United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Research Articles

Patterns of early childhood adversity and neighborhood deprivation predict unique challenges in adolescence: A UK birth cohort study.

This study applies a comprehensive bioecological perspective to address a significant gap in the childhood adversity literature by employing latent profile analysis to examine the impact of diverse combinations of early childhood adversities and protective factors on adolescent psychosocial and behavioral outcomes. Drawing from the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study (N = 19,444), we identified eight unique profiles of early childhood adversity and protective factors. These profiles provide a nuanced understanding of adversity combinations and allow for differentiation between groups with similar profiles. Latent profile membership was a significant predictor of all adolescent outcome variables, indicating that profiles differed significantly from one another on psychosocial and behavioral outcomes (Wald values ranged from 10.10-623.22; p < .001). Some findings support the cumulative risk model, indicating that exposure to multiple early adversities increases the likelihood of adverse outcomes. However, we also found that specific adversities, such as parental psychopathology, parental alcohol use, and neighborhood deprivation, uniquely impact adolescent outcomes. This study highlights the necessity for tailored interventions and policies to support children with distinct early life experiences, emphasizing the importance of addressing both cumulative and specific adversities at multiple levels to prevent psychosocial and behavioral problems in adolescence.

Social Disadvantage, Maternal Psychological Distress, and Difficulties in Children's Social-Emotional Well-Being.

This study used data from wave four of the United Kingdom (U.K.) Millennium Cohort Study to examine whether there is an individual (i.e., maternal education) and area-level social disadvantage (i.e., neighborhood deprivation) gradient to difficulties in social-emotional well-being (SEW) in 7-year-old English children. We then investigated to what extent maternal psychological distress (Kessler 6 score) explains the relationship between social disadvantage indicators and boys’ and girls’ SEW difficulties. Subjects consisted of 3661 child–mother dyads (1804 boys and 1857 girls). Results discerned gender differences in the effect social disadvantage indicators have on child SEW difficulties. Maternal education had a comparable effect on boys’ and girls’ SEW difficulties, but a steeper neighborhood deprivation gradient was evident for boys’ SEW difficulties compared to girls’ SEW difficulties. The effect of each social disadvantage indicator on boys’ and girls’ SEW difficulties was for most part direct and strong (p ≤ 0.001) rather than through maternal psychological distress, suggesting that the theoretical framework was incomplete. Here we demonstrate that where children are positioned on the social disadvantage gradient matters greatly to their SEW. Improving the living conditions and health of mothers with psychological distress may offer a pathway to improve child SEW.

The Impact of Complex Family Structure on Child Well‐being: Evidence From Siblings

Evidence from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort on children at ages 3 and 5 with older siblings addresses the questions of whether those living with both biological parents and only full siblings have better emotional and behavior outcomes than other children, and whether nonfull siblings affect children's outcomes independently of parents' partnership status. Adjusting for measured family circumstances and resources in cross‐sectional regressions accounted for much of the adverse association of family complexity with child outcomes. Controlling for unobserved family and child fixed effects did not, however, attenuate all estimates further. Fixed unobservable factors appeared to be masking underlying associations. Allowing for them intensified some, albeit modest, estimates. These revealed excess externalizing behavior problems for boys with single or stepparents but only full siblings. For girls with single mothers, the chances of internalizing problems were raised. Whether siblings were full or not made little difference to outcomes in general.

Early Home Activities and Oral Language Skills in Middle Childhood: A Quantile Analysis.

Oral language development is a key outcome of elementary school, and it is important to identify factors that predict it most effectively. Commonly researchers use ordinary least squares regression with conclusions restricted to average performance conditional on relevant covariates. Quantile regression offers a more sophisticated alternative. Using data of 17,687 children from the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study, we compared ordinary least squares and quantile models with language development (verbal similarities) at 11years as the outcome. Gender had more of an effect at the top of the distribution, whereas poverty, early language, and reading to the child had a greater effect at the bottom. The picture for TV watching was more mixed. The results are discussed in terms of the provision of universal and targeted interventions.

