Home About us Contact | |||
Family Background (family + background)
Selected AbstractsRisk factors for adult male criminality in ColombiaCRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2001Joanne Klevens Objectives This study sought to establish, in Colombia, the importance of factors alleged to be causes or correlates of adult criminality according to the published literature from other countries. Methods A comparison was made of arrested male offenders from ages 18 to 30 (n = 223) and similar community controls (n = 222) selected from five cities in Colombia as to their family background, exposure to abuse, family stressors, perceived care and history of childhood disruptive behaviour problems. Results Compared with neighbourhood controls from similar social classes, offenders were significantly more likely to report having had parents with less education, a mother under the age of 18 or over the age of 35 at time of birth, family members involved in crime, experiencing extreme economic deprivation, parental absence, family conflict, severe punishments, physical abuse, and maternal unavailability, rejection and lack of supervision. Prevalence of childhood disruptive behaviour problems was similar among offenders and controls. These findings appear to be independent of economic status, family size or type, birth order, or primary caregiver. Although the independent contribution of most of these factors is small, once all others have been controlled for, their cumulative effect is strong. Conclusions The findings obtained in this Latin American setting do not support the generalized view that adult antisocial behaviour is necessarily preceded by a history of childhood behaviour problems. However, they do add evidence for the importance of family factors in the risk for adult criminality. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Drinking patterns in mid-adolescence and psychosocial outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthoodADDICTION, Issue 12 2004J. Elisabeth Wells ABSTRACT Aims To describe the pattern of drinking at age 16 and to relate this to outcomes at 16,21 years and 21,25 years across a number of psychosocial domains. Design A prospective birth cohort study with annual follow-up until age 16 then at 18, 21 and 25 years. Setting Christchurch, New Zealand. Participants Of 1265 subjects, 953 were interviewed at age 16. Measurements Multiple measures of family background were collected from birth to 16 years. Alcohol consumption was measured in terms of frequency, usual or last quantity drunk and most drunk per occasion. Problems were also recorded. Questions about psychiatric symptoms enabled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) criteria to be applied. Detailed reports on educational outcomes, employment, sexual behaviours and offending were collected. Findings Four latent classes were required to describe drinking at age 16, but these appeared to lie along a single dimension which strongly predicted outcomes at ages 16,21 and 21,25 across all domains (alcohol-related, substance dependence, mental health, education, sexual relationships and offending). After controlling for background and correlates only a small number of outcomes were still related consistently to drinking at age 16 over both periods: most alcohol-related outcomes, the number of sexual partners and the extent of violent offending. Conclusions Drinking at age 16 is a clear indicator of future life-course over most domains in late adolescence and early adulthood. Many of these associations are due to other covariates. Outcomes specific to drinking at age 16 are alcohol outcomes, number of sexual partners and violence. [source] The Impact of Increased Fees on Participation in Higher Education in EnglandHIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2005Hazel Pennell This article explores some recent research evidence on the possible impact of the higher education reforms in England on participation by students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The evidence is examined in terms of costs, debt and term-time working. Financial issues have been shown to constrain choice of institution and place of study for lower-income students, and financial problems are commonly cited as reasons for dropping out of higher education. The greatest difference in debt levels has been found to be linked to family background, with students who were poor before they entered university leaving university with the largest debts. Overdrafts and credit card debt levels have been shown to be lower for students in receipt of grants than for those who are not. Research has shown that school leavers who are least debt-averse are more likely to go to university than those who are anti-debt; the latter include those from the lowest socio-economic groups and certain black and minority ethnic groups. Students who work in term-time may achieve less academically: those who work in term-time are more often those from lower socio-economic groups or minority ethnic groups. Overall, the evidence indicates that financial payments and grants are likely to be the most promising way forward to increase participation in higher education among those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. [source] The Substitution Hypothesis: The Impact of Premarital Liaisons and Human Capital on Marital TimingJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 2 2002Monica Gaughan Nonmarital romantic and sexual relationships occur concurrently with the human capital acquisition process and contribute to delaying or forgoing marriage. Event history analysis is used to model the marital hazard rate of 341 White women born between 1960 and 1963 in a Western metropolitan area. In addition to family background, adolescent characteristics, and employment and educational histories, the structure of the women's premarital liaisons is shown to play an important role in the timing of first marriage. The greater a woman's involvement in nonmarital romantic and sexual activity, the