Life Chances Research Articles

The summer parental investment gap? Socioeconomic gaps in the seasonality of parental expenditures and time with school-age children

Inequalities in parental investments can shape inequalities in children’s outcomes and life chances. Scholars have theorized how socioeconomic status (SES) may moderate how parents use parental investments to respond to the loss of the provision of public schooling during the summer. We investigate the seasonality of SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time in the United States using the 1996–2019 Consumer Expenditure Survey and the 2003–2019 American Time Use Survey. We find SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time during the summer, and that SES gaps in expenditures are larger in the summer than during non-summer months. We find little evidence that any of these gaps have grown substantially over time. Finally, we find evidence that SES gaps in summer paternal investments of time are driven by investments in younger rather than older school-aged children. Our findings contribute to our understanding of the link between public and parental investments in children, address a key mechanism in the debate about the summer learning gap, and provide new evidence on how parents may target investments in children towards the ages when they are most consequential.

Dependency and Reduced Life Chances: Examining the Challenges faced by Students with disabilities in Higher Education Institutions

Dependency and Reduced Life Chances: Examining the Challenges faced by Students with disabilities in Higher Education Institutions

Demographic predictors of experiences of homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender-diverse and queer-identifying (LGBTIQ) young people in Australia

ABSTRACT Homelessness among young lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender-diverse and queer-identifying (LGBTQ+) persons is highly prevalent and constitutes a structural risk to health and future life chances. However, the distribution of homelessness burden is among different LGBTQ+ subgroups is poorly understood. An Australia-wide cross-sectional online survey was conducted involving 6,481 LGBTQ+ participants aged 14–21 years during 2019. Single-predictor logistic regression analyses identified factors associated with both lifetime and recent experiences of homelessness. Analyses also explored associations between recent (<12 months) experiences of homelessness, experiences of harassment, alcohol consumption, and psychological distress. Higher odds of experiencing homelessness were observed for trans and gender-diverse young people, individuals who identified with sexual identity labels other than lesbian, gay or bisexual, racially-minoritized persons, disabled persons and individuals from a religious family or household, compared to their respective counterparts. Experiencing homelessness was associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption and higher prevalence of experiencing verbal, physical and sexual harassment, but only modestly associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Homelessness risk and burden is unevenly distributed among LGBTQ+ youth and is linked to outcomes which may potentiate future homelessness. Interventions addressing homelessness among this group must be optimized for those subgroups most vulnerable to experiencing homelessness.

Trends in the long-term impact of childhood visual impairment on health and social outcomes in the UK: a cross-cohort study across three decades of disability-related legislation and policy implementation.

Childhood vision impairment (VI) can adversely impact health and social outcomes and limit life chances. We investigated whether its adverse impacts into adult life changed during a period in which legislation, policy and services to address inequalities relating to disability were implemented. Cross-cohort study comprising 14247 participants from the 1946, 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts (BC). Participants dichotomized as VI at age 15/16 (distance visual acuity was 6/12 or worse in the better-seeing eye) or normally sighted. Associations of childhood VI with health, well-being, socioeconomic and social participation outcomes in mid-adult life were investigated using regression models adjusted for participants' early life socioeconomic markers and sex. Change in adjusted odds ratios of >10% in the same direction in successive cohorts, or a > 20% difference between 1970BC and one older cohort were considered meaningful. Trends over time in impacts of childhood onset VI into mid-adult life were complex. This included worsening of odds of poorer physical health (odds ratio 1.47; 95% confidence interval 1.02-2.14), living in unsatisfactory (1.54; 1.03-2.29) or overcrowded (2.34; 1.26-4.06) households, being unemployed (2.19; 1.19-3.97) and not gaining additional educational qualifications during mid-adult life (1.61; 1.08-2.47). By contrast the odds of not participating in some social activities (e.g. seeing friends) improved over time. Associations with other outcomes were unchanged. Many adverse impacts of childhood VI do not appear ameliorated over time by legislation, policies and provision that would have been expected to reduce inequalities. Moreover, some were increased. Childhood VI continues to cast a life-long shadow.

