Background:Childhood residential mobility (RM) has been associated with adverse health and social outcomes. We examined differences in RM by family size and household composition in two diverse, disadvantaged UK populations. Methods:Using electronic health records (EHRs) and anonymised addresses, we examined if household characteristics are associated with RM in north-east London (NEL) and Wales. We conducted a longitudinal study of 240,509 (51.0 per cent male) and 398,959 (51.3 per cent male) children aged 0-13 years in NEL and Wales respectively on 1 January 2015, with complete follow-up until 31 December 2019. We defined RM as at least one change in address during follow-up. We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95 per cent confidence intervals (CI) for RM by interactions between age group (0-4, 5-9, 10-13 years), number of children in household and household composition, adjusting for demographic, household and area-level characteristics. Results:Overall, 20.6 per cent and 32.1 per cent of children experienced RM. RM was highest in the youngest age group: NEL: 25.3 per cent, 18.7 per cent, 15.6 per cent; Wales: 40.1 per cent, 29.4 per cent, 23.6 per cent. RM was more likely among 10-13-year-olds living with a single adult than two working-age adults (NEL OR: 1.15; 95 per cent CI: 1.07,1.25; Wales: 1.82; 1.73,1.91). Children in households with four or more children were more likely to experience RM than those with no other child among 10-13-year-olds in NEL (1.31; 1.18,1.46) and 5-9-year-olds and 10-13-year-olds in Wales (1.21; 1.14,1.29 and 1.68; 1.56,1.82). Conclusion:RM is more common in early childhood and varies by household composition, region and age group. EHRs can be used to estimate RM using real-world data and have the potential to examine its impact on health and other outcomes.
The transition from socialism to a market economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) brought significant societal and economic disruptions. While the shift restructured economies and integrated the region into the broader European market, it left a legacy of hardship that continues to shape individuals' lives. This study adopts a life-course perspective to examine how extended employment gaps, financial hardship and significant stress during the transition years (1987-93) have influenced work trajectories over a 31-year period in 11 CEE countries. Using retrospective data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 10,999), we apply sequence analysis and multinomial logistic regression to assess these associations. Among men, both an extended employment gap and financial hardship during the transition increased the risk of later unemployment, while significant stress increased the risk of health-related labour market withdrawal. Among women, fewer significant effects were observed, with the most notable being a heightened risk of unemployment following an extended employment gap. These findings offer new insights into the long-term consequences of the post-socialist transition and, more broadly, into how economic crises and social upheaval can shape working lives. This emphasizes the critical role of a life-course perspective in shaping policies that aim to mitigate long-term unemployment risks and ensure more equitable pathways to labour market exit.
Rising chronic health conditions in the US present a significant public health issue with implications that extend beyond individuals to their family members. We examined how the accumulation of mother's chronic health conditions (ranging from none to three or more) and the timing of first diagnosis were associated with early midlife children's depressive symptoms. We also examined variation across gender of early midlife children. Using data from Waves I, IV and V of Add Health and Waves I and II of the Add Health Parent Study (n=1,285), we found that 73 per cent of mothers reported at least one chronic health condition by their early 60s. We also found that early midlife children whose mothers had three or more chronic health conditions had significantly greater depressive symptoms, with stronger associations among daughters than sons. Early midlife children whose mothers were first diagnosed with a chronic health condition before their birth had significantly greater depressive symptoms compared to those whose mothers were first diagnosed when their children were ages 18-26. These findings highlight the importance of both mother's accumulation of chronic health conditions and timing of diagnosis for early midlife children's depressive symptoms.
