Positive adjustment within the family context

Lead researcher - Ingrid Schoon, City University
Co-Investigators: Amanda Sacker, UCL; Peter Martin, Andy Ross and Steven Hope (all City University)

This project builds on previous ESRC funded research investigating the influence of early and persistent socio-economic adversity on individual adjustment. There has been continuous and increasing interest in the study of resilient children and adolescents, yet very few studies have looked at resilience among adults, who have to face a constant struggle in combining work and family life, and who may be confronted with the combination of linked problems such as unemployment, low incomes, poor housing, bad health and family breakdown. Most of our current knowledge of the roots of resilience and of the factors and mechanisms that protect individuals against the risks associated with adversity come from short-term studies in middle childhood and adolescence, and few investigations have followed individuals from birth to adulthood beyond the second decade. Still fewer studies have investigated individuals growing up and coming of age in various socio-historical contexts. Our research focus will include the analysis of selected sub samples, such as cohort members living with or without a partner, and cohort members in small (one child), average (two children), or large families (three or more children). The proposed study will take into consideration the multifaceted nature of resilience, and will examine adjustment patterns, which may vary according to class, sex, ethnicity, and the different contexts (including the socio-historical, as well as the family context) in which they operate.

The project will use data collected for the 1958 National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study, and the 2000 Millennium Cohort. In collaboration with Amanda Sacker (Senior Research Fellow at the University College Medical School) a two-phase strategy will be pursued. The first objective is to examine adjustment during adulthood using all three cohort studies, contrasting experiences of adults in NCDS, BCS70 and MCS. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between parental adjustment and adjustment patterns of children born in the Millennium during their first year of life.

This page last modified 30 November, 2007 by Administrator