Housing niches: new directions for housing and urban policy

Housing influences life chances and trajectories through many roles, differently and in relation to the socioeconomic characteristics of people and population groups. This article uses the concept – ‘housing niches’ to present an alternative, bottom-up, plural and bundled view of housing and advantage . Using a large, representative sample of an Australian rental population (the Australian Rental Housing Conditions Dataset [ARHCD]), our analysis describes housing as multidimensional, bound across other aspects of people’s lives. Understanding advantage requires methodologies that capture risk as cumulative, mediated by multilevel social processes that expose and select particular populations to particular residential environments that contribute to people’s multiple disadvantage. Housing niches compel research and debate on comprehensive housing policy as not only necessary, but to have an imperative of cumulative risk and more broadly, inequality and poverty reduction.

Educational homogamy, values, activities, and inequality: an intergenerational perspective

ABSTRACT Educational homogamy, defined as individuals with similar educational backgrounds who marry or form relationships, is increasingly identified with rising levels of inequality. Bourdieu’s concepts of field of forces and field of struggles are used to examine intergenerational educational homogamy dynamics. Through correspondence analyses with 28 years of the longitudinal data from Paths on Life’s Way Project, this study determined the interdependence of educational homogamy of two generations – grandparents (Generation One) and parents (Generation Two) – on the educational values parents hold for their children (Generation Three) – and the subsequent educational activities in which their children engage. Findings reveal that despite the intact nature of the field of forces among Generation One and Generation Two educational homogamy groups, most values held for and activities undertaken by Generation Three are not specific to homogamy groups. One important exception stands out: values held toward university attendance by Generation Two for their children (Generation Three) distinguishes the homogamy group with high levels of education from the group with low educational levels. This field of forces difference suggests the presence of accumulated capital across generations that manifests itself in values toward university study with long term implications for future life chances.

Multivocal Didaktik Modelling in Early Childhood Education-For a Sustainable Future in a World of Change.

In times of democratic decline, unanimous choices and approaches and the idea of a singular best practice may be less conducive to democracy and sustainability. Therefore, the aim of this study is to suggest a multivocal approach to education and teaching by studying the question of what may characterise teaching in preschool for a sustainable future. The knowledge contribution and originality of the article is evident in the introduction, method, and results. In abductive analyses, models can summarize what we need to know and teach in pursuit of the creation of open life chances for every child. The results show that didaktik models are open and can provide support for teachers and leaders to consider and base informed decisions on, as well as to motivate their didaktik choices based on scientific foundations and proven experiences. Multivocal didaktik mo-delling intends to open up teaching-cultivating collaboration in preschool for a sustainable future in a world of change. In conclusion, we recommend cultivating an orientation (1) between knowledges, values and didaktik/education/special education in the pursuit of the creation of conditions for good education for all children; (2) between teaching realities and scientific foundations, which are founded in a critical-reflective didaktik, with a choice of direction in relation to an uncertain future; and (3) between continuity, progression and teaching adventures-which can include consolidating, deepening, broadening, raising, and cultivating knowledge and values for multivocality, democracy and sustainability in teaching realities. In the future the concept of multivocal didaktik modelling can be studied in relation to complex teaching realities as in a teaching universe or a teaching multiverse.

Increasing car washing competency in adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities: Researching visual task evaluation

This study looked at how well visual task evaluation helped teenagers with autism and intellectual disabilities become more competent at car washing. For disabled people to promote their independence and employment chances, car washing skills are crucial. The goal of this study was to ascertain whether training techniques that include visual task evaluation can improve car washing proficiency in teenagers with autism and intellectual disabilities. 30 participants, ranging in age from 12 to 18, participated in a pre-test/post-test design. Randomly chosen groups of participants were put into the evaluation group for the visual task or the control group. According to the findings, the visual task evaluation group outperformed the control group in terms of car washing ability. Adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities can learn skills more quickly and become more independent by including visual task evaluation into their teaching strategies. These results demonstrate the potential for such treatments to enhance their quality of life and employment chances.

