We study the impacts of a prenatal and infancy home visiting program targeting disadvantaged families on mental health outcomes, assessed through diagnostic interviews.The program significantly reduced the prevalence of mental health conditions for both mothers and children, measured at primary-school age, and broke the intergenerational association of these conditions.The impacts are predominantly associated with a particular delivery model, wherein a single home visitor interacts with the family, as opposed to a model involving two home visitors.
Gabriella Conti and Rita Ginja⇑ Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at the University College London and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London. Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Department of Economics at the University of Bergen. Corresponding author: Rita Ginja (email: rita.ginja{at}uib.no).
Key workers played a pivotal role during the national lockdown in the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although protective measures have been taken, the impact of the pandemic on key workers is yet to be fully elucidated. Participants were from four longitudinal age-homogeneous British cohorts (born in 2001, 1990, 1970 and 1958). A web-based survey provided outcome data during the first UK national lockdown (May 2020) on COVID-19 infection status, changes in financial situation, trust in government, conflict with people around, household composition, psychological distress, alcohol consumption, smoking and sleep duration. Generalised linear models with logit link assessed the association between being a key worker and the above outcomes. Adjustment was made for cohort design, non-response, sex, ethnicity, adult socioeconomic position (SEP), childhood SEP, the presence of a chronic illness and receipt of a shielding letter. Meta-analyses were performed across the cohorts. 13 736 participants were included. During lockdown, being a key worker was associated with increased chances of being infected with COVID-19 (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.68) and experiencing conflict with people around (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.37). However, key workers were less likely to be worse off financially (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.65), to consume more alcohol (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.98) or to smoke more (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.80) during lockdown. Interestingly, being a key worker was not associated with psychological distress (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.05). Being a key worker during the first UK COVID-19 lockdown was a double-edged sword, with both benefits and downsides. The UK government had the basic duty to protect its key workers from SARS-CoV-2 infection, but it may have failed to do so, and there is an urgent need to rectify this in light of the ongoing third wave.
When deciding how to allocate their time between different types of investment in their children, parents weigh up the perceived benefits and costs of different activities.During the COVID-19 outbreak parents had to consider a new cost dimension when making this decision: the perceived risks associated with contracting the virus.What role did beliefs about risks and returns play for the allocation of time investment in children during the pandemic?We answer this question by collecting rich data on a sample of first-time parents in England during the first lockdown, including elicitation of perceived risks and returns to different activities via hypothetical scenarios.We find that parents perceive their own time investment to be more productive and less risky than the time spent by their children in formal childcare or with peers.Using detailed time use data on children's daily activities, we show that heterogeneity in beliefs contributes to explain heterogeneity in investment choices across parents.We also document that less educated parents perceive both lower developmental returns and lower health risks from investments, while we find limited evidence of heterogeneity in preferences by socioeconomic status.This indicates that beliefs -rather than preferences -heterogeneity could contribute to inequalities in early years development, and suggests the need for timely and targeted provision of information on the actual returns and risks to different investments.
Polychaete distribution, diversity and seasonality were studied in relation to covering of the small phanerogams Cymodocea nodosa and Zostera noltii in shallow soft-bottoms off the island of Ischia (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy).Samples were collected bimonthly from July 1988 to May 1989 from four stations, selected for seagrass meadows of different physiognomy and shoot density, and in a bare sandy bottom nearby, selected as a non-vegetated reference habitat.Two meadow compartments were considered: the leaf stratum and the sediment.A hand-towed net was used to sample vagile organisms living in the leaf stratum, while PVC corers were utilized for the sediment fauna.Stratification within the sediment was studied considering three layers (0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and > 10 cm deep).On the whole a total of 4640 individuals of polychaetes, belonging to 119 species, were collected; 4061 individuals and 115 taxa were found in the core-samples, and 579 individuals and 35 taxa in the net-samples.Polychaete diversity and abundance was higher in both meadow compartments and in all seasons in the station located in the meadow where more sheltered conditions occurred, high silt-clay and organic matter content in the sediment were observed.In addition, this is where higher shoot density, plant Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Leaf Standing Crop (LSC) were recorded.Whereas, lower diversity and higher patchiness (differences among core replicates) were always recorded in the less vegetated stations, and on the bare sandy bottom.The polychaete populations of the sediment layers showed their lowest diversity and abundances in summer.Whereas, the populations associated with the leaf stratum showed an opposite trend with higher development (number of species and individuals) in summer (July-September), consistent with the higher values of all the plant phenological parameters recorded (shoot density, LAI and LSC).In all stations and seasons, the polychaetes were concentrated (84% of the whole abundance) in the upper sediment layer (0-5 cm) and decreased strongly in the deeper sediment layers.Faunistic differences were recorded mainly between the leaf stratum and the sediment populations.The interstitial Syllidae Exogone naidina, Parapionosyllis elegans, Sphaerosyllis thomasi, dominated in the leaf stratum; while endofaunal forms, such as Neanthes caudata, Peresiella clymenoides, Heteromastus filiformis, Notomastus latericeus and Euclymene collaris, dominated at the sediment level.The differences in polychaete community structure observed between the sites studied can be explained by the coupling of abiotic conditions (in particular the reduced hydrodynamics and sediment features) and meadow structure and habitat complexity characterized by plant phenological features (e.g., shoot density, LAI, LSC).The seasonal and microdistributional (sediment and leaf stratum) patterns within each of the meadow stations are influenced by ecology and life history of single species, and probably by the higher predation pressure occurring in some seasons.These results suggest that at least for small-sized and less mobile organisms, like polychaetes generally, meadow structure, shoot density and other phenological plant features influence species composition and abundances both at large (between-meadows) and smaller (within-meadow) spatial scale.
There are a variety of constraints that parents face which lead to suboptimal investments in their children. In this chapter, we focus on three key constraints linked to scarcity of financial resources, productive inputs, and information. While cash transfers can help relax financial constraints, their effects on child development are limited by parental beliefs. Hence, governments have opted to provide direct 'high-quality' inputs through centre-based care. While studies show that there are sizeable life-cycle benefits for individuals exposed to these interventions, ensuring the quality of these interventions is expensive, especially as parents find it hard to infer process quality. Alternatively, home-visiting programmes providing information to parents on early childhood development also show promising long-lasting effects. But a limitation to delivering these at scale is the cost associated with using high-skilled staff. With the recent digital revolution, interventions employing low-cost behavioural nudges have shown positive effects, holding promise for the future.
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