Structural disparities between rural and urban labour markets delay labour market entry for rural youth and risk long-term scarring related to both labour market integration and earnings. Migration is often viewed as a strategy to avoid these disadvantages. Using a life course perspective, this study examines how mobility and labour market attachment co-evolve across two decades of adulthood. Based on Swedish register data for cohorts born between 1977 and 1982 (n = 42,913) and sequence analysis with fuzzy clustering, we identify four long-term trajectories: stayers with strong attachment; stayers with weak attachment; movers to metropolitan areas; and movers to other rural or small-city contexts. The results show that mobility and attachment develop jointly, with some individuals following stable paths from early adulthood while others experience prolonged instability or 'late leaving'. Gender and socio-economic background shape these patterns. Women more often pursue mobility-oriented trajectories, particularly towards metropolitan regions, whereas men are overrepresented among weakly attached stayers. These differences diminish among youth with highly educated parents. Place attachment effects are mixed; teenage parents are more likely to remain and achieve strong local attachment, while sibling migration has no long-term influence. Overall, the findings demonstrate that rural youths' labour market and mobility trajectories remain open to renegotiation well beyond early adulthood, shaped by gendered and familial resources.
Social surveys are increasingly incorporating DNA collection to unlock research opportunities in social and medical sciences. Saliva sampling is emerging as a common and practical method - particularly well-suited to self-completion surveys where interviewers or other trained professionals are not present. However, a number of methodological challenges in the collection of saliva samples remain unsolved. We analyse data from a cohort study of young adults in England: the Next Steps Age 32 survey to explore these methodological challenges. Approximately 57 per cent of eligible cohort members consented to provide a saliva sample and 27 per cent returned a sample to the laboratory, resulting in genotyped data for 24 per cent. Both consent and sample return were significantly associated with participant characteristics - such as white ethnicity - as well as survey-related factors, including engagement with study materials, prior wave participation and consent to health data linkage. Experimental evidence also indicates that higher monetary incentives (£10 versus £5) increased both consent rates (57.8 per cent versus 53 per cent) and sample returns (29.8 per cent versus 20.6 per cent). Analysis of non-consent reasons revealed that many responses were vague, while 26.9 per cent mentioned they were uncomfortable with the task, found it intrusive or expressed privacy concerns. We conclude with recommendations for improving biosample collection in survey practice. Our work contributes to the growing literature on integrating biomarker collection into large-scale, mixed-mode, multi-purpose social research.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively impact children's psychological development and subsequent mental health. However, life-course trajectories of ACEs on common mental health outcomes in adulthood have not been explored in depth. We analysed longitudinal data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the UK to determine the best-fitting life-course models between ACEs and mental health outcomes (depression and anxiety) at 17 and 24 years, using a Structured Life Course Modelling Approach. Six ACEs related to interpersonal trauma were integrated into life-course hypotheses, including: critical periods (at ages 0-5, 5-11 and 11-17), ACE accumulation, ever-experiencing ACEs and persistent ACE exposure. ACEs during late childhood/early adolescence (11-17 years) had the strongest association with depression and anxiety at age 24, with any ACEs at this time-point approximately doubling the odds of diagnoses. A weaker association with ACEs in middle childhood (5-11 years) on depression was also observed (approx. 50 per cent increase in odds). Results at age 17 were similar, with a consistent relationship between ACE exposure in late childhood/early adolescence on depression and anxiety, potentially combined with weaker exposure effects in middle childhood and/or accumulation effects. Life-course trajectories for analyses of the individual ACEs were more inconsistent, potentially due to the relative rarity of these events and their correlation over time, but often also indicated strongest relationships during late childhood/early adolescence. In sum, traumatic ACEs during late childhood/early adolescence may have the strongest effect on subsequent mental health in early adulthood, although we cannot distinguish 'critical period' and 'recency' effects.
Evaluating deprivation among individuals transitioning to older ages requires a multidimensional approach to evaluate their diverse needs. Despite its importance, research on this topic remains limited in the developing world, particularly in Latin America. This study tracks the multidimensional poverty of a cohort of Chileans as they transition into older age, following them longitudinally across three waves (2006, 2009, and 2015). We construct a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) for individuals born in 1955 or earlier using the Alkire and Foster methodology, considering deprivation across four key dimensions: education; labor and social security; health; and housing. Our findings reveal a decrease in multidimensional poverty from 21 percent to 14 percent during the study period, with chronic multidimensional poverty affecting 9 percent of this population. The most significant reduction in deprivation is observed in the labor and social security dimension. However, this dimension also exhibits the highest persistence of deprivation and the most pronounced gender disparities, highlighting the need for targeted policy interventions. Notably, education emerges as a strong protective factor against both current and future poverty. This study contributes to the scarce literature on dynamic multidimensional poverty among older adults in Latin America and provides valuable insights for policy makers to design effective strategies that address the unique challenges faced by this growing population segment.
