Growing up in Scotland: change in early childhood and the impact of significant events

APPENDIX A: MEASURES OF CHILD OUTCOMES

Measures of 'drivers' of child outcomes

GUS contains information on a range of factors that other research has identified as drivers of child outcomes (Barnes et al., 2010; Barnes et al., 2008; Marryat and Martin, 2010; Jones, 2010). The four 'drivers' that we examine in this research are "home chaos", poverty, maternal mental health, and parent-child relationship - each of which has well-established relationships to child outcomes. Below we explain how each of these measures is constructed and provide some descriptive statistics of these measures in our sample.

i) Home chaos

GUS includes a subset of four questions from the 15-item Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale ( CHAOS), an instrument specifically designed to be administered to parents for assessing turmoil in the child's home (Matheny et al., 1995). CHAOS is used to assess a child's home life and the GUS items ask parents how strongly they agree/disagree with questions about disorganisation, noise, having a calm atmosphere, and having a regular routine at home.

US research has shown household chaos to be associated with behaviour problems, inattention and cognitive development problems in children (Deater-Deckard et al., 2009; Dumas et al, 2006).

Table A.1 shows the (weighted) score for those families that took part in all five years of the survey.

Table A.1 Sweep 5 - Home Chaos Score (high score corresponds to high chaos)

	Score
Mean	8.9
Median	9
Std. Deviation	2.3
Minimum	4
Maximum	19
Unweighted base	3620

Base: All families taking part in all five sweeps.

CHAOS items in the GUS questionnaire The four items are administered in the GUS interview using a show card with the possible answer categories: 1 Strongly agree 2 Agree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Disagree 5 Strongly disagree And the respondent is asked the following: "The next few questions are about what it's generally like in your home. Can you tell me how much you agree or disagree with these statements?" "It's really disorganised in our home" "You can't hear yourself think in our home" "The atmosphere in our home is calm" "First thing in the day, we have a regular routine at home"

ii) Relative income poverty

The most widely used official indicator of income poverty is household income below 60% of the population median income, adjusted for household size and composition. However, the official figures for median income have not been published at the time of writing. We therefore use the bottom 30% of the income distribution (equivalised income); the same proportion of the income distribution focused on by the Scottish Government's anti-poverty strategy (and in fact approximately the percentage of GUS families below the poverty line (Barnes et al., 2010)).

Exact income is not captured in GUS, respondents instead being asked to locate their income in one of 17 bands of household income. Income is therefore estimated using the midpoint amounts of these bands, and then equivalised using the modified- OECD scale. We construct a relative measure of income poverty based on these weighted estimates, for the families that took part in all five sweeps of the survey. For sweep 1 the 30th percentile was £13,437 and for sweep 5 it was £13,749.

Table A.2 shows the (weighted) income for those families that took part in all five years of the survey, at sweeps 1 and 5.

Table A.2 Annual equivalised household income statistics for sweeps 1 and 5

	2005/06	2009/10
Mean	£21,430	£22,946
Median	£19,643	£21,243
Std. Deviation	£12,587	£12,443
Minimum	£1,549	£1,831
Maximum	£68,966	£68,966
Unweighted base	3295	3415

Base: All families taking part in all five sweeps.

Household income item in the GUS questionnaire This card shows different income levels as weekly, monthly and annual amounts. Which of the letters on this card represents the total income of your household from all sources before tax - including benefits, interest from savings and so on? Just tell me the letter beside the row that applies to you. 1 - Q Less than £3,999 pa 2 - T £4,000 - £5,999 pa 3 - O £6,000 - £7,999 pa 4 - K £8,000 - £9,999 pa 5 - L £10,000 - £11,999 pa 6 - B £12,000 - £14,999 pa 7 - Z £15,000 - £17,999 pa 8 - M £18,000 - £19,999 pa 9 - F £20,000 - £22,999 pa 10 - J £23,000 - £25,999 pa 11 - D £26,000 - £28,999 pa 12 - H £29,000 - £31,999 pa 13 - A £32,000 - £37,999 pa 14 - W £38,000 - £43,999 pa 15 - G £44,000 - £49,999 pa 16 - N £50,000 - £55,999 pa 17 - E £56,000 or more pa

iii) Maternal mental health

At sweeps 1 and 5 (ages 10 months and 58 months respectively), parental mental health was measured by the Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short Form ( SF-12) mental health component. The SF-12 is a widely used self-reported generic measure of health status, and is tailored for use in large health surveys of general populations. Higher scores are indicative of better health-related quality of life.

