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From Childhood Deprivation to Adult Social Exclusion: Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study

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Abstract

This paper analyses the common trajectories leading to adult social exclusion that children from disadvantaged backgrounds experience during their life courses. Moreover, it provides an assessment of whether education is effective in breaking the vicious circle of disadvantages both across and within generations. Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, this empirical analysis is based on structural equation modelling techniques and proceeds in three steps. The measurement model is first tested to validate three groups of theoretical constructs (childhood disadvantages, adolescent deprivations and a multi-dimensional measure of social exclusion) and their indicators. Next, a path analysis is conducted for describing the trajectories linking childhood disadvantages to social exclusion. In the third step, the multi-faceted role of education is established by measuring the extent to which deprivations in the educational domain directly or indirectly affect all the relevant social exclusion dimensions.

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Notes

  1. There exist, to our knowledge, two previous studies (Robila 2006; Bäckman and Nilsson 2011) which conceptualise social exclusion as a latent variable. These studies use a structural equation model for analysing either the relationships between economic pressure, living in poor communities and social exclusion (Robila), or the pathways linking early deprivations to social exclusion (Bäckman and Nilsson). However, both works fail to recognise the multidimensional nature of social exclusion, which is measured only by means of social relations (Robila) or the labour market position and poverty (Bäckman and Nilsson).

  2. The final sample also includes cohort members whose responses are incomplete. It is, for example, possible for data to be missing for one part of the schedule especially as, during the years of childhood, data were obtained from different sources (parents, teachers and medical personnel).

  3. The total indirect effects refer to the sum of all indirect effects of a causally prior variable on a subsequent one while the total effects indicate the sum of all direct and indirect effects of one variable on another.

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Acknowledgments

This paper has benefited from the valuable comments of Björn Halleröd, Maria Laura Di Tommaso and numerous seminar participants at the 2013 OECD-Universities Joint Conference: ‘Economics for a Better World’ in Paris. The author is grateful to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, for the use of these data and to the UK Data Archive and Economic and Social Data Service for making them available. However, they bear no responsibility for the analysis or interpretation of these data. Funding for this project has been provided by the European Commission within the framework of the FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Education as Welfare—Enhancing opportunities for socially vulnerable youth in Europe” programme (http://www.eduwel-eu.org).

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  1. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Strada Nuova 65, Pavia, 27100, Italy

    Agnese Peruzzi

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  1. Agnese Peruzzi
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Peruzzi, A. From Childhood Deprivation to Adult Social Exclusion: Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study. Soc Indic Res 120, 117–135 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0581-2

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