Identity Theft, Trust Breaches, and the Production of Economic Insecurity

Across various domains of social life, organizational reliance on personal data and exposure to unanticipated financial hardship have transformed Americans’ life chances and access to opportunities. This article examines an area where they intersect: the hardship caused by breakdowns in information systems. I focus on the case of identity theft, showing how that event—experienced by tens of millions of Americans annually—contributes to economic insecurity. To do so, I first develop a theory of insecurity that links feelings of precariousness to breaches of trust at three levels: interpersonal, organizational, and systemic. Drawing on an original qualitative study of identity theft resolution, I find that most victims worried about their financial lives because they could no longer count on certain people, organizations, or systems. Beneath this commonality, race and class informed feelings of insecurity and associated coping strategies following identity theft. Low-income people and people of color tended to direct suspicion at personal networks and report ending relationships and informal assistance. In contrast, middle- and upper-income and White individuals disproportionately blamed organizations and demanded their protection. These findings—along with the trust-based theory that helped make them visible—have important implications for the study of insecurity, inequality, and trust in the information age.

An Automated Lion-Butterfly Optimization (LBO) based Stacking Ensemble Learning Classification (SELC) Model for Lung Cancer Detection

Lung cancer is one of the most serious and prevalent cancers in the globe. Early detection of lung cancer can increase a patient's chances of life. Computed Tomography (CT) scan images are difficult for clinicians to utilize in order to determine the stages of cancer. Computer-aided systems can assist researchers in more precisely predicting the stages of lung cancer in recent times. This study demonstrates the use of technology that is made possible by machine learning and image processing to accurately classify and predict the lung cancer from CT images. The existing tumor detection frameworks have the major difficulties in terms of high complexity, overfitting and error prediction. Therefore, the proposed work aims to formulate a simple and accurate automated system for the prediction and classification of lung cancer from CT images. Before classifying the input lung scan image, an adaptive median filtering approach is used to improve its contrast and quality. From the segmented lung parts, the histogram and texture features are derived. The most relevant characteristics are chosen using the Lion-Butterfly Optimization (LBO) method for training and testing operations. Eventually, the input CT picture is correctly predicted as either healthy or disease-affected using the Stacking Ensemble Learning Classification (SELC) algorithm. In this study, a thorough performance evaluation is conducted utilizing several measures in order to analyze the outcomes

After choice, after justice?: race, reproduction, and the uncertain futures of feminist political desire

ABSTRACT This essay engages contemporary narratives of black maternal ambivalence to unsettle residual attachments to choice within the frame of reproductive justice. The contemporary fiction of Brit Bennett’s The Mothers and Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage, as well as Black feminist work on Assisted Reproductive Technologies, reconsider the difficult ways that race and ‘choice’ have been in tension with each other in political and medical discourse around reproductive rights. Feminist choice debates have been intentionally reframed away from ‘rights’ and toward 'justice’ as an attempt to account for the hyper-control of Black reproduction across a modern history that includes enslavement, mass incarceration, and myths of hyper-reproduction. Complex narrative accounts of thwarted or uncertain Black reproduction built from the embodied experiences of blackness can consider both choice and justice without romanticising motherhood or autonomy. This article troubles the weight on black feminism to conceive and carry children – symbolic and material – into and through precarious life chances into secure (political) futures. Through thick descriptions of the reproductive that run through desire, uncertainty, debt, and vulnerability, black feminist thought and expressive culture can displace autonomy as the underpinning and endgame of feminist reproductive politics.

