Cohort Of Young People Research Articles

Longitudinal course of behavioral and emotional problems in fragile X syndrome.

We describe a follow-up of a study of behavior and emotional problems in a cohort of young people with Fragile X syndrome over 7 years. The study demonstrates that there is substantial persistence of the overall level of behavior and emotional problems. However, there are changes in certain types of behavior. Scores on the "disruptive" subscale of the Developmental Behavior Checklist decline significantly, whereas those on the "antisocial" subscale increase significantly. These changes parallel those seen in a large epidemiological control sample of young people with intellectual disability due to other causes. Further, two individual behaviors that distinguished the Fragile X individuals from the control individuals in the original study, namely "shy" and "avoids eye contact," continue to do so 7 years later.

Young lives, diverse choices and imagined futures in an education and training market

In the UK, policy developments in vocational and further education have created a market in post-16 education and training. This paper reports on an Economic and Social Research Council study and one small cohort of young people entering and moving through one such urban market. They enter with very different learning identities, aspirations and motivations, and their ‘educational inheritances’ prepare them differently for participation. Some young people simply want ajob and awage and ‘nomore learning’, others come with alongterm commitment to gaining higher qualifications. The authors both describe and explore a number of ways of conceptualizing these differences. Both despite and because of the changes in the local labour market ‘deep sub-structures of inequality’ re-emerge. The differentiation of routes and ‘spaces’ of opportunity confronting these young people are reproductive of social class divisions.

Serum angiotensinogen concentration in relation to gonadal hormones, body size, and genotype in growing young people.

Multiple factors are thought to influence the level of circulating angiotensinogen (AGT). We showed previously that the serum AGT concentration was significantly related to body mass index (BMI) in a cohort of young people. In the present study, we studied whether levels of the gonadal hormones estradiol and testosterone might also predict the AGT level and might contribute to the BMI effect, since both the production of these hormones and BMI increase with age. In boys (n=127; mean+/-SD age, 14.7+/-1.9 years) and girls (n=104; age, 14.8+/-1.9 years) studied as a single group, we found a significant association of AGT level with level of estradiol (P=0.015) after adjustment for haplotype, age, race, testosterone concentration, and BMI. In girls studied alone, the level of AGT showed a significantly positive relation to level of testosterone (P=0.043), possibly a result of peripheral conversion of testosterone to estradiol, after adjustment for haplotype, age, race, estradiol concentration, and BMI. In boys, on the other hand, the level of testosterone was inversely related to AGT concentration (P=0.019), again after making adjustments for the other variables. Finally, in pairs of subjects matched for BMI, age, race, and gender where 1 member of each pair had either 1 or 2 copies of an AGT gene haplotype (T235 and -1074t) and the other member had no copy, the level of AGT was higher in the carrier of a haplotype in 24 of the 34 pairs (P<0.001). In conclusion, gonadal hormones are an additional influence on the circulating level of AGT in growing young people. In addition, with matching for BMI and other covariates, there is a strong association of AGT genotype with the serum level of AGT, emphasizing the importance of AGT gene expression as a determinant of the circulating level of AGT.

Social and economic infuences -ie influences- on graduation rates from higher education in Australia

This paper presents an examination of national survey data on the graduation rates of young people who enter higher education in Australia. Two cohorts of young people were surveyed – those born in 1961 and those born in 1965. Of interest is the influence of gender and of selected social and economic background characteristics on graduation rates. The results for both cohorts provide further evidence of the gains made by young females during the 1980s in terms of educational participation and attainment. The results for the first cohort show also there were some signs of lower graduation rates being associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, at least as indicated by parent'`s occupational status and family wealth. For the second cohort, however, there was little evidence of any effect in the same direction. This suggests that attempts to deal with equity which have focussed on performance within higher education have either been quite effective or might be better directed towards the selection processes which lead to higher education.

