Father School Research Articles

Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion.

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the current political agenda. The key new issue that this research addresses is the relative importance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of outcomes later in life. How far are the 'effects' of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood poverty? Subsidiary questions relate to the magnitude of these associations, the particular levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and whether, as often assumed, only teenage mothers are subsequently disadvantaged, or are those who have their first birth in their early twenties similarly disadvantaged? The source of data for this study is the National Child Development Study. We examine outcomes at age 33 for several domains of adult social exclusion: welfare, socio-economic, physical health, emotional well-being and demographic behaviour. We control for a wide range of childhood factors: poverty; social class of origin and of father; mother's and father's school leaving age; family structure; housing tenure; mother's and father's interest in education; personality attributes; performance on educational tests; and contact with the police by age 16. There are clear associations for the adult outcomes with age at first birth, even after controlling for childhood poverty and the other childhood background factors. Moreover, we demonstrate that the widest gulf in adult outcomes occurs for those who enter motherhood early (before age 23), though further reinforced by teenage motherhood for most adult outcomes. We also show that any experience of childhood poverty is clearly associated with adverse outcomes in adulthood, with reinforcement for higher levels of childhood poverty for a few outcomes.

Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the current political agenda. The key new issue that this research addresses is the relative importance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of outcomes later in life. How far are the ‘effects’ of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood poverty? Subsidiary questions relate to the magnitude of these associations, the particular levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and whether, as often assumed, only teenage mothers are subsequently disadvantaged, or are those who have their first birth in their early twenties similarly disadvantaged? The source of data for this study is the National Child Development Study. We examine outcomes at age 33 for several domains of adult social exclusion: welfare, socio-economic, physical health, emotional well-being and demographic behaviour. We control for a wide range of childhood factors: poverty; social class of origin and of father; mother's and father's school leaving age; family structure; housing tenure; mother's and father's interest in education; personality attributes; performance on educational tests; and contact with the police by age 16. There are clear associations for the adult outcomes with age at first birth, even after controlling for childhood poverty and the other childhood background factors. Moreover, we demonstrate that the widest gulf in adult outcomes occurs for those who enter motherhood early (before age 23), though further rein-forced by teenage motherhood for most adult outcomes. We also show that any experience of childhood poverty is clearly associated with adverse outcomes in adulthood, with reinforcement for higher levels of childhood poverty for a few outcomes.

Tuberculin skin reactivity in Italian military recruits tested in 1996-1997.

In 1996-1997 data was collected and a Mantoux tuberculin test performed in 2882 Italian military recruits aged 18-23 years in order to establish the prevalence of tuberculin reactivity. In addition, the annual risk of infection, defined as the probability that a non-infected individual would be infected during the following year, was calculated. Of the 2882 recruits, 513 had received a BCG vaccination, the remaining 2369 had not. The overall prevalence of subjects with a tuberculin skin reaction size >5 mm (the cut-off point for positivity corresponding to the antimode in the reaction size frequency curve) was 6.1% (144/2369). The prevalence of skin reactivity increased with age but remained similar when related to area of residence, duration of father's school education and family size. The same general trend was observed if the standard pre-established cut-off point of 10 mm was used. In this case the overall prevalence of a positive skin reaction was 4% (95/2369). The annual risk of infection was 0.3% for a prevalence of tuberculin skin reactivity of 6.1% (cut-off point 5 mm) and 0.19% for a prevalence of 4% (cut-off point 10 mm). Analysis of the population sample vaccinated with BCG showed a lack of correlation between the positive reaction after vaccination reported retrospectively by the subject and the current skin reaction observed by the physician in this study (K = 0.254). Moreover, a significant difference was observed between the skin reaction in subjects vaccinated with BCG in 1993-1994 (average size 12.5 mm) and that of subjects vaccinated in 1995-1996 (average size 10.1 mm, P<0.01), probably as a consequence of mycobacteria circulating in the general population which act as a natural booster in people already vaccinated with BCG. A booster effect of tuberculin in Mantoux assays also cannot be excluded.