The scale does not have threshold scores that define whether a score suggests the presence of a psychiatric disorder, so we have followed the approach in a previous GUS report (Marryat and Martin, 2010) and defined a relative threshold below which we classify mothers as having 'poor' mental health, as opposed to 'average or good' mental health. The threshold score is one standard deviation below the mean score for our analysed population at each sweep. Table A.3 shows the (weighted) scores for those families that took part in all five years of the survey.

Table A.3 Maternal mental health, MCS-12 scale: statistics for sweeps 1 and 5

	2005/06	2009/10
Range	8.5 - 66.5	5.9 - 68.9
Mean	50.2	50.2
Median	53	53.3
Std. Deviation	9.1	9.6
Unweighted base	3607	3597

Base: All families taking part in all five sweeps.

Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short Form items in the GUS questionnaire 17 In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?: 1 Excellent 2 Very Good 3 Good 4 Fair 5 Poor 6 Can't say How much does your health limit you in moderate activities such as moving a table, pushing a vacuum cleaner, bowling or playing golf. 1 Limited a lot 2 Limited a little 3 Not limited at all 4 Can't say How much does your health limit you in climbing several flights of stairs. 1 Limited a lot 2 Limited a little 3 Not limited at all 4 Can't say During the past four weeks, have you accomplished less than you would like as a result of your physical health? 1 Yes 2 No During the past four weeks, were you limited in the kind of work or other regular activities you do as a result of your physical health? 1 Yes 2 No During the past four weeks, have you accomplished less than you would like as a result of any emotional problems, such as feeling depressed or anxious? 1 Yes 2 No During the past four weeks, did you not do work or other regular activities as carefully as usual as a result of any emotional problems, such as feeling depressed or anxious? 1 Yes 2 No During the past four weeks, how much did physical pain interfere with your normal work, including both work outside the home and housework? 1 Not at all 2 Slightly 3 Moderately 4 Quite a bit 5 Extremely These questions are about how you feel and how things have been with you during the past four weeks. For each question, please give the one answer that comes closest to the way you have been feeling. How much time during the past four weeks have you felt calm and peaceful? 1 All of the time 2 Most of the time 3 A good bit of the time 4 Some of the time 5 A little of the time 6 None of the time How much of the time during the past four weeks did you have a lot of energy? 1 All of the time 2 Most of the time 3 A good bit of the time 4 Some of the time 5 A little of the time 6 None of the time How much of the time during the past four weeks have you felt down? 1 All of the time 2 Most of the time 3 A good bit of the time 4 Some of the time 5 A little of the time 6 None of the time During the past four weeks, how much of the time has your physical health or emotional problems interfered with your social activities like visiting with friends, relatives etc? 1 All of the time 2 Most of the time 3 A good bit of the time 4 Some of the time 5 A little of the time 6 None of the time

iv) Parent-child relationship

The Pianta scale (Pianta, 1992) is used to measure the mother-child relationship at year 5. The scale is constructed using the responses on the extent to which the respondent feels a series of statements apply to her relationship with her child (such as 'I share an affectionate, warm relationship with [my child]').

The full scale has 30 items and looks at three dimensions of the relationship - warmth, conflict and dependency. The 15 items included in the sweep 5 GUS questionnaire are a subset of the full scale that were also used in the Millennium Cohort Study ( MCS2; 2004/05) and which relate to warmth and conflict. We have constructed measures for these two dimensions, with a high score corresponding to a high degree of warmth or conflict. Each of these uses seven items, shown below.

A paper by Hobcraft and Kiernan (2010) using the MCS data grouped the resulting scores into four categories, from least to most warmth or conflict. The distribution of the scores in GUS was similar, so we have followed their example, and we also combine the 'worst' two categories ( i.e. the bottom two for warmth and top two for conflict) to create a 'poor' relationship threshold. Table A.4 and Table A.5 show the (weighted) distribution of the grouped scores for those families that took part in all five years of the survey. A total of 23.1% of families fall into the 'poor relationship' category for warmth; and the figure is 17% for conflict.

