Well-being of children: Early influences

This project aims to gain a better understanding of factors and processes that promote the well-being of young children, especially those growing up in circumstances of family poverty and hardship. It asks the questions:

• What can be done to support children and their parents facing adversity?

• How can we best reduce the impact of risk, or sensitivity to it?

• How can we prevent the development of a negative cycle of disadvantage, and instead promote positive chain reactions?

These questions will be addressed using data from the Millennium Cohort (MCS), an on-going longitudinal study following the lives of over 18,000 UK children from birth to age 5. The researchers will provide empirical evidence to policy makers, practitioners, and the academic community on key strengths and resources among disadvantaged populations, and the processes enabling children and their parents to beat the odds stacked against them.

Early findings
Early findings from the research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health shows that children from homes that experience persistent poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development affected than children in better off homes. 

Family instability, however, makes no additional difference to how a child’s cognitive abilities have progressed by the age of five, after controlling for family poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and mother’s age) and early child characteristics.