Sukarno, the Nationalist

A MAN'S LIFE iS unpredictable indeed. I am the son of poor parents. My father was a who earned 25 guilders a month. This is $io. I am the child of common people.' The speaker was Sukarno, President of Indonesia, and the occasion was his arrival in Washington (on May i6, i956) for his state visit to the United States. He was citing his own instance of the rapid rise which is the fortune of successful nationalist leaders. But though others in Asia have risen as fast and as far, Sukarno is head of one of the largest new nations; its population of about 8o million makes it the third largest democratic state in the world. Hence his importance, and hence the anxiety with which the West watches his political manoeuvres. These may perhaps be made more intelligible by considering them in the perspective of his political life.2 Sukarno was born on June 6, i9oi, at Surabaya in East Java. The small teacher was Raden Sukemi; Sukarno's mother was Balinese. Given the names of Kusnososro Sukarno (the first of which he has long discarded), he lived as a child with his paternal grandparents at Tulungagung, also in East Java. It was here that he was steeped in the Javanese culture which has contributed so much to his political success with the Javanese peasantry. He entered the village school (one which taught no Dutch) at the age of six, but both here and in his own father's school at Modjokerto, in the same part of Java, he showed no great aptitude for study. It was only when, at the age of twelve, he entered the Europese Lager School (Dutch Elementary School) that he began to work; he even took lessons in French outside school hours. At the age of I4 he finished and passed the Klein Ambtenaars examen, or Clerkship Diploma (the gateway to the lower positions in government service). However, a close friend of his father's, Raden Hadji Umar Said

C. Coleridge Farr, 1866–1943

Dr. C. Coleridge Farr, F.R.S., for 30 years a member of the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and an original Fellow of the Society, died on January 27, 1943.Farr was born in Adelaide on May 22,1866. His father, the Venerable Archdeacon Farr, LL.D. (Cantab.), was, at the time, headmaster of St. Peter's College, the leading Boys' College in Adelaide. After receiving his early education at his father's school, Dr. Farr proceeded to Adelaide University. It was his good fortune that Sir William Bragg was Professor of Mathematics and Physics. Farr remained a lifelong friend of Sir William and his family, and he was fond of recalling that he had often nursed on his knee Professor W. H. Bragg, at present the Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge.

