Table 1.
Childhood Social Risk Factors in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.
| Individual indicator used | Description | Age collected | Categories used | Missing data on indicator, %a | Prevalence,% | Prevalence in those with age 60–64 years outcomes, % | Prevalence in those missing age 60–64 years outcomes, % | p valueb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conceptualized as socioeconomic risk factors | ||||||||
| Low maternal education | Highest education attained | 4 years | Low maternal education (only primary school education, typically up to and including age 10 vs. education beyond primary school) | 19.0 | 63.6 | 58.6 | 67.8 | <.001 |
| Low father social class | Father’s occupation (U.K. Registrar General’s Classification) | 4 years (or 7 or 11 years if missing) | Low social class (semiskilled and unskilled manual) vs. high social class (professional, intermediate, skilled nonmanual and skilled manual) | 12.8 | 27.7 | 25.3 | 29.9 | <.01 |
| Private landlord owned house | Housing tenure | 2 years (or 11 or 15 years if missing) | Private landlord owned home vs. Nonprivate landlord owned home (council, charitable trust and home owner) | 12.4 | 54.0 | 51.3 | 56.4 | <.01 |
| Poor household amenities | Running hot water, sole use of a kitchen, and sole use of a bathroom | 2 years (or 11 or 15 years if missing) | Lacks 3 amenities vs. 0–2 amenities | 6.3 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.7 | >.1 |
| Overcrowding | Number of people living in rooms | 2 years (or 4, 6, 8, 11, or 15 years if missing) | Overcrowded (≥2 people per room) vs. not crowded (<2 persons per room) | 0.2 | 12.6 | 10.1 | 14.3 | <0.001 |
| Poorly repaired house | Health visitor’s assessment of state of repairs of house compared to other houses visited | 4 years (or 6 or 11 years if missing) | Bad vs. average to very good | 11.1 | 8.1 | 6.4 | 9.4 | <.001 |
| Unclean child | Health visitor’s assessment of cleanliness of survey member in comparison with other children visited | 4 years (or 6, 9 or 11 years if missing) | Least clean vs. average to most clean | 11.3 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 2.9 | <.01 |
| Poorly cleaned house | Health visitor’s comparison with other houses visited | 4 years (or 6, 9, or 11 years if missing) | Least clean vs. average to most clean | 11.5 | 3.8 | 2.7 | 4.7 | <.001 |
| Poor state of child’s clothes and shoes | Health visitor’s comparison with other children under their care | 4 years (or 6, 9, or 11 years if missing) | Unsatisfactory vs. satisfactory | 11.3 | 3.1 | 1.8 | 4.2 | <.001 |
| Conceptualized as psychosocial risk factors | ||||||||
| Maltreatment | Participants asked, “As a child do you feel you were mistreated by your parents in any way?” | 43 years | Yes vs. no | 43.3 | 6.4 | 5.4 | 7.8 | <.01 |
| Low parental concern for their child’s education | Information on visiting teachers and headmasters for conferences, attending parent teacher association meetings derived from interviews with mothers and from information from school records | Through primary and secondary school | Little interest vs. average to very interested | 28.9 | 15.8 | 12.0 | 19.4 | <.001 |
| Parental Psychiatric history | Mother’s asked if they or their partner had a psychiatric illness during the first 15 years of their child’s life | 0–15 years | Present vs. not present Divorced vs. not | 0 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.1 | >.1 |
| Parental divorce | Experience of parental divorce | 0–16 years | divorced | 0 | 6.1 | 6.0 | 5.7 | >.1 |
| Mother affectionless control | Based on the PBI26. The PBI measured participants (at age 43 y) retrospective perceptions of their parents’ style of affection and attachment to them before the age of 16 y. To define affectionless control26 the following cut-points were used: mothers care score of <27.0 and overprotection score of >13.5; and for fathers care score of <24.0 and overprotection score of >12.5. | 43 years | Affectionless control vs. not affectionless control parenting | 45.1 | 30.5 | 30.1 | 30.7 | >.1 |
| Father affectionless control | See above | See above | See above | 45.7 | 30.5 | 29.8 | 31.1 | >.1 |
| Parent death | Experience of parental death | 0–16 years | Death of any parent vs. both parents still alive at 16 years | 1.6 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 4.9 | <.05 |
| Maternal separation | Longest time separated from mother | 0–6 years | Separation vs. no separation | 17.0 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 6.6 | <.05 |
Note. MRC = Medical Research Council; PBI = Parental Bonding Instrument.
a
Across childhood (0–16 years).
b
Based on chi-square test for difference between sample with a valid outcome and sample with missing outcome at age 60–64 years.