Growing Up in Scotland: patterns of maternal employment and barriers to paid work

Appendix A: Details Of Key Explanatory Variables

Mother’s level of education

At the first wave of data collection, the respondent was asked to provide information on the nature and level of any school and post-school qualifications they had obtained. The information was updated at each subsequent contact. Qualifications were grouped according to their equivalent position on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework which ranges from Access 1 to Doctorate.

For the purposes of this report, these were further banded to create the following categories:

• Degree level academic and vocational qualifications
• Higher grades and Upper level vocational qualifications
• Upper level Standard Grades and Intermediate Vocational qualifications
• Lower level Standard Grades and Vocational qualifications
• Other
• No qualifications

Using these bands, the highest qualification level was defined for the respondent.

Equivalised annual household income quintiles

The income that a household needs to attain a given standard of living will depend on its size and composition. For example, a couple with dependent children will need a higher income than a single person with no children to attain the same material living standards. "Equivalisation" means adjusting a household's income for size and composition so that we can look at the incomes of all households on a comparable basis.

After equivalisation, the sample was split into five, equally sized groups – or quintiles – according to income distribution. Each group thus contains around 20% of families.

Area deprivation ( SIMD)

Area deprivation is measured using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) which identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across Scotland. It is based on 37 indicators in the seven individual domains of Current Income, Employment, Health, Education Skills and Training, Geographic Access to Services (including public transport travel times for the first time), Housing and a new Crime Domain. SIMD is presented at data zone level, enabling small pockets of deprivation to be identified. The data zones, which have a median population size of 769, are ranked from most deprived (1) to least deprived (6,505) on the overall SIMD and on each of the individual domains. The result is a comprehensive picture of relative area deprivation across Scotland.

In this report, the data zones are grouped into quintiles. Quintiles are percentiles which divide a distribution into fifths, i.e., the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentiles. Those respondents whose postcode falls into the first quintile are said to live in one of the 20% least deprived areas in Scotland. Those whose postcode falls into the fifth quintile are said to live in one of the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.

Further details on SIMD can be found on the Scottish Government website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD/Overview

Occupational classification / social class ( NS-SEC)

This variable draws on the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification ( NS-SEC). It comprises five different occupational classifications:

• Managerial and professional occupations
• Intermediate occupations
• Small employers and own account holders
• Lower supervisory and technical occupations
• Semi routine and routine occupations

Further information on NS-SEC is available from the National Statistics website at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160106042025/http:/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/classifications/current-standard-classifications/soc2010/soc2010-volume-3-ns-sec--rebased-on-soc2010--user-manual/index.html.

Urban/rural classification

The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification was first released in 2000 and is consistent with the Government’s core definition of rurality which defines settlements of 3,000 or less people to be rural. It also classifies areas as remote based on drive times from settlements of 10,000 or more people. The definitions of urban and rural areas underlying the classification are unchanged.

The classification has been designed to be simple and easy to understand and apply. It distinguishes between urban, rural and remote areas within Scotland and includes the following categories:

• ‘Large Urban Areas’: Settlements of over 125,000 people
• ‘Other Urban Areas’: Settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people
• ‘Accessible Small Towns’: Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30 minutes’ drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more
• ‘Remote Small Towns’: Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more
• ‘Accessible Rural’: Settlements of less than 3,000 people and within 30 minutes’ drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more
• ‘Remote Rural’: Settlements of less than 3,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more

For further details on the classification see Scottish Government (2008) Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2007 – 2008. This document is available online at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/07/29152642/0

Access to family-friendly working facilities

Mothers who were or had previously been working as employees were asked whether they had access to a number of family-friendly working facilities. For this report, mothers who said they had access to one or more of the features listed below were classified as having access to family-friendly working facilities; mothers who did not report to have (had) access to any of these were classified as not having (had) access to family-friendly working facilities.

Features defined as ‘family-friendly working facilities’:

• Subsidised child care
• Childcare vouchers
• A work place creche or nursery
• Flexible working hours always possible
• Flexible working hours sometimes possible by arrangement
• Allows parents paid time off when a child is sick (in addition to normal holiday allowance)
• Allows parents unpaid time off when a child is sick
• Allows parents unpaid time off during school holidays
• Allows employees to work from home some or all of the time
• Allows employees option to job-share

Whether mother has any long-term health conditions

This measure indicates whether the mother reported to have a disability or health problem lasting 12 months or more.

Whether cohort child has any long-term health conditions

This measure indicates whether the cohort child had a health problem or disability lasting or expected to last for more than a year, as reported by their main carer. The range of health conditions included in the measure is wide and as such not all children identified in the GUS data as having a long-term condition will require the same level of care.

Partner’s annual income / take-home pay

In cases where a partner was resident in the household and where the partner was in work, respondents (mothers) were asked about their partner’s take-home pay. The partner income figures presented in this report refer to annual take-home pay.

For the purposes of this report, partners’ annual take-home income was grouped into six roughly equally sized groups. When the measure was included in multivariable models, partners who were not in work were added to the lowest income group and partners for whom no pay information was provided were treated as a separate group.