Access to alcohol from licensed premises during adolescence: a longitudinal study

Control of young people's access to alcohol via licensed premises has been shown to be an effective alcohol harm reduction strategy in the United States. In a longitudinal study of young New Zealanders their access to alcohol at the ages of 15 and 18 years was shown to be significantly predictive of the quantities of alcohol they consumed during a drinking occasion both then and in subsequent years. In turn the quantities of alcohol consumed were predictive of the respondents' experience of intoxication related adverse consequences. The impact of access via licensed premises on drinking and related problems was greater in this cohort of young people than the impact of peer or parental influences.

Just another piece of paper? Key Stage 4 accreditation for pupils with learning difficulties

The publication of GCSE results makes it apparent that there is a cohort of young people at Key Stage 4 (KS4) who do not achieve a Grade ‘G’ in GCSE. The composition of this group is mixed, and the reasons for low attainment are various and complex. This article is concerned with those students who do not achieve the standard required for a grade G on account of the severity of their learning difficulties. A consideration of the options for alternative accreditation at KS4 for such pupils was part of the brief given to the NFER in relation to the recently completed Small Steps Survey commissioned by SCAA. Felicity Fletcher‐Campbell, who, with Barbara Lee, was joint Project Leader, reports on the findings from part of the project.

The control of sexuality in young people with Down's syndrome

Three studies were undertaken of two cohorts of young people with Down's syndrome. One cohort, of 52 people, was born in the 1960s and they were seen in their teens and again in their mid-20s. The other cohort, of 26 people, was born in the 1970s and they were seen in their teens. The studies show that while carers in both cohorts paid lip service to the rights of young people with learning disabilities to have sexual experiences and to marry, they did not necessarily feel that this applied to their own youngsters. Carers of the 1970s cohort at teenage were more permissive than carers of the 1960s cohort at adulthood. How carers controlled the sexuality of their young people is discussed. Carers in both cohorts were rarely in favour of parenthood for people with learning disabilities and over half the carers thought that sterilization might be appropriate, in some circumstances. At teenage, about two-thirds of carers in both cohorts thought that their youngsters needed sex education. By adulthood, in the 1960s cohort, only one-third of the same group of carers continued to hold the same view. According to carers, more young people knew about events that they were unlikely to experience themselves, namely pregnancy and birth, than knew about the most likely event, sexual intercourse. So, in spite of holding permissive views on sexual expression for people with learning disabilities, carers left their own young people ill-prepared for such experiences. Few young people were given the education or freedoms necessary to encourage sexual relationships. Reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

Social Reproduction and Change in the Transition from Youth to Adulthood

Over the past decade research into youth and the transition to adult status has focused on the relationship between labour force and domestic life course trajectories, in the context of employment restructuring and declining demand for youth labour. Some writers have addressed a hypothesis of deferral amongst recent cohorts of young people in the timing of transitions from the partial dependence of youth to forms of adult independence. This hypothesis has been explored through consideration of significant life course events, particularly the attainment of independence from the parental home, cohabitation, marriage and birth of the first child. Critics have argued that research has not fully succeeded in locating youth and transition in relation to general social arrangements. It is argued that this problem arises as a consequence of a conceptual framework which foregrounds the issue of transitions from dependence to independence but undertheorises the relationship between them. The approach argues that employment and household resourcing arrangements together shape `dependence' and `independence'. Change in patterns of transition is integral to change in these general arrangements. The argument is developed through an analysis of change in the structure of rewards to employment and patterns of delay in family formation.

The patterning of life events in mid- to late adolescence: markers for the future?

This paper examines how life events in adolescence are patterned according to sex and socio-economic status, using three sweeps of data from a cohort of young people when they were aged 15, 16 and 18. With regard to sex, events reported tended to conform to gender stereotypes. Rather than showing consistency in categories of events experienced by males in comparison with females, the pattern altered with age. There were strikingly few differences in the distribution of events according to social class of background, apart from those reflecting the link between parental class and own career trajectory. In contrast, there was a strong pattern in respect of own labour market position at 18 years. At age 15, those heading for tertiary education reported fewest events categorized as undesirable, independent and rare, the future non- or unemployed reported most and those heading for work or training occupied a middle position. Similar results in respect of current labour market position occurred at 18 years, even when events dependent on educational or occupational status at that age were eliminated from the analysis. Life events mid-adolescence are both markers of, and influences on, future career trajectories.

