in Europe in the last decade: A review of the literature

This paper reviews research on education and childbearing in Europe over the last decade. Early demographic research attributed declining fertility in advanced economies in the second half of the twentieth century to increasing female educational levels. The twenty-first century has witnessed further increases in educational attainment coupled with trend reversals in fertility. The relationship between education and fertility has become more complex, sparking renewed interest in the interplay between the two life domains. We examine how educational enrolment and attainment influence individuals’ fertility behaviour – both fertility timing and level– and how the relationship between education and fertility is shaped by contextual factors such as family policies, macro-economic shocks, and normative changes in gender attitudes. We also summarise the recent literature on educational gradients in male fertility, and review methodological developments to address issues of self-selection and unmeasured heterogeneity in the study of education and fertility. Finally, this paper identifies and discusses challenges and important areas for future research

Education and fertility in Europe in the last decade: a review of the literature

This paper reviews research on education and childbearing in Europe over the last decade. Early demographic research attributed declining fertility in advanced economies in the second half of the twentieth century to increasing female educational levels. The twenty-first century has witnessed further increases in educational attainment coupled with trend reversals in fertility. The relationship between education and fertility has become more complex, sparking renewed interest in the interplay between the two life domains. We examine how educational enrolment and attainment influence individuals’ fertility behaviour – both fertility timing and level– and how the relationship between education and fertility is shaped by contextual factors such as family policies, macro-economic shocks, and normative changes in gender attitudes. We also summarise the recent literature on educational gradients in male fertility, and review methodological developments to address issues of self-selection and unmeasured heterogeneity in the study of education and fertility. Finally, this paper identifies and discusses challenges and important areas for future research

What is the likely impact of Covid-19 on fertility in the UK?

Predicting future numbers of births is important for planning, for example, for maternity services, schools, and financial commitments through the welfare system. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it much harder to predict human behaviour, making it difficult to accurately estimate how the pandemic will affect future fertility rates. This policy briefing examines the most recent data on live births to determine what the impact of Covid-19 has been on fertility in the countries of the UK, and then summarises findings from some scenario-based projections of fertility between 2021 and 2023.Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, birth rates in the UK had already declined to historically low levels. Using scenarios grounded in historical evidence, the majority of the outcomes we present in this policy briefing also predict a future short-term decline in fertility rates. This policy briefing provides an overview of the key findings of a Population, Space and Place article available at https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.254

Recent trends in UK fertility and potential impacts of COVID-19

This paper examines the recent declines in period fertility in the constituent countries of the UK during the past decade and speculates the mechanisms through which the COVID-19 pandemic could influence childbearing in the UK. Having considered potential forces acting on individuals at different ages and family size, we might expect that the COVID-19 pandemic will depress fertility, particularly among younger people. Because fertility at all ages was declining before the onset of the pandemic, this could mean a further decline in period fertility to historically low levels for the UK. We put forward a number of scenarios to examine the possible impact of the pandemic on numbers of live births. Our projections show that for three scenarios out of four fertility is expected to decline over the next three years leading to significantly fewer births annually compared to the pre-pandemic period