Family background is a recognised determinant of children's socio-emotional outcomes, yet its measurement and the conceptualisation of family (dis)advantage remain inconsistent across research, policy and practice. This study adopts a multidimensional inequality framework and a sibling design with random effects to (1) estimate the overall impact of family of origin, both observed and unobserved factors, on children's age-5 socio-emotional difficulties; (2) decompose this effect across five dimensions of family background observed at age three: family demographics, emotional environment, parenting, educational environment and socio-economic circumstances; and (3) assess the relative strength of family background indicators on socio-emotional difficulties. Using current data from the nationally representative United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (N = 2,204, including 916 siblings) and capturing socio-emotional difficulties with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), family-of-origin accounted for 37 per cent of the total variance in SDQ scores, with 38 per cent of the family-of-origin influence explained by observed family dimensions. Parental occupational class, maternal psychological distress and parenting behaviours related to schedules, praise and punishment exhibited the strongest independent effects. Nonetheless, a substantial portion of the family-of-origin effect remains unexplained, underscoring the role of other unmeasured family factors. These results suggest that policy spaces should integrate a multidimensional approach to monitoring family (dis)advantage, and that holistic family support, while attending to children's individual differences, offers the best chance of reducing early childhood socio-emotional difficulties, thus reducing barriers to opportunity.
This article develops and reviews methods for the creation of sequence analysis typologies in large databases. The standard way to create such a typology relies on the computation of distances between all observations, which quickly becomes intractable with large databases, even with modern computers. We start by discussing the CLARA algorithm before extending it with methods recently proposed for sequence analysis, including fuzzy and representativeness clustering. The strengths of the approaches are assessed using simulations, which further allows drawing some practical guidelines. Next, we discuss three approaches to measure the quality of the clustering without computing all distances. The first is based on bootstrapping, while the second is based on representative sequences (that is, medoids). We then introduce a third innovative approach based on clustering stability, which further allows assessing the convergence of the clustering algorithm. The methods are illustrated through a study of family trajectories in India with more than 180,000 cases. All the methods are made available in the WeightedCluster R package.
As Europe faces a rapidly ageing population, understanding the interplay between family and welfare state support becomes critical for addressing mental health concerns among older adults. This study examines the association between financial transfers from descendants and depressive symptoms, exploring variations across European welfare state contexts with differing levels of pension generosity, as well as gender differences in these associations. Using data from 20 European countries participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), waves 3-9, we examined predictors of depressive symptoms as measured by the EURO-D scale. Key predictors included receiving financial transfers of EUR 250 or more from children or grandchildren, the net replacement rate of pensions for an average worker, and the interaction between these variables. Receiving financial support from children or grandchildren was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, suggesting that such transfers often occurs in response to the older adult's need. Gender differences were notable: men showed a greater increase in depressive symptoms when receiving transfers, likely reflecting the greater importance of labour force participation and pension adequacy for their mental health. Robust welfare states amplified the association between receiving transfers and depressive symptoms only for women. This may reflect situations where dual sources of support indicate severe underlying needs. These findings align with contingency exchange theories and crowding-in, emphasising that the family and the welfare state often work in tandem, rather than cancelling each other out to address significant hardships faced by the most vulnerable segments of the population.