Transition, adulthood and special educational needs: an unresolved paradox

ABSTRACT This paper draws upon qualitative data to illuminate the process of transition to adulthood of young people with significant special educational needs. The paper first examines current literature on the pathways of transition, and tests a model described by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (1983) against data gathered on a cohort of young people (n = 618). Selected case studies are presented to illustrate the experiences of young people with contrasting special educational needs. The paper concludes by considering a possible set of indicators of adult status. In so doing, the paradox of advocating employment within a context of reduced employability for those marginalized by virtue of their handicaps is raised.

A comparison of the development of independence in two cohorts of young people with Down syndrome

Studies in infancy, teens and the mid-twenties were made of an original cohort of children with Down syndrome, born in the 60s and brought up at home in South Wales. The young people continued to improve in their self-care and daily living skills into adulthood, although no one had reached full independence. Studies were made in infancy and teens of a second comparative cohort of children with Down syndrome, born in the 70s and brought up at home in South Wales. In the teens, significantly more of the comparative cohort were independent in their self-care skills and daily living skills compared with the original cohort when they were in their teens, nine years earlier. It was not that there were individuals in the comparative cohort who were superior to individuals in the original cohort, rather there were far fewer in the comparative cohort with extremely limited achievements who were not reaching their potential.

Learning The Hard Way: The Extent and Significance of Child Working in Britain

Abstract This article examines the extent and significance of contemporary child working in Britain, and explores some of its implications for the movement between school and work. It draws on data generated from two cohorts of young people in the Coventry labour market and argues that child labour is an important formative experience for many working class youngsters. Child working allows youngsters to gain experience of the social relations of production, helps structure subsequent occupational choice and provides important continuities between the social relations of schooling and adolescence, and those of the adult world of work. Without acknowledging such a contribution the article concludes that systems of vocational preparation for young people will be destined for, at best, only partial success.

Like parent like child? Associations between drinking and smoking behaviour of parents and their children

This paper examines the association between the smoking and drinking behaviours of parents and their adolescent children, and the effect of gender and social class upon this association. It is based on data collected from a cohort of young people and their parents, resident in the west of Scotland. Both social class and parental smoking behaviour were independently associated with young people's smoking, with young people from lower social class households or whose parents smoked being most likely to smoke. Social class and gender were independently associated with young people's drinking, with males and young people from non-manual households being most likely to drink. Parental drinking behaviour was associated positively with young people's drinking only in non-manual classes and among daughters. We conclude that it is important to take social class and gender into account since it may influence whether or not there is an association between the behaviour of young people and that of their parents, and it may influence young people's behaviour in addition to influences from parental behaviour.

Do children of lone parents smoke more because their mothers do?

This short report examines the association between smoking behaviours of mothers and their 15 year old children, and whether there is a difference between families headed by a mother living alone or with a partner. It is based on data collected from a cohort of young people and their mothers (N = 967), resident in the West of Scotland. We found no evidence that children of lone mothers smoke more because their mothers do; the familial transmission of smoking behaviour, at 15, appeared to be less apparent in households headed by lone than cohabiting mothers.

Aspirations for Higher Education

This paper reports data from the first phase of a longitudinal study of the processes by which selected structural, social-psychological, and group variables influence the capacities and achievements in both educational and occupational spheres of a cohort of young people. A causal recursive path analytic model which hypothesizes both direct and indirect effects of social origins, schooling, the perceived influence of significant others, and self-assessment on aspirations for tertiary education is developed. The model is found to have more explanatory power for men than for women. For both groups the perceived influence of parents, teachers, and peers bears the major impact on aspiration formation. Social origins are more important in aspiration formation for women than for men although for both groups mediating and direct effects are observed. Schooling also has mediating effects for both groups and direct effects among men. It is concluded that, while the analysis provided strong support for crucial elements of the social-psychological theory of aspiration formation, there are linkages for status transmission not identified in the model.