Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2009
Abstract:
Objective: To test a life course model linking circumstances of origin to self-reported literacy and numeracy problems in midlife, and to investigate the effects in this model of changing social circumstances in two post-war cohorts.
Methods: Based on data from men and women in the British 1946 and 1958 birth cohorts, we used the relative index of inequality and logistical regression to test associations between father’s occupation, childhood cognition, educational attainment, own occupation in the 3rd decade, and a binary variable representing self-reported literacy and numeracy problems in the 4th decade.
Results: There was a significantly lower frequency of literacy and numeracy problems in the 1958 cohort compared to the 1946 cohort. In both cohorts there were associations between father’s occupation and childhood cognition, educational attainment and own occupation, a pattern that was mirrored by the associations between childhood cognition, educational attainment and own occupation to adult literacy and numeracy problems. Positive associations between childhood cognition and educational attainment, and between educational attainment and own occupation, were stronger in the 1946 cohort than in the 1958 cohort. However, inverse associations between educational attainment and literacy and numeracy problems were stronger in the 1958 cohort, possibly reflecting the expansion of secondary education in the intervening years.
Conclusions: Literacy and numeracy problems have a robust structure of life course associations, although the changing pattern of these associations may reflect important social structural changes from the early post war years to the early 1960s in the UK.
Published in
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 63 (3):239-244 , p.239 -244
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.2007.064923
Subject
Notes
Originally 'Online Early' 21 Aug.2008
Originally online in A/S except current year
Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*
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