Family poverty affects child development, says study
Family poverty
is a major factor behind poor achievement by children according to newly
published research from the University of London's Institute of Education. The
family's economic circumstances and mother's academic attainment are more
important predictors of a child's educational success than whether she has paid
work, says the study, Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes.
Professor
Heather Joshi and Dr Georgia Verropoulou analysed responses to interviews of
1,700 school children aged five to 17 to see whether there was any relationship
between their reading and maths ability and behavioural adjustment, and the
employment of their mothers. Some of the findings, all of which take family
poverty and mothers' education and academic ability into account, are:
- Mother's employment in the first year of a
child's life may lead to slightly poorer achievement in reading later on.
Maths and behaviour are not significantly affected.
- However, There was a small positive link between
mother's employment when children were one to four years old and their
emotional wellbeing as schoolchildren.
- Also, children in families with no earner scored
worse in both maths and anxiety than those in families with at least one earner.
The second part
of the study looked at 9,000 people who were aged 26 in 1996. It found that
there was no connection between a mother's employment before a child had turned
five and unemployment in young adulthood or pregnancy in the teen years. But
children whose mothers were employed in the pre-school years were slightly less
likely to get good qualifications.
Professor Joshi
said, "All influences on a child's development must be taken seriously -
not just mother's employment. There is no absolute proof of cause and effect.
The slight risk of slower development in children whose mothers were employed
before age one may be offset by the benefits in emotional adjustment when
mothers had paid work in later pre-school years, as well as from money coming
into the family.
"There are
three messages for policy-makers and employers. First, both mothers and fathers
of young children must be given more choice about when they work. Second,
standards of day care for children must be high. Third, longer parental leave
would be beneficial, with pay for fathers, and with maternity pay lasting
longer than now."
Maternal
Employment and Child Outcomes is published by and available from the Smith
Institute, 020 7592 3629, and from the Institute of Education Bookshop, 0171
612 6459.
Notes on Methods
This research is
part of two national studies (the birth cohort studies), which have been
tracking the lives of everyone born in Britain during one week in 1958 and
during another in 1970. The first, the National Child Development Study (NCDS),
has studied over 17,000 people from their births in 1958, with follow-ups in
1965, 1969, 1974, 1981 and 1991. When respondents were age 33, information was
additionally obtained on the children of one in three. The main evidence in this
report comes from these children, with the sample restricted to children who
were between five and 17 in 1991, with a mother (not a father) who was an NCDS
cohort member. The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) has collected data about
17,198 people. Since 1970, there have been four attempts to gather information
from the full cohort. The studies are carried out by the Centre for
Longitudinal Research, which became part of the Institute of Education in 1999.
New data is currently being collected from the members of both studies, but
funds are still needed to collect new data from their children.
Professor
Heather Joshi is Deputy Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Dr
Georgia Verropoulou is a research officer at the Centre. The Centre is grateful
to the Right Hon Harriet Harman MP for her contribution to this project.
The Smith
Institute has been set up to look at issues which flow from the changing
relationship between social values and economic imperatives, an area that was
of particular interest to the late John Smith MPQC.
The report costs
£29.95.
For more
information, please contact Helen Green,
Press Officer on (++44) 020 7612 6459.
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