THE EMIGRANT JOURNEY IN THE FIFTIES

THE EMIGRANT JOURNEY IN THE FIFTIES By Karl E. Erickson Edited by Albert O. Barton INTRODUCTION Karl E. Erickson was born on January 9, 1828, at Christiania , Norway, the son of a teacher in a district school. He attended his father's school for several years, later went to higher schools, and finally entered Heltberg's well-known " student factory," where he continued his studies of ancient and modern languages and mathematics. There severe application to his work affected his health, and after a year he was obliged to withdraw from the university. In the spring of 1853 Erickson took passage in the cabin of the bark " Peter Tordenskjold," and on June 23 he arrived at Quebec. From there he went to Milwaukee, and thence to Muskego, where for a time he visited at the home of the Reverend H. A. Stub. In Madison he met Gabriel Bjornson, then county clerk for Dane County, and upon Bjornson 's recommendation he was engaged as clerk in a general store. In the spring of 1854 Erickson accompanied Elias Stangeland to the Wisconsin immigration office at Quebec, where he served as clerk for five months. He returned to Madison with Stangeland and in the fall of the same year assisted him in starting his new paper, Den Norske Amerikaner . Erickson continued to work on this paper until he was relieved by Knud Langeland. Thenceforth Erickson worked both as a store clerk and as translator of state reports; at that time it was customary for the legislatures to order these reports translated into several foreign languages for distribution among settlers not familiar with English. He removed to Lodi, Wisconsin, in 65 66 STUDIES AND RECORDS 1859, and to Black Earth a year later, being occupied as a merchant in both places. In 1855 he married Mrs. Lena Hoal, who died in 1857, and in 1858 he married Mrs. Bollene Erickson, by whom he had two daughters. He acted as district and high school clerk and as town clerk in Black Earth for a number of years. He died October 19, 1903. The accompanying reminiscences were written by Erickson in 1896. They are historically interesting and valuable, particularly for the vivid detail with which they picture the emigrant journey of the fifties in all its stages and aspects. Erickson was a sharp observer and had a good memory. His narrative, however faulty in general organization, is a welcome addition to the literature of Norwegian immigration . A.O.B. i In the first years after 1850 a socialistic agitation headed by the celebrated labor leader Marcus Thrane was started and carried on in the southern part of Norway, with headquarters at Christiania. Many who have emigrated to America since that memorable time will remember the excitement caused by this movement, which was set on foot to expose the wrongs, real or imaginary, that were endured by the poor working classes at the hands of wealthy and powerful employers, the moneyed men, and the aristocracy in general. By lectures and through a weekly illustrated organ, Thrane and his lieutenants exposed many gross injustices, vices of people of standing, and the suffering of the poorer classes. Against this agitation arose the Reverend H. Hailing, a young and energetic clergyman who was a very popular and forceful speaker and exhorter. He would get right up in the gatherings of the agitator Thrane and address the crowds with such force and eloquence that he won over a great many of the more lawabiding and cool-headed people to the maintenance of " law and order." He forthwith formed a society that was called Samfundet paa Enerhaugen, for the suburb in which it was first proposed . A liberal sum of money was raised by subscription and THE EMIGRANT JOURNEY 67 a commodious building was erected and finished, with the country 's flag raised at the entrance in token of the loyalty of the people gathered within its walls. Early in 1853 Elias Stangeland of Norway, Racine County, Wisconsin, appeared in the city. He had emigrated to America a few years before from Karmoen, near Bergen. In America he was a country merchant selling and bartering goods at a little store at Muskego...

Sir Joseph Whitworth

ON Saturday night last, Sir Joseph Whitworth died at the English Hotel, Monte Carlo. In the department of mechanical engineering there is, perhaps, no greater name, and his career was one upon which his countrymen may well look back with pride and pleasure. He was born on December 21, 1803, at Stockport, where his father was a schoolmaster. At the age of twelve he was sent from his father's school to Mr. Vint's academy at Idle, near Leeds, where he remained until he was fourteen, when he was placed with his uncle, a cotton-spinner in Derbyshire. Here he made himself familiar with the construction and working of all the machines then used in cotton-spinning. If he had chosen, he might perhaps have inherited his uncle's property, but he was already conscious of the trite bent of his genius, and after six years' service, being unable to emancipate himself in a more regular manner, he ran away to Manchester. At Manchester he remained for four years, working in the shops of Messrs. Crighton and other employers, and obtaining a thorough mastery of the methods of manufacturing cotton-machinery. Recognising the necessity of wide experience, he went to London when he had secured all the practical knowledge that could be obtained in his special line at Manchester, and he was fortunate enough to be employed by Maudslay, who soon learned to appreciate his exceptional gifts, and took him into his own private workroom, and placed him next to Hampson, the best workman in the establishment. From Maudslay's, Mr. Whitworth went to HoltzapfeFs, and afterwards to Clements's, where Babbage's calculating-machine was being constructed. During his residence in London, Mr. Whitworth began the splendid series of inventions which were to secure for him the foremost place among the mechanical engineers of his period. His first important self-imposed task was to construct the true plane, by which tool-makers might be enabled to produce, for all kinds of sliding tools, surfaces on which the resistance arising from friction would be reduced to a minimum. The work to be achieved was one of immense difficulty, and his fellow-workman, Hampson, used to laugh at him for having undertaken an impossible job. Mr. Whitworth, however, was a man of extraordinary tenacity of purpose, and did not allow himself to be discouraged. At last he succeeded, and showed his friend the perfect plane he had produced. “You've done it,” said Hampson, who was astounded by a result which he had always thought to be beyond the reach of human effort.