Does Money in Adulthood Affect Adult Outcomes?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a new study "Does money in adulthood affect adult outcomes?"

There is ample evidence that adults with lower incomes tend to have worse outcomes including worse health, lower life expectancy and lower subjective wellbeing than individuals with more. But is money in adulthood itself important? Or are these relationships driven by other factors such as higher levels of education, underlying personality traits or the long-term impact of childhood circumstances?

This study reviews the evidence, focusing on research that tested whether the relationship between money and outcomes in adulthood is causal.

Teenage Pregnancies Have Hit a Record Low

Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since 1969 when records began.

The data shows that the under 18 conception rate is now 24.5 per thousand women compared with 27.9 per thousand the year before.

This is a drop of 13% on the previous year. Pregnancies in under-16s also fell.

At the same time the conception rate among women over 35 has been rising.

Suicide in Men at its Highest Since 2001

Office for National Statistics data shows that the proportion of men taking their own lives has reached the highest level since 2001.

The data shows 19 deaths by suicide for every 100,000 men in 2013.

Overall, 6,233 suicides were registered in men and women over the age of 15 in 2013 - 4% higher than the previous year.

The legacy of the recession is one explanation for the rise.

Overall suicide rates had been falling consistently from 15.6 deaths per 100,000 in 1981 to 10.6 per 100,000 in 2007.

"Since 2007, the female rate stayed relatively constant while the male rate increased significantly," the ONS report states.

Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, commented: "It is really shocking that men who are or could be in their prime of life should feel driven to such a state of hopelessness and despair for the future that they are taking their own lives.

"SANE's own research shows that many suicides could be prevented, if people were able to talk more openly about their feelings and felt able to seek therapy or other help.

Going Beyond DISCOVER...with SCOPUS

DISCOVER is UoB's Research Discovery Platform - a piece of software which allows you to search the Library Catalogue, most of our databases and the institution's Research Repository all at the same time.

DISCOVER should be the starting point for carrying out your research but...it's not the only research tool we have. One database that you may find very useful is SCOPUS . It's a research database of peer reviewed literature.

You can search SCOPUS via DISCOVER but if you do it this way you'll miss out on it's special features.

If you search SCOPUS directly you'll find that each record provides links to all the articles the author has used in their reference list. It also has a "Related Documents" feature - a box in which SCOPUS will provide links to other related articles that it thinks you might find useful.

New Report Says Too Many Children Still At Risk Of Child Abuse

A new report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner says that too many children in England are still "slipping through the net" and remain at risk of sexual abuse.

The report: If it's not better; it's not the end - Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups - one year on found there had been "considerable" progress in some areas of tackling child exploitation.

But "at the front line much work is still needed," said Deputy Commissioner Sue Berelowitz, who headed the inquiry.

The OCC's follow-up report has raised concerns about the level of progress in some areas, along with the continued "under-identification" of victims.

It said it was "worrying" that the inquiry's recommendation to make sex education a statutory part of the curriculum had not been adopted by the government.

The report also found "vastly different" reported rates of child sexual exploitation in different parts of England.

The British Library's Social Welfare Portal

Recently I've been asked about the British Library's Social Welfare Portal. This service allows you to limit your search of the British Library Catalogue (which is vast) to just their social welfare collections.

The Portal also includes an alerting service to keep you up to date with the latest information in social welfare and the Welfare Reform Digest which contains abstracts of articles from recent journals and other research material.

The Portal is free to use but it will not give you access to all the materials that you find. As with most research material on the web UK Government Reports and reports from charities may be freely available in full text online but journal articles and books will not be.

In order to obtain any book or journal article that you find by using the portal you will need to use UoB Libraries' Document Supply service and fill in the appropriate online form.  Final year undergraduate students can request up to 5 materials for FREE with this service.

Visit By Ed Balls

On Thursday 12th February, Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer will be visiting the Bedford Campus.

He will be giving a short presentation about the economy and will take part in a question and answer session.

Spaces are limited at this event and are available on a first come first served basis. The event starts at 5pm with refreshments, and is scheduled to finish at 6:30pm. 

To book your place, click on this link http://ed-balls.eventbrite.co.uk 

 

I can't find it in the library!

Some of you who are in the midst of dissertations may have enountered a problem - you've found what seems to be the perfect piece of material but UoB libraries don't seem to have it in stock, so what can you do?

The library has a document supply service which enables you to obtain materials not in stock at any of our campus libraries or held electronically. It's available to:

• final year undergraduates (5 free requests)
• postgraduates (20 free requests)
• researchers, doctoral students and staff (25 free requests)

For more information about this service check out the Document Supply pages on lrweb.

The University of Bedfordshire is also a member of SCONUL Access. This is a co-operative venture between most higher education libraries of the UK and Ireland. By joining SCONUL access you are able to borrow material from other participating libraries. Check the list of member libraries to ensure that the library that you need participates in the scheme.

The SCONUL Access website gives more details, including an online application form.

Charities Warn That Homelessness Is More Widespread Than Official Figures Show

Rising numbers of people are at risk of homelessness in England, but official data does not show this, according to a study.

Research by charities Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggested "informal" methods used by councils to tackle the problem had masked a 9% rise in cases in 2013-14 - to 280,000 cases.

Official statistics put the number of "accepted homeless" cases at about 52,000 last year, down 3% from 2012-13.

The government claims that the charities' figures were "misleading".

The annual independent study - which drew on a survey of England's 326 councils in 2014 - said the rise in the number of people facing homelessness was in part the result of benefit cuts and sanctions.

It also blamed a "woeful lack of affordable housing" which meant growing numbers of people were having to live away from their area.

Authors said nearly two-thirds of councils thought "headline" homelessness figures no longer reflected local trends because authorities were increasingly reliant on "informal" approaches to homelessness which are recorded separately.

The study combined the official "homelessness acceptances" figure from last year (52,270) with the number of homelessness "prevention and relief" cases (227,800) - where councils had taken steps to tackle the problem.

You can read more about this story on the BBC News website here.

National Student Survey

The National Student Survey is now open. Final year students have their chance to give their views on the student experience. You can take part in the National Student Survey here.

Skills for Success Workshops

PAD are providing a series of "Skills for Success workshops starting week commencing 9th February 2015. The workshops will cover a range of different skills including:

• Giving a presentation
• Academic writing
• Creating charts with Excel
• Paraphrasing and summarising
• Reading academic material
• Reading a journal article
• Assignment proofreading
• Powerpoint fundamentals

More details can be found on the Study Hub What's On Calendar here:
http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/studyhub/whats-on