Background:There is still a lack of knowledge on how life course changes in maternal partnership status, particularly long-lasting single motherhood, affect women's health and how this relationship differs across cohorts in the United States. Methods:We used data from 2,524 and 1,963 mothers aged 15 to 37 from the NLSY79 and NLSY97 cohorts. Maternal partnership was defined as whether the woman was in a union or not and had a child or not at each year of the follow-up period. We used sequence analysis with a hierarchical cluster method and estimated multivariate linear and logistic regression models to evaluate the association between maternal partnership status and body mass index (BMI), depressive symptoms, and sleep duration. Results:We identified three maternal partnership clusters. Long-term single motherhood (Cluster 3) was linked to higher BMI and shorter sleep independent of family sociodemographic factors, but not of age and education at first childbirth, or race/ethnicity. Findings were similar across cohorts. In fully adjusted models, it was associated with higher depression symptoms only in the NLSY79 cohort. Conclusion:Our results highlight that age and education at first childbirth are key in the link between life course maternal partnership status and women's health, independent of cohort context within the same country.
Although life course research has shown that childhood stressors can exert long-term effects into older adulthood, few studies have explored alternative ways of measuring stressors across childhood and adulthood, or tested their invariance across birth cohorts. This study examined birth cohort differences in the relationships between childhood and adulthood stressors and later-life cognitive function. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (N=10,757; age: 50-85), we conducted parallel analyses across three birth cohorts: War Babies (1942-1947), Early Baby Boomers (1948-1953) and Mid Baby Boomers (1954-1959). We estimated a series of nested linear regression models for each cohort, and further evaluated how different types of stressors impact cognitive function across birth cohorts. Greater childhood stressors predicted worse cognitive function among Early Baby Boomer cohort only. Upon examination of the individual stressor categories, higher levels of adult financial stressors were significantly associated with lower cognitive function within all three birth cohorts. In addition to adult financial stressors, greater childhood financial stressors were related to worse cognitive function for the Early Baby Boomer cohort, and greater relational stressors predicted worse cognitive function for the Mid Baby Boomer cohort. Findings highlight birth cohort differences in the effects of childhood and adulthood stressors on cognitive function, possibly underscoring variations in sociocultural and resilience factors unique to each cohort.
The death of a parent can profoundly impact psychological and social functioning, particularly among racial-ethnic minority groups. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 9,508), the current study compared the association between parental death timing during different life stages and early-midlife depressive and perceived stress symptoms ('psychological distress') across racial-ethnic identities, while accounting for early-midlife social support and strain. We also investigated the mediating effects of cumulative social support and strain between life course timing of first parental death and midlife psychological distress using the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method. We found that Black individuals experienced the highest frequency of parental death beginning earlier in life. Stepwise linear regression models showed that parental death during young adulthood and early midlife is associated with early-midlife psychological distress among White individuals, net of covariates. Our results among Black and Hispanic adults indicate that the life course timing of parental death was unrelated to early-midlife psychological distress, exposing an understudied area of the 'Minority Mental Health Paradox'. Earlymidlife social support and strain were strongly associated with early-midlife psychological distress across racial-ethnic identities. The KHB mediation analysis further revealed that cumulative social support in midlife independently accounted for approximately 16 per cent and 20 per cent of the association between parental death in young adulthood and midlife stress and depressive symptoms, respectively. Our study highlights that bereavement programmes could tailor interventions to address variations in midlife social support and strain across different racial-ethnic groups to mitigate psychological distress.
Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examined (a) how childhood socioeconomic status (SES) affects multimorbidity in later life; (b) whether the association between childhood SES and later-life multimorbidity provided empirical support for the critical period model, the sensitive period model, the pathway model and the accumulation model; (c) whether there were cohort differences in the association between childhood SES and later-life multimorbidity. Participants (N = 12,601) were grouped into three birth cohorts (1929-38, 1939-45 and post-1945) and followed up from 1998 to 2020. We performed two-level Poisson growth curve models. We found that the association between childhood SES and later-life multimorbidity was modified by SES in adulthood or older age but remained significant, supporting the sensitive period model. Childhood SES affects later-life multimorbidity via SES attainment in adulthood and older age, supporting the pathway model. Persistent disadvantage in childhood, adulthood and older age is a strong risk factor for later-life multimorbidity, supporting the accumulation model. Our results did not support the critical period model. These findings hold among all three cohorts, although to a different extent. Our findings highlight that childhood is a sensitive and malleable period in the life course of an individual when it is possible to break the chain of risk and prevent accumulation of socioeconomic disadvantage in multimorbidity in older age. Moreover, individual lives are embedded in historical and social contexts, the dynamic interplay between which plays a key role in determining the risk of multimorbidity in later life.