Does social origin modify the heritability of cognitive ability? A close look at the relevance of different parental resources

Cognitive ability plays a prominent role among individual characteristics favorable for success in life. The extent to which endowments for cognitive ability can be realized is an important aspect of unequal life chances in a society. Social origin is considered particularly relevant for realizing cognitive genetic potentials, but related empirical findings are mixed. This paper examines whether there are differences in the interactions between genetic variation and social origin across distinct parental resources and whether the patterns of interactions are (non)linear for three different cohorts of twins (late childhood, adolescents, young adults). Our results showed inconsistent interaction patterns across cohorts and parental resources. A pattern following the Scarr-Rowe Interaction (SRI) was observed only for the younger twins (late childhood) and only for parental occupational status. There were (for the most) no interaction patterns for the adolescent twins. For the young adult twins, patterns partly followed a “reverse” SRI. Taken together, the results suggested that, first of all, parental occupational status and household income moderate either genetic or environmental contributions to cognitive ability in Germany, however, not consistently as a Scarr-Rowe interaction. Using composite measures would have obscured these differential effects of social origin. The interaction patterns are mostly not in line with an SRI but can be approximated using a linear approach in many cases.

Horizontal Advantage: Choice of Postsecondary Field of Study Among Children of Immigrants.

Educational expansion has raised the influence of sorting across postsecondary educational fields on children's future life chances. Yet, little is known about horizontal ethnic stratification in the choice of field of study among children of immigrant parents, whose parents often have moderate absolute levels of education relative to native-born parents but tend to be positively selected on education relative to nonmigrants in the origin country. Using rich administrative data from Norway, we study the educational careers of immigrant descendants relative to the careers of children of native-born parents. Our results show that children of immigrants from non-European countries have a higher likelihood of entering higher education and enrolling in high-paying fields of study compared with children of natives, despite having poorer school grades and disadvantaged family backgrounds. However, immigrant parents' positive selectivity provides limited insight into why children of immigrants exhibit high ambitions later in their postsecondary educational careers. These findings document a persistent pattern of horizontal ethnic advantage in postsecondary education in which ambitious children of immigrants are more likely to enter into more prestigious and economically rewarding fields of study than their fellow students with native-born parents.

Toward Critically Analyzing Whiteness in Immigrant Health.

Assimilation theories dominate immigration scholarship to examine differential life chances, opportunities, and health of immigrants across three waves of immigrants in the United States. Assimilation theories are widely used in public health to explain the health status of immigrants despite the embedded White supremacist ideology while ignoring the role of whiteness. This article reviews and critiques assimilation theories to propose a critical analysis of whiteness in immigrant health scholarship. Critically analyzing whiteness in immigrant health studies allows us to recognize (a) the problematic framing of assimilation theories because of the theories' devotion to a White-European vision of upward mobility and a mainstream characterized as elite and White and (b) how a purportedly colorblind immigration law reinforces White supremacy through possessive investment in whiteness. To highlight whiteness in immigrant health, we examine the anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies and surveillance while providing implications for future research in the scholarship of immigrant health.

The open society and its life chances – from Karl Popper via Ralf Dahrendorf to a human geography of options and ligatures

Abstract. In recent decades, geography in the German-speaking world has been strongly oriented towards Anglo-Saxon and French concepts. For some years now, efforts have been emerging to consider the potential of German language, not only philosophical but also sociological and anthropological traditions of thought for human geography in Germany and beyond. This article considers two thinkers from the German-speaking world who have dedicated themselves to defending the open society: Karl Popper and his student Ralf Dahrendorf. In particular, the operationalization of open society considerations in Ralf Dahrendorf's conflict theory shows great potential especially for human geography research, as conflicts in the use and design of material spaces as well as over conceptual versions of spaces are commonplace. This thesis gains its current validity not least from the resurgence of authoritarian and totalitarian ideas that reject the achievements of open societies and always have spatial implications. It is therefore time to turn to the four central theorems of the two thinkers: (1) Popper's three worlds theory and (2) the concept of open society and (3) Dahrendorf's concepts of life chances and (4) conflict regulation.

