Basic Skills and Social Exclusion - Centre for Longitudinal Studies

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Basic Skills and Social ExclusionBackground to the researchOCIAI. ('X(111510fl IS (ha1l!1s(d a l°L UI JSU1 i(i lSUi U tI III III(' [ILIiH 1)Ina!Ic;Sol modern living: education, employment, community mity life and citizenship. Ofrelatively recent origin, the term represents a turning point in the way people areerceive(l who experience difficulties negotiating their way through the manyspect.s of' modern society (Atkinson and Hills, 1998). Social exclusion is nowviewed as a product rather than a cause of an inability to function effectively. Oneisadvantige reinforces another producing a downward spiral of disadvantage tI lie periphery of a modern state. Fortunately, such exclusion po )cesses are not setii i stone. Against. prediction, many uiclividuals overcome adverse circumstances toh :1(1 successful socially integrated lives. We need to discover how the processes1 exclusion call reversed for individuals within disadvantaged groups - howredicte I failure becomes success and exclusion translorms into inclusion. TH."v:ives sustenance to policy initiatives designed to combat social exc]usi( IL IiMiwli the Government's Social Exclusion Unit has been at the forefront.\i ii a' core of the social exclusion process lies poor educational achie iiiwithin which the basic skills of literacy and niuneracy are the foundation. F'ailummeacquire the basic skills places individuals at a (Iisti]a'l disadvantage intiiiparison with their peers. Using data from the 1958 National Chih II Ievelopnient Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort, Study (BCS'ii I)previous research for the Basic Skills Agency (USA) examined 1)0th Illemimlecedents (Bynner and Steedman, 1995; Parsons and Byimner, 1998) and)nseql ieices (Ekinsmyth and Bymuer, 1994; Bymuier and Parsons, 1997) of poorI asic skills in adult life. A strong relationship between poor skills and factorsidentified with early risk in cluldhood has been consistently found. Poverty anddisadvantage in childhood is associated with poor acquisition of early cognitivekills. Poor cognitive skills in childhood are strongly related to l mr I II 1;skills and with poverty, disadvantage and mmiarginalisalion in adult Iii''.To reduce the risk of adult social exclusion we need to be able to idt IL I\ j,(mat appear to 'fuel' or 'inhibit' it. The former include such relatively fixedI The National Child Development Study (NCDS) lia.s collected data on over 17,M) people burt I'igle week in 1958, and subsequently at ages 7, II, 16,23.33,37(10% sample) and 42. The 1970 lli'iri1I , hurt Study (BCS70), similarly began with a sample of over 17,001) people born in a single week in 1970,havo nit fi!Iiiwvil tip ill imtisi'iiiiriI irv ii :ig('t 5. ii). 16, I I 10 ':ini;iIt), h tiii'ii ninth
li tract eristics as family social class, family poverty i t I I k 1 Ili t icnt s Iii at liiil'Iiese identify target populations for interventions directed at reducing SO(laf('x(Iusion. The latter factors include such characteristics as interest of the parentsin their children's education, teacher attitudes, and employer's provision otraining opportunities. In Michael Rotter's terms these are identified as 'protectivefactors' (Rutter, 1990). Sin ,iigillellilig them ('mII(l cniitrihiile 1() revelsi!Ig 11I('cess of social exclusioti.['lie previous research for the I3*\ centred on the 10% samples of the two col it, iiwho took part in literacy and numeracy assessments at age 37 (NCDS) and at age21 (BCS70). To explore the circular relationship between poor basic skills andsocial exclusion a step further, this study draws on performance data from thereading test sat by all BCS70 cohort members at age 10. The increased saniplesize (n= 12,000) provides the chance to examine the information provided I(abort, members at age 16 and 30 in nauhi ito re liiailOur focus is on reading because of its eiiii;tliiy at tJinaittill atLutilitlil, aswill lessed by such government initiatives as the National Literacy Strategy, Skillsfor Life and Family Literacy. After identifying 'poor' readers, we draw togethersome of the 'risk' and 'protective' factors associated with poor reading that canalso lead to and arise from social exclusion. 'Risk' factors were identified asbackground characteristics that cannot easily be changed (e.g. family social class,overcrowded housing). In contrast, 'protective' factors can be influenced bychanges in policy and the resulting action taken by youth workers, teachers andemployers, etc (e.g. to enhance parental interest in their child's education.teacher attitudes). We investigate whether 'poor' readers at a high level of risk atage 10 continue to experience more palpable and concrete aspects of socialx(lusion at age 16 in comparison with their peers. With these experiences inmind we move on In contrast social exclusion outcomes fourteen years later atage 30.See Ekioiiti liii lt\ItItI. I Sill iii Ii\]i .1 I,r.iLi.. I I Iii liii k]iiil. Iit s-bided in the functional literac y and numeracy assessments.At age 16, information was collected oilaround 1 l,00() teenagers by a variety of survey instruirassessments, medical examination, interview schedules, self-completion diaries and self-conpli Iquestionnaires by teachers, parents and for the first tllue in this study, the cohort members themselvesMore than 11,000cohui it titret k k 1: -I ill Its tihsI rid fitiiii tititi ill (H)II 'iii. dryIlpctedinfnrmatuii j].!. ] '. i tiirSIHt i.i ............ Hi:-i
Page 2 and 3: Basic Skills andSocial ExclusionFin
Page 4 and 5: Forewordknow from many earlier stud
Page 6 and 7: SummaryOCL\I. exclusion is characte
Page 8: I of high risk poor readers had par
Page 13 and 14: divided into two groups on the basi
Page 15 and 16: sessment of overall academic abilit
Page 17 and 18: -Ieenqcers who liked schoo-Ja212912
Page 19 and 20: least likely to see themselves work
Page 21 and 22: Social exclusion outcomes at 30EENA
Page 23 and 24: a non-manual c:IU[1441 671Partnersh
Page 25 and 26: -\'11jt1111s of depression wen , ii
Page 27 and 28: I tome-school relations need to l(
Page 29 and 30: ReferencesAtkinson, A.B. (1998) Soc
Page 31 and 32: Parents' assessments of their son o
Page 33 and 34: Teenagers' transition from school t
Page 35 and 36: Teenagers' relationship with parent
Page 37 and 38: Employment outcomes at 30 by readin
Page 39 and 40: Partner, parent and housing outcome
Page 41 and 42: Health status and well-being outcom
Page 44: ic Ski'

Basic Skills and Social Exclusion - Centre for Longitudinal Studies

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