The Social Life of Britain’s Five-Year-Olds: A Report of the Child Health and Education Study (Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1984, The Social Life of Britain’s Five-Year-Olds follows the first five years of life of 13,135 children in England, Scotland, and Wales, who were born during the week 5-11 April 1970.It is concerned with the structure within which the children’s lives are organised, and with the extent and nature of social inequality.The researchers cover three broad areas of crucial importance to five-year-olds: the family, pre-school education and day care, and the employment of mothers.Their findings demonstrate how social disadvantage is cumulative, so that families who are disadvantaged in one respect are likely to be disadvantaged in other ways also. As the book pursues the question of what gives one child a better life-chance than another, it becomes relevant to a broad range of educational and social concerns.It examines the effects of environmental factors, regional differences, the inequalities between the sexes and between majority and minority groups, and of the many di