Growing up in Scotland | Findings

Sweep 5

Jun 2011 |

Researcher |

The Growing Up in Scotland study (GUS) is an important longitudinal research project aimed at tracking the lives of a cohort of Scottish children through the early years and beyond. The study is funded by the Scottish Government and carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen). GUS provides crucial evidence for the long-term monitoring and

evaluation of policies for children, with a specific focus on the early years. GUS collects a wide range of information about children and their families; the main areas covered include childcare, education, social work, health and social inclusion

On this page we present a summary of key findings from the fifth sweep of the survey, which was collected in 2009/10 when the birth cohort children were aged almost 5 years.

Differences in child cognitive ability between children from more and less advantaged social groups found at age 3 persist at age 5.
Over two in five children experience key events in their early life which can lead to negative child outcomes.
Day-to-day parenting can influence child health outcomes.
Parents most in need are those who are least likely to use services.

Differences in child cognitive ability between children from more and less advantaged social groups found at age 3 persist at age 5.

A range of research evidence, including earlier evidence from GUS, demonstrates a relationship between social background and cognitive development at pre-school and even before. Much of this research highlights the important role that experiences and development during the early years have on later educational achievement and suggest that more should be done to maximise the improvement of children's development before they enter school, including in the immediate pre-school period.

The report examines differences in cognitive ability (vocabulary and problem solving) at ages 3 and 5 years amongst children with different social background characteristics and identifies which circumstances and experiences contribute to the relative improvement of cognitive ability of children in lower (and higher) socioeconomic groups in the pre-school period.

Children in higher income households, those whose parents have higher educational qualifications, and those with higher socio-economic classifications, have, on average, better vocabulary and problem solving scores at both ages 3 and 5 than children whose parents have lower incomes, lower educational qualifications and are in lower socio-economic classifications.

The findings suggest that a number of circumstances and experiences could be influenced in order to help improve the development of cognitive ability amongst children from poorer educational backgrounds ahead of their entry to school. Amongst children whose parents had lower levels of education those who were breastfed, who demonstrated better early communication and language ability, developed a stronger infant-maternal attachment, and more regularly experienced parent-child activities such as reading, drawing and singing nursery rhymes showed a greater improvement in their cognitive ability in the pre-school period than those who did not have these experiences.

Over two in five children experience key events in their early life which can lead to negative child outcomes.

This report considered the prevalence of four significant events during early childhood - parental separation, moving home, parental job loss and the onset of persistent maternal health problems. There is evidence to suggest that families who experience these kind of events can also be at risk of other disadvantages - for example, job loss is often linked to income poverty, moving house to parental stress, and parental separation to strained relationships between parents and children. Previous GUS research demonstrates that these disadvantages are not good for children's outcomes in different areas of their lives. The report examined which children are more likely to experience these events and how these events were associated with known drivers of poor child outcomes - income poverty, poor maternal mental health, a high level of home chaos and parent-child conflict.

Over two in five children (44%) experienced at least one event. Residential moves were most common, experienced by 40% of children.

Events had multiple impacts: poor maternal mental health was associated with a worsening in all four drivers of negative child outcomes; job loss among couple families affected all drivers except maternal mental health; parental separation or a residential move resulted in a worsening of income poverty and poor maternal mental health.

Day-to-day parenting can influence child health outcomes.

The Scottish Government has placed the individual wellbeing of children and young people at the heart of its policy agenda on 'Getting it right for every child', with a recognition of the
important role of parents and other carers. However, the challenges to successful parenting that are posed by family adversity may contribute to health inequalities. This report examined which aspects of day-to-day parenting are associated with children's health and health behaviours and whether variations in parenting account for social inequalities in child health outcomes.

Low overall parenting skills were associated with greater risk of a number of poorer health outcomes and health behaviours amongst children including behavioural difficulties, poor general health, and lower physical activity and poorer diet. In general, higher family adversity was associated with higher prevalence of poor child health and health behaviours. Higher adversity was also related to lower parenting skills. Differences in parenting accounted for some, but not all, of the health inequalities linked to family adversity.

Parents most in need are those who are least likely to use services.

Understanding patterns of contact and engagement with more 'formal' services for parents is useful for practitioners in planning and delivering such services. This report presents a detailed exploration of parents' use and contact with services during the early years period alongside the support they receive from informal sources.

41% of parents were deemed 'low service users' when their child was aged 10 months, rising slightly to 43% when the child was aged 4. Low service use was associated with disadvantage. Although related, low service use when the child was aged 10 months was not a strong predictor of later low service use, suggesting patterns of service use change over time. However, 18% of families reported low service use at both time points. Parents in this group were more likely to have lower educational qualifications and to have a lower socioeconomic classification.

Just over a quarter of respondents reported reluctance towards formal service use. Reluctance was associated with social disadvantage, lower confidence as a parent and lower actual service use. It is unclear whether lower service use results from reluctance or whether reluctance stems from prior poor experience of services.

Parents who made less use of formal services did not necessarily compensate by drawing more heavily on informal support. Indeed, there was little difference in levels of informal support between those with different levels of service use. Of particular concern, however, are those families who are unsupported, both formally and informally. 14% of respondents fell into this group at 10 months. The proportion at age four was similar at 13%. Only 3% of parents reported overall low support in both years.