Kelly Ward

University College London | UCL · Institute of Education

This chapter considers diversity arising from the parent's varied employment hours and care combinations, which is called family economies for both couples and lone parents. It also deals with diversity linked to ethnicity and diversity linked to partnership status as these are important policy issues. It examines the detailed employment trajectori...

This article examines the wage growth of British men and women between the ages of 33 and 42 who were employed full time at both of these ages using the 1958 National Child and Development Study. Wage growth is examined in the differences of the log of hourly wage rates reported at the 33 and 42 year old interviews of this cohort study. Men were fo...

This paper describes a number of alternative approaches to devising a vertical occupational scale and compares the outcomes of different scales on calculations of occupational mobility. The paper describes the conceptual issues relevant to calculating occupational mobility and documents the measurement error embedded in the choice of measure, as ap...

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) provides data from mothers and fathers about their involvement with their new baby and in family life, uniquely, for a very large sample of UK fathers. This chapter first examines the effect of the baby. It looks on an under-researched group — fathers — as they appear in the existing literature, followed by a repor...

Fathers' contributions to childcare have increased, but are still far outweighed by mothers' contributions. Increased paid work among mothers has also necessitated increased childcare outside the immediate family. This chapter focuses on paid work and childcare while mothers are employed, as elements of family life, at the dawn of the 21st century....

This chapter reviews the circumstances of birth for babies born at the start of the 21st century. It outlines the initial conditions of life for this new generation. This chapter considers the family into which a new baby is born — in particular it looks at parents and their relationships, siblings and the wider kin. Then, it examines the ethnic id...

Probably one of the single most important elements of a child's origins that affect their development and subsequent life chances is the family's economic circumstances. This chapter reviews the socioeconomic human capital of parents of Millennium Cohort babies and considers families' financial resources. It examines the extent of families living i...

When babies are born, they enter the world with a certain endowment. Some characteristics are inherited; others come from the particular environment into which the child arrives. There are relationships with the immediate family, parents and others living in the home, finances and housing, the wider kin network, the neighbourhood, the local and nat...

Since 1980, there have been very large increases in labour force participation among mothers with pre-school children, doubling over 20 years. In 1980, 27% of mothers with a child under 5 were employed (Martin and Roberts, 1984, Table 2.6, p 13), compared with 54% in 2001 (Labour Market Trends, 2003, p 505). Many mothers work part time when childre...

Probably one of the single most important elements of a child's origins that affect their development and subsequent life chances is the family's economic circumstances. Clearly, these circumstances rest on a number of interlocking characteristics: their economic activity status; the socioeconomic classification of any employment; their qualificati...

Learning to be responsible and involved with one's child is a new experience for parents of a first child. We can explore something of what this is like for the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) parents, both mothers and fathers, as well as the impact of a new baby on families who already have children. The data provide some direct evidence from mother...