Table 1. Descriptive statistics of all variables included in the analysis, imputed data (n = 8952).
| All participants N= 8952a |
Attended university N = 2037 |
Did not attend university N = 1129 |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous variables | Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | |
| Age of mother at birth | 28.3 (4.7) | 29.8 (4.3) | 28.2 (4.7) | |
| Maternal depressive symptoms: number of times mother scored 13+ on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)b | 0.63 (1.1) | 0.52 (1.0) | 0.67 (1.1) | |
| Young person's educational achievement at age 14c | 107.0 (24.3) |
122.1 (17.7) |
102.6 (21.3) |
|
| Young person's educational achievement at age 16d | 326.7 (90.2) |
393.2 (49.6) |
308.5 (76.5) |
|
| Young person's depressive symptoms at 16: 12-item Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) | 5.8 (5.6) | 5.8 (5.3) | 6.5 (6.3) | |
| Young person's locus of control at 16: 12-item Children's Nowicki- Strickland Internal-External scale (CNSIE) | 3.5 (2.2) | 2.8 (1.9) | 3.9 (2.2) | |
| Distance to university from family home (km) | 121.9 (108.4) |
|||
| Categorical variables | % | % | % | |
| Maternal depressive symptoms: number of times mother scored 13+ on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)e |
0 | 64.8 | 68.9 | 63.5 |
| 1 | 19.6 | 18.6 | 19.1 | |
| 2 or more | 15.7 | 12.5 | 17.4 | |
| Young person studied at higher education |
No | 50.1 | ||
| Yes | 49.9 | |||
| Young person's sex | Male | 50.2 | 34.3 | 34.1 |
| Female | 49.8 | 65.7 | 65.9 | |
| Maternal occupational social class |
Professional | 4.5 | 8.4 | 2.0 |
| Managerial | 29.2 | 40.1 | 26.6 | |
| Skilled non- manual |
45.2 | 40.0 | 49.3 | |
| Skilled manual | 8.3 | 4.6 | 9.1 | |
| Semi-skilled | 10.3 | 5.9 | 10.8 | |
| Unskilled | 2.5 | 0.9 | 2.2 | |
| Maternal highest qualification |
Degree | 11.7 | 23.8 | 5.0 |
| Vocational | 9.9 | 5.5 | 12.8 | |
| A level | 23.0 | 32.1 | 20.5 | |
| CSE/GCSE | 51.1 | 36.6 | 56.8 | |
| None | 4.4 | 2.1 | 5.0 | |
| Mother in work or voluntary work when young person is 11 |
Yes | 76.9 | 84.9 | 76.4 |
| No | 33.1 | 15.1 | 23.6 | |
| Reason chose university: distance to family home | Not importantf | 43.3 | ||
| Importantg | 56.7 | |||
| Reason chose university: to stay close to family/children at school | Not importantf | 87.6 | ||
| Importantg | 12.4 | |||
| Reason didn’t go to university: didn’t want to be a financial burden | Not importantf | 66.1 | ||
| Importantg | 33.9 | |||
| Reason didn’t go to university: had other priorities (e.g., family/ children) |
Not importantf | 84.8 | ||
| Importantg | 15.2 | |||
In analyses of higher education participation (N = 8952) the outcome was imputed for some participants. For analyses specific to university attendees (N = 2037) and non-attendees (N = 1139), we restricted based on higher education participation as reported in the age 26 questionnaire.
Main exposure in analyses. Possible range: 0–5. Mothers completed the EPDS when the young person was: 1, 5, 8, 11 and 18 years old.
Summary score based on results in English, Maths and Science, range 1–141.
Summary score based on the pupil's best 8 subjects, range 0–540.
Included for descriptive purposes only: analyses used a continuous measure of number of times the mother scored 13+.
Collapsed from: extremely unimportant, unimportant, neither important nor unimportant.
Collapsed from: extremely important, important.