'Our hands are bound': Pathways to community health labour in Kenya

An ideal model of Community Health Worker (CHW) selection has existed since long before Alma Ata catalysed the community health approach, dating to late colonial times. In this model, a willing, trusted, relatively well-educated and secure member of the community with proven aptitude is openly elected by their leadership, peers or relevant committee. Their participation is entirely voluntary and that voluntarism is symbolic of their community's participation as a whole. While this imagery is long-embedded in CHW storytelling, such practice is rare. While elements of this ‘model pathway’ exist, a myriad of structural and agential factors shape who becomes a CHW, how and why. Through life history interviews over twelve months 2022–2023 with 68 CHWs in Isiolo, northern Kenya (known as CHVs), we explore predominant pathways to community health labour as told through stories. We articulate five such pathways: model, handpicked, shadow, outsider and, most importantly, dispossession. Through telling five CHVs' stories, we present each ‘ideal type’ but also explore how each pathway is not singular, rather overlapping in complex, context-specific ways. These pathways confound Western-centric, Western-promoted notions of voluntarism and indeed community health, which cannot explain why such labour endures. We conclude that our findings provide a timely commentary on how voluntary labour within health continues to tax structural poverty and frustrated life chances in lieu of concrete and expansive investments in human resources for health by governments and health agencies both North and South. In understanding voluntary labour as a form of structural violence, we can better elucidate the historical dependency on this work in impoverished regions and how the undervaluing of such work persists over time.

Creating the conditions for robust early language development for all: Part two: Evidence informed public health framework for child language in the early years.

One of the most significant developmental accomplishments is the emergence of language in early childhood. Whilst this process is effortless for most children, others can face significant hurdles. Identifying, in the early years, which children will go on to have developmental language disorder is, however, fraught with several well-documented challenges. In the preceding paper we described and linked new research evidence about factors that influence language development in the early years, noting that exposure to some may be time sensitive and that these influences cluster together and can accumulate over time. We demonstrated that risk profiles were associated with and characterised low language trajectories, and we considered how this information could be integrated into a concept that moves beyond screening at single time points in the early years. We argue that this evidence might be used to build an improved early years framework for language thereby creating a more equitable surveillance system that does not leave children living in less advantageous circumstances behind. Underpinning this thinking was a bioecological framework that incorporates the social, environmental and family factors in the child's ecosystem known to influence language development in the early years. To develop a proposal for the design and implementation of an early language public health framework based on current best evidence METHODS: We synthesised the findings from the companion paper (Reilly & McKean 2023) regarding early language trajectories, inequalities and clustering of risks with key public health concepts, relevant intervention evidence and implementation theories to develop a new framework for language surveillance and preventative interventions in the early years. An evidence informed early language public health framework is presented. Describing in turn (1) essential components; (2) relevant interventions; (3) essential qualities for implementation ((i) probabilistic, (ii) proportionate, (iii) developmental and sustained and (iv) codesigned); (4) system-level structures and (5) processes required to adopt and embed an early language public health framework in an existing Local Government Area's child health surveillance and early prevention-intervention systems. Children's language development influences their life chances across the life course and language difficulties are unfairly distributed across society. Current evidence points to the need for whole systems approaches to early child language and enables a blueprint for such a framework to be described. What is already known on the subject Early child language development sets the stage for a child's life chances and language difficulties can have profound long-term consequences. Such difficulties are unfairly distributed across society and the reach of preventative services is not universal or equitable. Several effective primary and secondary preventative interventions exist but their successful implementation is not straightforward. An early language public health framework of surveillance and intervention is described to provide equitable and effective early interventions to children from 0-4 years. We detail the essential components, interventions and qualities of that framework and describe system-level structures and processes required to adopt and embed an early language public health framework in a given locality. WHAT ARE THE CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THIS WORK?: A whole systems approach to early child language is required and should be co-designed through local collaboration with family, community and children's services stakeholders. A public health speech and language therapist role could catalyse the implementation of such approaches and support continuous improvement.

