The lifelong socioeconomic disadvantage of single-mother background - the Helsinki Birth Cohort study 1934–1944

BMC Public Health

Table 4 ORs and 95 % CIs for adulthood education according to mother’s marital status and parental occupation

Educational attainment in adulthood (n = 12304)
	Upper tertiary		Lower tertiary		Upper secondary		Basic or less or unknown
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2
Groups defined by mother’s marital status, the presence of male caregiver, and his occupation
Married mother, male caregiver worker	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.
Unmarried mother, no indication of male caregiver^a	Ref.	Ref.	2.01	1.76	2.86	2.14	3.32	2.43
Unmarried mother, no indication of male caregiver^a	Ref.	Ref.	(.89–4.57)	(.77–4.00)	(1.30–6.27)	(.97–4.72)	(1.54–7.16)	(1.12–5.27)
Unmarried mother, male caregiver worker^b	Ref.	Ref.	1.65	1.33	2.49	1.62	2.50	1.58
Unmarried mother, male caregiver worker^b	Ref.	Ref.	(.67–4.06)	(.54–.30)	(1.06–5.85)	(.69–3.84)	(1.08–5.77)	(.68–3.66)
Unmarried mother, male caregiver middle class^c	Ref.	Ref.	.71	.67	.64	.57	0.60	.52
Unmarried mother, male caregiver middle class^c	Ref.	Ref.	(.34–1.50)	(.32–1.42)	(.31–1.32)	(.27–1.17)	(.30–1.18)	(.26–1.03)
Married mother, male caregiver middle class	Ref.	Ref.	.63	.63	.30	.32	.25	.26
Married mother, male caregiver middle class	Ref.	Ref.	(.55–.72)	(.54–.75)	(.26–.34)	(.27–.37)	(.22–.30)	(.23–.31)
Mother’s occupational status
Mother worker		Ref.		Ref.		Ref.		Ref.
Mother middle class		Ref.		.65		.39		.38
Mother middle class		Ref.		(.55–.76)		(.33–.46)		(.32–.44)

Maximum educational attainment as recorded in the National Census at 5-year intervals between 1970 and 2000
Model 1 adjusted for year of birth, sex, birth order, birth weight, mother’s age, length of gestation, evacuation abroad without parents during World War II, mother’s marital status (married/unmarried) and male caregiver’s highest attained occupational status during childhood (missing, worker or clerical)
Model 2 adjusted as in model 1 + mother’s occupational status
OR odds ratio, CI confidence intervals
^aThe mothers (n = 303) who have no indication of a male caregiver at any time point
^b-cThe mothers (n = 334) who were unmarried at the time of childbirth but the family had a male caregiver later on, according to the child welfare clinic or school records

ISSN: 1471-2458