IN BRIEF
REFERENDUM REACTION Researchers will use one online survey held before the 2014 Scottish Referendum followed by two surveys after the ‘No’ vote to help identify whether and why people voted the way they did. The study will examine the impact of the campaign itself as well as the reaction of those who backed the losing side, and the unique socialisation into electoral participation this offered 16- and 17-year-olds.
ESRC grant number ES/M003418/1
SPORTING DEVELOPMENT The Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector now includes hundreds of programmes and organisations across the world that use sport as a tool of intervention to promote non- sport goals such as development, peace, human rights and social justice. Researchers will investigate how the SDP sector is structured and how different kinds of SDP work are planned, implemented and experienced in diverse cultural contexts. ESRC grant number ES/L002191/1
HOME ALONE
In China 58 million children, or 28 per cent of all rural children, have been left behind by parents migrating to cities to work. Six million of these children are thought to live alone. Researchers will explore whether a community-based intervention, consisting of ‘clubs’ for left-behind children, can have a positive impact on their health, wellbeing, behaviour and educational attainment. ESRC grant number ES/L003619/1
6 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2011 AUTUMN 2014
Antisocial outcomes of neighbourhoods
CHILDREN IN POOR households with more affluent neighbours display higher levels of antisocial behaviour than their peers living in concentrated poverty, says a new study. Economically mixed communities and settings for children may have unwanted consequences in terms of increased antisocial behaviour. This four-year research collaboration between US and UK social scientists also explored possible links between childhood cruelty to animals and the child’s own experience of physical maltreatment. Findings show that in disadvantaged families, six
in ten children cruel to animals had been maltreated. But although childhood cruelty to animals is associated with maltreatment, not every child showing cruelty had been maltreated. Hence, care should be taken before using cruelty to animals as a marker for child maltreatment. n
i Contact Professor Louise Arseneault, King’s
College London Email
louise.arseneault@
kcl.ac.uk Telephone 020 7848 0647 ESRC Grant Number RES-177-25-0013
Winter Fuel Payment saves lives
THE WINTER FUEL Payment (WFP), a tax-free payment of £100 to £300 for those age 60 years and older, costs around £3 billion a year. Is it money well spent? New research from the University of Lancaster finds evidence not only that cold weather kills, but that the WFP reduces the numbers of deaths. “Our preliminary results provide support for the continuance of Winter Fuel Payments, although it is not yet clear whether more specific targeting of the payment to, for example, those over 80 would be more justified,” says researcher Professor Ian Walker. Researchers used data on
temperature, seasonal mortality and household expenditure to determine the impact of the Winter Fuel Payment. While mortality increases in winter only about half of that increase can be attributed to cold weather. Other reasons for the increase include causes such as illnesses such as flu and accidents caused by ice. “Nevertheless, our results do suggest that the WFP has an impact on mortality rates,” Professor
Walker suggests. “These relatively small amounts of money appear to make a big difference to people on low incomes and who are perhaps already not in the best of health.”
Researchers say more research is required to establish whether the impact of the fuel payment only succeeds in lengthening an elderly person’s life for a short period. Also, it is unclear whether the fuel payment has greater value for its more elderly recipients, the over-80s for example, compared to younger and potentially healthier recipients in their 60s. “It’s clear that the WFP is a very
popular payment among the elderly,” Professor Walker concludes. “But, given the significant cost of this initiative, more robust evidence may provide pointers to the best way forward.” n
i Contact Professor Ian Walker, University
of Lancaster Email
ian.walker@lancaster.ac.uk Telephone (US) +1 609 258 7101 ESRC Grant Number ES/K004298/1
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