In ESRC's new report Seven Deadly Sins, published to launch Social Science Week 2005, Dr Eirini Flouri and Professor Heather Joshi analyse data from the British birth cohort studies, which have recorded anger in both childhood and adulthood for people born in a week in 1958 (the National Child Development Study) and 1970 (the British Cohort Study). They find that:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Eirini Flouri on 020 7612 6289 or Email: e.flouri@ioe.ac.uk or Heather Joshi on 020 7612 6875 or Email: h.joshi@ioe.ac.uk
Romesh Vaitilingam on 07768 661095
Or Lance Cole, Lesley Lilley or Becky Gammon at ESRC on 01793 413032/413119/413122
OTES FOR EDITORS
1. 'Anger, irritability and hostility in children and adults' by Eirini Flouri and Heather Joshi is chapter 1 in Seven Deadly Sins: A new look at society through an old lens. The authors are at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), Institute of Education, University of London.
2. The ESRC report is published to launch Social Science Week 2005, which takes place across the UK from 20-24 June. The week is about highlighting research from the UK's social scientists and how this can contribute to better policymaking and, ultimately, a better society. It is an initiative from the Economic and Social Research Council. For a programme of events: www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/socialscienceweek
3. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high-quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and government. The ESRC invests more than £93 million every year in social science and at any time is supporting some 2,000 researchers in academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences to nurture the researchers of tomorrow. More at www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
4. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research (formerly accessible via the Regard website) and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
5. The analysis in the chapter on Anger draws on the British birth cohort studies. Anger in early childhood was measured by the frequency of irritability at ages 7 and 11 in the 1958 birth cohort and by the occurrence of temper tantrums at ages 5 and 10 in the 1970 birth cohort. Anger in early adulthood – at 23 and 33 in the 1958 cohort and at 26 and 30 in the 1970 cohort – was measured in both studies by the frequency of getting annoyed and irritated by others or of becoming violently enraged.