Baseline characteristics of the cohort participants in the UK Millennium Cohort Study in wave 6 (age 14)
| Characteristics | Predicted poverty trajectories | ||||
| Never in poverty* (n=6652) | Poverty in early childhood (n=1424) | Poverty in late childhood (n=530) | Persistent poverty (n=2046) | P value | |
| Child’s sex | 0.04 | ||||
| Boy | 3276 (50.4%) | 642 (47.0%) | 273 (53.6%) | 952 (49.5%) | |
| Girl | 3221 (49.6%) | 723 (53.0%) | 236 (46.4%) | 971 (50.5%) | |
| Maternal education | <0.001 | ||||
| Higher degree | 397 (6.1%) | 20 (1.5%) | 1 (0.2%) | 0 (0%) | |
| First degree | 1518 (23.4%) | 68 (5.0%) | 8 (1.6%) | 18 (0.9%) | |
| Diploma | 849 (13.1%) | 76 (5.6%) | 30 (5.9%) | 27 (1.4%) | |
| A-levels | 814 (12.5%) | 132 (9.7%) | 33 (6.5%) | 56 (2.9%) | |
| GCSE A–C | 2119 (32.6%) | 551 (40.4%) | 190 (37.4%) | 523 (27.4%) | |
| GCSE D–G | 414 (6.4%) | 224 (16.4%) | 84 (16.5%) | 289 (15.1%) | |
| None | 382 (5.9%) | 293 (21.5%) | 162 (31.9%) | 996 (52.2%) | |
| Maternal ethnicity | <0.001 | ||||
| White | 6017 (92.8%) | 1146 (84.1%) | 387 (76.2%) | 1152 (60.1%) | |
| Mixed | 34 (0.5%) | 18 (1.3%) | 8 (1.6%) | 32 (1.7%) | |
| Indian | 158 (2.4%) | 55 (4.0%) | 7 (1.4%) | 43 (2.2%) | |
| Pakistani and Bangladeshi | 60 (0.9%) | 48 (3.5%) | 67 (13.2%) | 541 (28.2%) | |
| Black or Black British | 120 (1.9%) | 61 (4.5%) | 28 (5.5%) | 117 (6.1%) | |
| Other ethnic groups | 95 (1.5%) | 35 (2.6%) | 11 (2.2%) | 33 (1.7%) | |
| Outcomes | |||||
| Socioemotional behavioural problems | <0.001 | ||||
| SDQ score<17 | 6102 (94.1%) | 1220 (87.9%) | 416 (80.6%) | 1589 (81.8%) | |
| SDQ score≥17 | 381 (5.9%) | 168 (12.1%) | 100 (19.4%) | 353 (18.2%) | |
| Obesity | <0.001 | ||||
| Not obese | 5997 (94.7%) | 1200 (90.2%) | 432 (89.1%) | 1652 (88.3%) | |
| Obese | 335 (5.3%) | 130 (9.8%) | 53 (10.9%) | 219 (11.7%) | |
| Longstanding illness | <0.001 | ||||
| No | 5684 (87.4%) | 1162 (84.9%) | 405 (79.1%) | 1644 (84.0%) | |
| Yes | 821 (12.6%) | 207 (15.1%) | 107 (20.9%) | 312 (16.0%) | |
*‘Never in poverty’ is a description of the overall class and that some of these children might have been in poverty at some waves, but with very low probability (see online supplementary figure 2).
SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.