Invited Commentary: Lessons for Research on Cognitive Aging From a Study of Children.

As the population ages, the burden of disease from cognitive decline and dementing illness is rising. In the absence of treatments to reverse cognitive decline, prevention is a public health priority. Physical fitness and physical activity have emerged as prevention targets based on evidence of "neuroprotective" benefits in observational studies. However, observational studies linking active lifestyle with successful cognitive aging might be subject to bias from "neuroselection," in which adults with better cognitive functioning are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors and avoid unhealthy ones. In their analysis of longitudinal data on several thousand children from the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study, Aggio et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2016;183(12):1075-1082) revealed that this pattern of neuroselection is already apparent in childhood. However, they also report data that suggest there are cognitive benefits to engaging in certain types of active behaviors over and above this selection. Their findings argue for greater attention to confounding by neuroselection in research on cognitive aging, and they suggest the possibility that early interventions to promote certain health behaviors may instill a virtuous cycle with benefits that accumulate across the lifespan.

Mothers with intellectual impairment and their 9-month-old infants.

Few studies have utilised population-based data to examine the lives of families headed by parents with intellectual impairment. This study examined the health and social context of mothers with intellectual impairment compared with their peers without intellectual impairment, and the 9-month developmental outcomes of their infants. Secondary analysis of the first wave of the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). Wave 1 data were collected when the child was 9 months of age and recorded in-depth information of maternal health, the social context in which the families live, and developmental outcomes of the infants. Of the 18 189 mothers, 74 (0.4%) were classified as mothers with intellectual impairment. The findings show evidence of widespread disadvantage in terms of social context and poorer self-reported physical health for mothers with intellectual impairment compared with their peers without intellectual impairment. Maternal mental health and the developmental outcomes of their 9-month infants were not markedly different between the two groups. The cross-sectional analyses used in this study shows the differences in the lives of mothers with intellectual impairment and their young infants compared with their peers. Longitudinal analyses across subsequent waves of the MCS will allow protective and risk factors in the early years that influence later developmental outcomes to be identified.

Children Born After Unplanned Pregnancies and Cognitive Development at 3 Years: Social Differentials in the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort

Children born after an unplanned pregnancy have poorer developmental scores. This could arise from less favorable parenting but also could reflect confounding from the socioeconomic circumstances. In a large representative sample in the United Kingdom, the Millennium Cohort Study (2001–2005), cognitive delay at 3 years was explored with the Bracken Assessment. Its association with unplanned pregnancy was studied in logistic models controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the family, the child's characteristics, and parenting behavior. Stratification by the mother's educational level (grouped into 3 categories) was explored. Of 12,182 children included in the analysis, 41% were born after a pregnancy reported by the mother to have been a “surprise.” Such unplanned pregnancies were associated in univariate analysis with more cognitive delay. Among mothers with a low or middle level of education, this association vanished when socioeconomic circumstances were controlled. Among mothers with a high level of education, the risk of cognitive delay remained significantly and unexplainedly raised after unplanned pregnancies, despite controlling for socioeconomic characteristics and parental behavior. In conclusion, for socially disadvantaged children, having resulted from an unplanned pregnancy does not seem to increase their already disproportionate risk of cognitive delay. Births after unplanned conceptions are mainly a symptom rather than a source of disadvantage.

The Comparison and Interdependence of Maternal and Paternal Influences on Young Children's Behavior and Resilience

We investigated how mothers’ and fathers’ depressed mood and father–child and mother–child relationship predicted preschool children's problem behavior. The sample was 11,286 continuously intact, two-parent biological families of the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study. We found that mother–child relationship and maternal depressed mood had larger effects on children's problem behavior than father–child relationship and paternal depressed mood. The effect of paternal depressed mood was completely mediated by quality of father–child relationship. There were significant moderator effects but only on internalizing problems. There was little evidence to suggest that, among children of this developmental stage, quality of father–child relationship buffers the effect of contextual risk (i.e., promotes resilience). Quality of mother–child relationship, in contrast, buffered the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage but only on emotional symptoms.