Conference presenters announce workshop details

During the Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2015, there will be a collection of workshops delivered by specialist trainers to enhance attendees’ conference experience. Here they share what will be on the agenda.

All of the times and dates of the workshops can be found on the full programme.

Understanding impact workshop

Meghan Rainsberry from Closer will be looking at how researchers can use their ‘findings’ to achieve impact. She comments, “Today, much of our academic success can be measured by the impact our work achieves. This workshop will look at the impact process from start to finish, illustrated with actual case studies of where longitudinal research has made a difference.”

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Longitudinal modelling with longitudinal households

Paul Clarke from the Institute of Social and Economic Research will be discussing the best techniques for Longitudinal Modelling. He comments, "The longitudinal analysis of household surveys is complicated by changes in the composition of the sampled households over time: so-called ‘longitudinal households’.” The workshop will review the methodology that has been developed to address common problems such as old family members leaving and give guidance for practice.

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Genetic data in Understanding Society (part 1)

Introduction by Meena Kumari

A number of population studies such as Understanding Society and the 1958 British Birth Cohort now provide richly phenotyped resources to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to individual health, behaviour and wellbeing. In this symposium Meena Kumari from the Institute of Social and Economic Research will provide example of potential uses of the data by both the genetic and social science research communities.

Genome-wide genotyping in the UKHLS

Bram Prins from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute will discuss how Understanding Society can provide a unique, deeply phenotyped resource to investigate genetic components and modifying environmental factors contributing to individual health, behaviour and wellbeing. Bram will be using examples of how the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has already used the data including the use of genome-wide association scans for cardiometabolic traits.

Heritability and genetic association analysis of two cognition phenotypes in white European adults

Delilah Zabaneh from University College London examined the genetic contribution to individual differences of prospective memory and verbal fluency cognition traits in approximately 5,800 phenotyped unrelated adults from the England Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). At this workshop, Delilah will be discussing the next stages of her research which show how data will be meta-analysed with three additional studies including Understanding Society.

Genetic data in Understanding Society (part 2)

The role of common genetic variation in educational attainment and labour market outcomes: evidence from the National Child Development Study

Neil Davies from the University of Cambridge discusses this workshop, “Recent studies have reported three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) robustly associated with educational attainment (rs9320913, rs11584700 and rs4851266). There are many unresolved questions. How do these SNPs affect educational attainment? Do they influence important outcomes later in life such as earnings? What proportion of the associations between educational attainment and other phenotypes can be explained by common genetic variation?” These are just of the questions that will be answered at this specialised workshop.

Biological Significance Of Genetic Variants Associated With Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) Identified By Genome-Wide Association Studies

Ghazaleh Fatemifar from University College London will be discussing Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) which is found in chylomicron and intermediate density lipoprotein. It is predominantly synthesised in the liver, but is also found in other tissues such as the brain, kidney and spleen. During her workshop, Ghazaleh will be discussing ApoE and how it is connected with the health data from Understanding Society.

Using Genome-wide Data to Examine the Association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and Sleep

Victoria Garfield from University College London explores the observational evidence that suggests that there is a possible bidirectional association between obesity and sleep. She will be using the Mendelian Randomization method to examine whether body mass index (BMI) is causally associated with sleep duration using pooled data from a number of studies, including the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and Understanding Society.

The Socio-Cultural Integration of New Immigrants in Europe

Religion and social integration: a longitudinal study of recent immigrants

Mieke Maliepaard from Universiteit Utrecht shares her results on the relation between religious orthopraxy (in terms of attendance and prayer) and social integration in terms of social contacts as well as friendships. One of the findings suggests that more religious immigrants do not develop fewer friendships or social contacts with majority group members over time.

Temporary disruption or ‘opting out’? Changes in recent Polish migrants’ religiosity in Ireland

Historically, religion has played an important role for migrant integration as a source of refuge, respect and resources, particularly in the context of the United States. In this contribution, Antje Roeder from the Trinity College Dublin adds to the emerging European literature on the development of religiosity amongst migrants, and tests somewhat conflicting theoretical expectations about an increased need for religion during times of upheaval on the one hand, and a temporarily disruptive effect of the migration event on the other hand.

Elite or middling? International students and migrant diversification

Renee Luthra from the Institute of Social and Economic Research will present a paper which provides the first examination of the early socio-cultural and structural integration process of third country nationals migrating to Europe as students. The team theorise that as well as an elite migration stream, they will also find among these students a group of ‘middling’ transnationals, less highly selected and more closely embedded in ethnic networks and with more equivocal outcomes.

Does she lose more than he does? Gender, job quality and Polish migration to Western Europe

Utilising a unique, harmonised data source, Gillian Kingston from Trinity College Dublin asks whether there are gender differentials in recent Polish migrants’ occupational transitions in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK. The changes in occupation are measured by comparing migrants’ occupational status held in Poland, with those in the destination country.

United Kingdom Longitudinal Studies: Research, Evidence and Impact

Introduction and overview

This symposium delivered by Nicky Rogers, ONS will demonstrate to researchers the research potential of the three UK based longitudinal studies that cover England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Each longitudinal study is a unique and rich resource offering the potential to look at a wide range of important social and epidemiological issues.

Fertility, health and education of England and Wales immigrants: The role of English language skills

Lualhati Santiago from University of Warwick aims to identify the causal effects of English language skills on fertility, health and education outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. To identify the causal effects, she uses an instrumental variable estimation strategy where age at arrival in the United Kingdom (UK) is exploited to construct an instrument for language skills.

NEETs in Scotland: a longitudinal analysis of long-term health effects of the NEET experience

Zhiqiang Feng from the University of St Andrews shares his paper which investigates whether experiences of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) are associated with adverse long-term outcomes in health.

Religious and National Identities in Northern Ireland in Transition

Religious and national identities are known to be strongly correlated in Northern Ireland. In this paper, Stefanie Doebler from Queen’s University Belfast examines changes in religious identities over a ten-year period and relates these to national identity in 2011.