4 results
Mental distress in mothers of pre-school children in Inner London
- Peter Moss, Ian Plewis
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 7 / Issue 4 / November 1977
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 July 2009, pp. 641-652
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The level of mental ‘distress’ was assessed for a sample of mothers with pre-school children in Inner London. Fifty-two per cent of mothers had a moderate or severe distress problem in the 12 months prior to interview. Variables correlating with distress were identified and replicated in a second sample. Social class was not found to be related, and the question of the general relationship between social class and distress is considered.
one - Introduction
- Edited by Shirley Dex, Heather Joshi
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- Book:
- Children of the 21st Century
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 22 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 October 2005, pp 1-24
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Summary
The initiation of a new cohort study of approximately 18,800 UK babies born in the Millennium provides the opportunity to reflect on the circumstances of children in Britain at the start of a new century. Britain has become world-renowned for its tracking of large-scale and representative cohorts of babies from birth, through the rest of their lives, producing unrivalled data sources for longitudinal research in social sciences and health. This book focuses on the information collected in this new Millennium Cohort Study of these babies covering the period from pregnancy through to nine months old. However, it also offers a perspective from earlier generations in selected respects, to show how circumstances and experiences differ.
The book is a collection of chapters focusing on particular aspects of starting out on life in the 21st century; these include pregnancy experiences; birth experiences; child health; growth and development; parents’ health; household structure; socioeconomic circumstances of parents; employment and education of mothers and fathers; childcare arrangements; household income and attitudes to parenting and employment.
Large-scale studies of this kind have already been found to be extremely valuable to policy makers and governments. They provide a window on children as they grow up. By drawing comparisons with earlier generations, it is possible to see how the new policies and frameworks are changing the life courses of new generations. These Millennium children were born and are spending their early years under a framework of government concern about child poverty. The Labour government that came to power in 1997 set out its aim to eliminate child poverty by 2020. Many new initiatives have been launched to this end. These cover encouragement to parents to enter and remain in paid work; better childcare provisions; more flexible employment; new legal frameworks about the care of children; a framework for considering the health of both adults and children; and attempts to tackle children's growing obesity. In many ways, the turn of the 21st century in the UK is a period of unprecedented policy interest and focus on children and family policy. Some might say it has gone too far, not least because the 2004 sittings of Parliament were voting on whether to allow families to smack their children.
two - Children’s origins
- Edited by Shirley Dex, Heather Joshi
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- Book:
- Children of the 21st Century
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 22 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 October 2005, pp 25-70
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Summary
When babies are born, they enter the world with a certain endowment. Some characteristics are inherited; others come from the particular environment into which the child arrives. There are relationships with the immediate family, parents and others living in the home, finances and housing, the wider kin network, the neighbourhood, the local and national economy and the social framework provided by national and devolved government. In this chapter, we set out to review these circumstances of birth for babies born at the start of the 21st century. These are the initial conditions of life for this new generation. Of course, in future we will be able to see how the generation progressed from the different starting points represented here, and how easy or difficult it is for children to benefit or escape from their earliest origins.
In this chapter, we consider first the family into which the baby was born – in particular, parents and their relationship, siblings and wider kin. We then examine the ethnic identities and religion of parents, and their own languages and national and cultural heritages. Parents’ health is another important element of the ‘endowment set’ for cohort babies which may affect the extent to which parents can provide effective care for the baby. Finally, we describe the housing conditions and neighbourhood context in which these families live. The financial aspects of children's origins, broadly defined, are considered in Chapter 3.
Household structure
Of considerable importance to a new baby is the type of household they enter. As reviewed in the Introduction to this volume (Chapter 1), dramatic changes have occurred to the demography of the family brought about by changing relationships between men and women leading to a diversity of family types.
Parents in the household
In 1971, 92% of families with dependent children were married or cohabiting couple families. By 1994, this proportion had reached its lowest point – 77% – and by 1996 it had recovered to 80% of such families (Dex, 1999, Table 2). The proportion of families headed by a lone parent increased over the same period from less than 8% to approximately one fifth. The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) families are distinguished from families at large in that they had a new baby around the Millennium. They are part of the subset of families who have very young children.
4 - Educational inequalities and Education Action Zones
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- By Ian Plewis
- Edited by Christina Pantazis, University of Bristol, David Gordon, University of Bristol
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- Book:
- Tackling Inequalities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 January 2000, pp 87-100
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Summary
Introduction
Our knowledge of the extent and changing nature of educational inequalities in Britain is patchy and our understanding of the causes of these inequalities much more so. This chapter will discuss just what data are available to assess inequalities before considering three of the policies of the present government which have a bearing, either directly or indirectly, on these inequalities. The first of these policies is the publication of schools’ results on attainments in tests and examinations, the second is setting targets for attainments, and the third, the one which receives most attention in this chapter, is the creation of Education Action Zones (EAZs). The chapter will then consider some of the issues which have to be faced when evaluating policies such as EAZs and will end with conclusions about information gaps and research needs.
Throughout the chapter, reference is made to educational inequalities, rather than to educational inequality, and the focus is on inequalities of outcome, notably pupils’ performance in tests and examinations. This is not to downplay the importance of other outcomes such as self-esteem and social responsibility, although these are more difficult to measure, nor is it to ignore the importance of inequalities of ‘process’ – the way in which different groups are treated within the education system – which might contribute to inequalities of outcome. Inequalities of process include factors such as school exclusions, streaming and setting arrangements within schools, and expectations held by teachers about different groups of pupils. However, it is the case in British society, as in Western society generally, that performance in tests and examinations determines entry into higher education which, in turn, has a strong bearing on life chances.
The three inequalities in performance to receive most attention are: gender inequality, ethnic group inequality and inequality between social classes or, more generally, socioeconomic circumstances. Another division, which has not been widely studied, but which is becoming increasingly important with rapid demographic changes such as the rise in one-parent families, is inequality between family types. Inequality by generation, or by birth cohort, is also important both in its own right and, especially, to describe trends in inequalities. Are, for example, social class differences widening over time? The absence of systematic data on trends in educational inequalities is a serious problem for anyone trying to monitor the effects of government policies of all types.