The name is absent

The implications of these associations are not only for the mother but also for the next
generation. As the established British birth cohort studies have shown (Blanden et al (in
press) Gregg et al 1999, Feinstein 1993, Bynner, Joshi and Tsatsas 2000, Ferri et al 2003,
Hobcraft 1998, Hobcraft & Kiernan 1999), being born into an advantaged or
disadvantaged family may affect their own experience of childhood and prospects in later
life.

This paper uses the new national birth cohort study, the UK Millennium Cohort Study
(MCS). It offers a child’s perspective on the timing of motherhood. As a survey of
children, it cannot account for women who have not (yet) had children, nor can it yet
trace second generation outcomes, as data is only at present available from its first round,
but it does provide an excellent source in which to consider the great diversity among
those who have become mothers according to the age at which they did so. Some family
background influences on early (or late) entry to motherhood can be distinguished and
associated with the diverse current circumstances of families with young children. MCS
has surveyed information from 18,553 families (18,819 children) born in the UK over a
year in selected electoral wards. The wards were disproportionately sampled to over-
represent areas of high child poverty, concentrations of ethnic minorities and the three
smaller countries of the UK - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The first survey
took place when the children were 9 months old during 2001-2 (Shepherd et al (2003),
Smith and Joshi (2002)). The first follow-up at age 3 is currently (2004) in the field.
Surveys of the children at age five and seven are being actively planned, follow up into
adulthood is intended, in the path of the previous national birth cohort studies.

<<   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   >>

More intriguing information