Prenatal and childhood exposure to ambient air pollution and cognitive function in school-age children: Examining sensitive windows and sex-specific associations

BackgroundCombined effect of both prenatal and early postnatal exposure to ambient air pollution on child cognition has rarely been investigated and periods of sensitivity are unknown. This study explores the temporal relationship between pre- and postnatal exposure to PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and child cognitive function. MethodsUsing validated spatiotemporally resolved exposure models, pre- and postnatal daily PM2.5, PM10 (satellite based, 1 km resolution) and NO2 (chemistry-transport model, 4 km resolution) concentrations at the mother's residence were estimated for 1271 mother-child pairs from the French EDEN and PELAGIE cohorts. Scores representative of children's General, Verbal and Non-Verbal abilities at 5–6 years were constructed based on subscale scores from the WPPSI-III, WISC-IV or NEPSY-II batteries, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Associations of both prenatal (first 35 gestational weeks) and postnatal (60 months after birth) exposure to air pollutants with child cognition were explored using Distributed Lag Non-linear Models adjusted for confounders. ResultsIncreased maternal exposure to PM10, PM2.5 and NO2, during sensitive windows comprised between the 15th and the 33rd gestational weeks, was associated with lower males’ General and Non-verbal abilities. Higher postnatal exposure to PM2.5 between the 35th and 52nd month of life was associated with lower males’ General, Verbal and Non-verbal abilities. Some protective associations were punctually observed for the very first gestational weeks or months of life for both males and females and the different pollutants and cognitive scores. DiscussionThese results suggest poorer cognitive function at 5–6 years among males following increased maternal exposure to PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 during mid-pregnancy and child exposure to PM2.5 around 3-4 years. Apparent protective associations observed are unlikely to be causal and might be due to live birth selection bias, chance finding or residual confounding.

Gender and the invisibility of care on Wikipedia

Digital platforms produce bias and inequality that have a significant impact on peoples’ sense of self, agency and life chances. Wikipedia has largely evaded the criticism of other algorithmic systems like Google search and training databases like ImageNet, but Wikipedia is a critical source of representation in our current era – not only because it is one of the world's most popular websites, but because its data are being used as training data for the AI systems that are increasingly used for decision-making. We conducted an analysis of Wikipedia biographies in a national context, comparing the temporality and subjects of notability between English Wikipedia and the Australian Honours system in order to understand Wikipedia's unique role in the production of notability over the site's 20-year history. Framing Wikipedia as an active producer (rather than a reflection) of notability, we demonstrate that women are more likely to be awarded a Wikipedia page after the award announcements or not at all if their contribution is for labour relating to the caring professions than if their service is for sports, arts and films, politics or the judiciary. We argue that Wikipedia's inability to recognise gendered care work as noteworthy is mirrored in its own practices.

A realist review of the causes of, and current interventions to address ‘missingness’ in health care.

Background This protocol describes a realist review exploring the problem of “missingness” in healthcare, defined as the repeated tendency not to take up offers of care that has a negative impact on the person and their life chances. More specifically, the review looks at the phenomenon of patients missing multiple appointments in primary care in the UK – at the causal factors that influence how patients come to be “missing” in this way, and what interventions might support uptake and “presence” in healthcare. Background research informing this project suggests that a high rate of missed appointments predicted high premature death rates, and patients were more likely to have multiple long-term health conditions and experience significant socioeconomic disadvantage. Most research in this field focuses on population- or service-level characteristics of patients who miss appointments, often making no distinction between causes of single missed appointments and of multiple missed appointments. There have therefore been no interventions for ‘missingness’, accounting for the complex life circumstances or common mechanisms that cause people to repeatedly miss appointments. Methods We use a realist review approach to explore what causes missingness - and what might prevent or address it - for whom, and in what circumstances. The review uses an iterative approach of database searching, citation-tracking and sourcing grey literature, with selected articles providing insight into the causal dynamics underpinning missed appointments and the interventions designed to address them. Discussion The findings of this review will be combined with the findings of a qualitative empirical study and the contributions of a Stakeholder Advisory Group (STAG) to inform the development of a programme theory that seeks to explain how missingness occurs, whom it affects and under what circumstances. This will be used to develop a complex intervention to address multiple missed appointments in primary care. PROSPERO registration CRD42022346006