The relationship between social connections and cognitive health is well-established, yet its implications vary significantly across life stages and sociocultural contexts. This study provides new insights by using Gateway to Global Aging Data (2010-18) to examine cognitive functioning trajectories from mid- to later life across four high- and middle-income countries: the United States, England, China and Mexico. We consider overall social isolation as well as its specific dimensions, including partnership status, contact with children and friends, and social participation. Using growth curve models, we assess both levels of cognitive functioning and the rate of cognitive change with age. Results show that socially isolated adults consistently exhibit lower cognitive functioning than their non-isolated counterparts in all countries except England, with gaps more pronounced in China and Mexico than in the United States. Cross-national differences also emerge across dimensions of isolation. For instance, not having a partner significantly predicts lower cognition in China and the United States but not in England or Mexico. Contact with children plays a critical role in China and Mexico and becomes more salient in later life in the United States. Beyond family ties, maintaining friendships and engaging in social activities support cognitive health across most settings and become increasingly important with age. These findings demonstrate that the cognitive consequences of social isolation depend not only on who is isolated, but also on when isolation occurs and how it aligns with broader social contexts and life course dynamics.
The transition from primary to secondary education is a pivotal stage in children's development, often marked by a widening of socioeconomic disparities in cognitive and mental health outcomes. While formal schooling is known to shape these inequalities, less is understood about how the home learning environment (HLE) contributes to developmental outcomes, particularly when schools are disrupted, such as during COVID-19-related school closures. This study examines the extent to which the HLE accounts for socioeconomic differences in cognitive ability and mental health among Irish adolescents. Three measures of social origin are employed simultaneously: parental education, occupational social class and household income. Using longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland study (Cohort '08), we follow a nationally representative sample of children from age nine (2017-2018) to age 13 (2021-2022), capturing both the transition to secondary school and the aftermath of school closures. Regression analyses show that parental education strongly predicts cognitive ability and externalising difficulties, whereas family social class is associated with internalising problems. Several HLE indicators, including access to books, parent-child conflict and parental mental health, are significantly associated with outcomes at age 13, even after controlling for social background and pre-pandemic outcomes. However, path analysis indicates that the HLE only partially mediates these socioeconomic differences, suggesting that other mechanisms contribute to the persistence of unequal developmental trajectories during this formative period.
This research note examines the evolving relationship between counterurbanisation and life course perspectives in post-pandemic migration literature (2020-2025). Through systematic review of 88 articles, we identify significant conceptual diversity in how these phenomena are defined and interconnected. Counterurbanisation is variously conceptualised as demographic movement, hierarchical settlement transition, urban-rural migration, lifestyle choice, crisis response and policy discourse. Similarly, life course approaches range from traditional life cycle models focused on age categories to comprehensive frameworks emphasising the dynamic interplay of agency, structure and context. Our analysis reveals that approximately 78 per cent of studies establish some connection between counterurbanisation and life course concepts, though with varying degrees of theoretical integration. Direct nexuses typically frame life course events as migration triggers, employ life course as an interpretive framework or view counterurbanisation as part of longitudinal biographical trajectories. In contrast, indirect connections often focus on evolving lifestyle preferences, context-dependent migration or changing place attachments without explicitly linking them to rural-bound movements. Understanding this nexus is crucial for assessing the durability and long-term implications of post-pandemic counterurbanisation trends. By contextualising migration within broader life trajectories, researchers can better evaluate whether recent urban outflows represent lasting demographic shifts or temporary crisis responses. Moreover, recognising how counterurbanisation intersects with individual biographies provides essential insights for rural development policies, helping communities anticipate settlers' evolving needs across different life stages and create conditions for sustainable population retention. This perspective ultimately enriches our understanding of rural futures by illuminating how individual life paths and rural transformations are dynamically intertwined.