Table A.4 Sweep 5 Pianta scale - grouped: percentage of families in each group

Grouped score	Warmth
1 Least warmth	6.4
2	16.7
3	31.0
4 Most warmth	45.9
Unweighted base	3514

Base: All birth cohort families taking part in all five sweeps.

Note: Column per cent.

Table A.5 Sweep 5 Pianta scale - grouped: percentage of families in each group

Grouped score	Conflict
1 Least conflict	60.5
2	22.6
3	13.8
4 Most conflict	3.2
Unweighted base	3548

Base: All birth cohort families taking part in all five sweeps.

Note: Column per cent.

Pianta scale items in the GUS questionnaire The respondent is asked to choose from six categories about the statements below. The items are grouped into warmth or conflict here, although the two types are interspersed in the actual questionnaire. 1 Definitely does not apply 2 Not really 3 Neutral 4 Applies sometimes 5 Definitely applies 6 Can't say In this section please think about how far each of the statements currently apply to your relationship with [Child's name]. Warmth items I share an affectionate, warm relationship with [Child's name] [Child's name] will seek comfort from me [Child's name] values his/her relationship with me When I praise [Child's name], he/she beams with pride [Child's name] spontaneously shares information about [his/herself] It is easy to be in tune with what [Child's name] is feeling [Child's name] openly shares his/her feelings and experiences with me Conflict items [Child's name] and I always seem to be struggling with each other [Child's name] easily becomes angry at me [Child's name] remains angry or is resistant after being disciplined Dealing with [Child's name] drains my energy When [Child's name] wakes up in a bad mood, I know we're in for a long and difficult day [Child's name]'s feelings towards me can be unpredictable or can change suddenly [Child's name] is sneaky or manipulative with me

Early parent-child relationship is measured at Sweep 1 using a subset of six items from Condon and Corkindale's Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (1998). The items cover the mother's feelings about her child, with ranked responses - such as When I am caring for [child] I get feelings of annoyance or irritation, responses ranging from 'Almost all the time' to 'Never'.

Factor analysis on standardised scores showed that the best way to construct an indicator was to use only four of the six items. Furthermore, it was decided to split the answer categories per question into positive and negative ones. Then a count was made of the number of times, out of the four items, respondents scored in the "positive" bracket. A score of four, that is a positive relation to the child on all four items, was taken as showing good maternal attachment.

Table A.6 shows the (weighted) distribution of the scores for those families that took part in all five years of the survey.

Table A.6 Sweep 1 - Maternal-Infant Attachment Scale (percentage of mothers in each category)

Score	%
0 Poor maternal attachment	0.2
1	0.4
2	1.9
3	11.5
4 Good maternal attachment	86.0
Unweighted base	3492

Base: All families taking part in all five sweeps.

Condon and Corkindale's Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale items in the GUS questionnaire *When I am caring for [child] I get feelings of annoyance or irritation … 1. almost all the time 2. very frequently 3. frequently 4. occasionally 5. very rarely 6. never 7. can't say When I am not with [child] I find myself thinking about him/her … 1. almost all the time 2. very frequently 3. frequently 4. occasionally 5. very rarely 6. never 7. can't say When I have to leave [child] … 1. I always feel rather sad 2. I often feel rather sad 3. I have mixed feelings of sadness and relief 4. I often feel rather relieved 5. I always feel rather relieved 6. can't say *When I am caring for [child], I feel … 1. very incompetent and lacking in confidence 2. fairly incompetent and lacking in confidence 3. fairly competent and confident 4. very competent and confident 5. can't say *Usually when I am with [child] … 1. I am very impatient 2. I am fairly impatient 3. I am fairly patient 4. I am very patient 5. can't say *Thinking about the things that I have had to give up because of [child] … 1. I find that I resent or mind it a lot 2. I find that I resent or mind it a fair amount 3. I find that I resent or mind it a bit 4. I don't resent or mind it at all 5. can't say

Note * indicates item included in the final measure.