There are a number of key European policy agendas related to health on which the DIAL research can shed light. This policy brief gives an overview of findings from DIAL projects in this area. Key Findings The education and working lives of adolescents and young people continue to be negatively and disproportionately affected by unemployment … Read more
DIAL Policy Brief No. 4 ‘Life-course insights on unemployment: What can policymakers learn from Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course (DIAL) research?’
DIAL Policy Brief No. 3 ‘Towards a healthier Europe: What can policymakers learn from Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course (DIAL) research?’
There are a number of key European policy agendas related to health on which the DIAL research can shed light. This policy brief gives an overview of findings from DIAL projects in this area. Key Findings Deep health inequalities which existed before Covid-19 have been rendered more severe by the crisis. Men suffer more than … Read more
DIAL Policy Brief No. 2 ‘Towards a socially mobile Europe: What can policymakers learn from Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course (DIAL) research?’
There are a number of key European policy agendas related to social mobility on which the DIAL research can shed light. This policy brief gives an overview of findings from DIAL projects in this area. Key findings: Educational opportunity is the most powerful tool in improving the life chances of those born into disadvantaged families. … Read more
Socioeconomic Background and Gene–Environment Interplay in Social Stratification across the Early Life Course
This study finds that genetic inheritance has more influence than the shared social environment alone in perpetuating social inequalities. However, the importance of genes varies according family environment: genetic influences are stronger among those growing up in the most advantaged families. The researchers studied 6,500 pairs of twins born in Finland between 1975 and 1986. They used … Read more
The effect of unemployment on couples separating in Germany and the UK
This research looks at how unemployment affects the risk of separation for heterosexual couples living together in Germany and the UK. The findings show that the annual separation rate almost doubles after an unemployment spell, increasing from 0.9% to 1.6% per year. The picture was the same whether it was the man or the woman … Read more
Parenting Behaviours and Early Child Development in Europe
Social inequality related to children’s development starts early in life. Parenting behaviour as an explanatory factor has important effects on very young children’s verbal and behavior social skills, and on later school achievements.
Formation of Children’s Cognitive and Socio- Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?
This paper asks how time spent with one or both parents can affect children’s social, emotional and verbal skills. It finds the effect of doing educational activities with the father is smaller than that of time spent with the mother or with both parents together for children’s verbal and socio-emotional skills. The research uses data … Read more
The association between mother’s education level and early child language skills; findings from three European cohort studies
The development of language skills during the early years of a child’s life are vital for school readiness, educational attainment, and later life outcomes. The socio-economic background of parents, as measured by occupation, income, and level of education, have been found to significantly affect child language skills and the differences we see between children.
The Pros and Cons of Combining Birth Cohort Data
This short SEED working paper is designed to highlight the value of and the pitfalls in combining and comparing data across large scale representative population cohorts. It was carried out as part of the Norface DIAL initiative by the SEED project (Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, … Read more
Father’s occupation, children’s vocabulary, and whether changing occupation creates social mobility in the UK
In the UK the issue of social mobility, the link between a person’s life outcomes and that of their parents, has been of concern since the 1970s. Despite many interventions and policy initiatives this link has become “entrenched” with those who are born into low-income families taking on average 5 generations to reach the mean … Read more