less likely she is to be married by age 27,30. Human capital characteristics and the dynamics of relationship histories operate independently to explain marital timing. This supports the theory that women substitute premarital liaisons for marriage early in the adult life course. However, there is no evidence that highly educated women, or those who are students, are more or less likely to do so than others. [source] Marriage or cohabitation: a competing risks analysis of first-partnership formation among the 1958 British birth cohortJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 2 2000Ann Berrington A discrete time competing risks hazards model is used to analyse entry into first partnership among men and women born in Britain in 1958. Using a life-course approach we identify family background and current life experiences which affect the timing and type of first-partnership formation. Education is a key factor influencing the age of entry into first partnership and whether or not the respondent will experience pregnancy before forming the partnership. Religiosity, experience of parental separation and the geographical region of residence are more important in affecting the decision to cohabit rather than to marry directly. The analyses highlight the importance of transitions in other domains such as leaving the parental home in encouraging cohabitation. [source] Unemployment Determinants for Women in SpainLABOUR, Issue 1 2000Nieves Lázaro Spain has one of the highest rates of unemployment among OECD countries. Some explanations for this stress the importance of unemployment duration compared with entry rates to the unemployment pool. Long-term unemployment rates are particularly high among women in Spain. The object of this paper is to investigate the determinants of unemployment duration among women. It will consider personal characteristics (education and age), family background, socio-economic variables (the number of household earners and household income) and the effect of unemployment benefits, using data from the Household Expenditure Survey 1990,91. [source] A test for geographers: the geography of educational achievement in Toronto and Hamilton, 1997THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 3 2000RICHARD HARRIS The recent introduction of standardised achievement tests in several provinces has created an opportunity for Canadian geographers to contribute to public and theoretical debates. Geographers are well-equipped to comprehend and analyse the effects that neighbourhoods have upon pupil achievement. Independent of family background and school funding, such effects may be stronger in education than in other fields, such as voting behaviour and health research, but they have been ignored in recent public debates. They should be considered if informed judgements are to be made about whether specific teachers, schools, and boards are doing an adequate job. Analysis of the Ontario Grade 3 test results for 1997 in public schools in the City of Toronto and in Hamilton-Wentworth indicate that social class had a greater effect on pupil achievement than language background. Differences in the determinants of achievement between these two urban centres may be attributable to local variations in occupational structure and residential patterns. L'introduction récente en éducation des tests de compêtences standardisés, dans plusieurs provinces, offre aux géographes canadiens l'occasion de contribuer aux débats publics et théoriques. Les géographes sont bien placés pour comprendre et analyser les effets de quartier sur le rendement scolaire des élèves. Indépendamment du milieu socioculturel et du financement scolaire, ces effets ont peut être plus d'impact en éducation que dans les domaines tels que le comportement électoral et la recherche dans le milieu de la santé, cependant, ils demeurent à l'écart des débats publics. Ces éléments doivent être considérés si l'on prétend juger en connaissance de cause l'efficacité et le rendement des écoles, le corps enseignant et les conseils scolaires. L'analyse des résultats d'examens de l'Ontario en 1997, pour les élèves des écoles publiques de la troisième année des villes de Toronto et Hamilton-Wentworth, démontre que la réussite scolaire est plus liée au niveau socio-économique qu'à l'origine linguistique. La divergence des facteurs de réussites des deux centres urbains est peut-être attribuable aux variations des structures d'occupation locales et résidentielles. [source] Economic Returns to Communist Party Membership: Evidence From Urban Chinese Twins,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 523 2007Hongbin Li This article estimates the returns to membership of the Chinese Communist Party using unique twins data we collected from China. Our OLS estimate shows a Party premium of 10%, but the within-twin-pair estimate becomes zero. One interpretation is that the OLS premium is due to omitted ability and family background. This interpretation suggests that Party members fare well not because of their political status but because of the superior ability that made them Party members. The estimates are also consistent with another interpretation that Party membership not only has its own effect but also has an external effect on siblings. [source] Children adopted from China: a prospective study of their growth and developmentTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 4 2008Nancy J. Cohen Background:, China has become a lead country for international adoption because of the relatively young age of the children and reported positive conditions of the orphanages. This study examined the process and outcome of growth and development of children adopted from China over their first two years with their adoptive families. Method:, Seventy infant girls adopted from China at 8 to 21 months of age (Mean age = 13 months) were examined on arrival in Canada and 6, 12, and 24 months later. Comparisons were made with non-adopted Canadian girls of similar age and from a similar family background as adoptive parents on indices of growth and standardized measures of mental, psychomotor, and language development. Results:, At arrival, children adopted from China were smaller physically and exhibited developmental delays compared to current peers. Children adopted from China were functioning in the average range on physical and developmental measures within the first 6 months following adoption. However, they were not performing as well as current peers until the end of their second year after adoption. Even then, there was developmental variation in relation to comparison children and continuation of relatively smaller size with respect to height, weight, and head circumference. Physical measurement was related to outcomes at various points on all developmental measures. Conclusions:, Deprivation in experience in the first year of life has more long-lasting effects on physical growth than on mental development. The variable most consistently related to development was height-to-age ratio. As a measure of nutritional status, the findings reinforce the critical importance of early nutrition. [source] Ethnicity, educational attainment and the transition from schoolTHE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 3 2004Steve Bradley Differences between ethnic groups in educational attainment and transition from school are investigated using pooled cross-sectional data for the period 1992,98 obtained from the Youth Cohort Studies, School Performance Tables and the Schools' Census. After controlling for family background, peer group, schooling and neighbourhood, ethnic minority youths (except for Afro-Caribbeans) perform substantially better in national exams than whites. Staying on is influenced by prior educational attainment, peer group, schooling and ethnic origin. Non-whites are more likely to stay on and less likely to enter the labour market. The results vary between boys and girls. [source] The Returns to Academic and Vocational Qualifications in BritainBULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002Lorraine Dearden This paper uses data from the 1991 sweep of the National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1998 Labour Force Survey (LFS) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the labour market returns to academic and vocational qualifications. The results show that the wage premia from academic qualifications are typically higher than from vocational qualifications. However, this gap is reduced somewhat, when we control for the amount of time taken to acquire different qualifications. This is particularly important for vocational courses, which generally take shorter time periods to complete. In the paper we also investigate how returns vary by gender, subsequent qualifications, and the natural ability of individuals. Finally, by comparing the NCDS results with those from the LFS, we estimate the bias that can result from not controlling for factors such as ability, family background and measurement error. The results reveal that the estimated returns in the NCDS equations controlling for ability, family background and measurement error are similar to the simple OLS estimates obtained with the LFS, which do not control for these factors. This suggests that the biases generally offset one another. [source] Antecedents and Behavior-Problem Outcomes of Parental Monitoring and Psychological Control in Early AdolescenceCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2001Gregory S. Pettit The early childhood antecedents and behavior-problem correlates of monitoring and psychological control were examined in this prospective, longitudinal, multi-informant study. Parenting data were collected during home visit interviews with 440 mothers and their 13-year-old children. Behavior problems (anxiety/depression and delinquent behavior) were assessed via mother, teacher, and/or adolescent reports at ages 8 through 10 years and again at ages 13 through 14. Home-interview data collected at age 5 years were used to measure antecedent parenting (harsh/reactive, positive/proactive), family background (e.g., socioeconomic status), and mother-rated child behavior problems. Consistent with expectation, monitoring was anteceded by a proactive parenting style and by advantageous family,ecological characteristics, and psychological control was anteceded by harsh parenting and by mothers' earlier reports of child externalizing problems. Consistent with prior research, monitoring was associated with fewer delinquent behavior problems. Links between psychological control and adjustment were more complex: High levels of psychological control were associated with more delinquent problems for girls and for teens who were low in preadolescent delinquent problems, and with more anxiety/depression for girls and for teens who were high in preadolescent anxiety/depression. [source] Testing for Quasi-Market Forces in Secondary EducationOXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 3 2000Steve Bradley This paper investigates the effect of introducing quasi-market forces into secondary education on the allocation of pupils between schools and on the exam performance of pupils. A unique database is used which covers all publicly-funded secondary schools in England over the period 1992,98. We find several effects consistent with the operation of a quasi-market. Firstly, new admissions are found to be positively related to a school's own exam performance and negatively related to the exam performance of competing schools. Secondly, a school's growth in pupil numbers is positively related to its exam performance compared to its immediate competitors. Thirdly, there is strong evidence that schools experiencing an excess demand for places have responded by increasing their physical capacity. Fourthly, there is some evidence of an increase in the concentration of pupils from poor family backgrounds in those schools with the poorest exam performance of schools during 1992,98 can be attributed to the introduction of quasi-market forces. [source] |