John Hobcraft - Academic biography#

BSc (Econ) (LSE)
Professor of Demography and Social Policy

I am a demographer with broad interests in the social, psychological, health and biological sciences. I have worked extensively on the demography of both developing and developed countries and on demographic methods. This research has encompassed substantial work on fertility and reproduction, infant and child mortality, and partnership behaviour and on the consequences of these for policy and population change.

I have a strong interest in sexual and reproductive health and rights and in the empowerment of women, having been a lead negotiator for the UK at the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and at the five-year follow-up in New York in1999.

I have also spent around a decade researching intergenerational and life-course pathways to adult social exclusion using data from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohort studies. This research has drawn out the importance of considering a wide range of childhood and early adult antecedents of a wide range of adult disadvantages and has also paid particular attention to ‘gendered pathways’. More recently, I am exploring pathways to educational, cognitive and behavioural performance for children using the Millennium Cohort Study.

I have also been developing an intellectual agenda and research programme concerned with the interplays of ‘alleles, brains, and contexts’ in understanding human behaviour. This is concerned with the interplays of nature and nurture and has involved substantial investment in learning about genetics, brain science and psychology, in order to gain a better understanding of the interplays of genes, the brain/ mind, and intermediate pathways involved in demographic, health and socioeconomic outcomes and behaviours.

I play a very active role in shaping the design and analysis of prospective cohort and panel studies. This includes chairing the Consortium Board and Network of National Focal Points for the Generation and Gender Programme, being Vice-Chair of the Governing Board for Understanding Society, and chairing the Scientific Committee for the British Birth Cohort Studies. I have also become a leading proponent of the inclusion of biomarkers in prospective surveys.

Current research interests and projects

ESRC funded project on ‘gendered pathways to adult social exclusion’ as part of GeNet in collaboration with Professor Kathleen Kiernan (SPSW) and Dr Wendy Sigle-Rushton (LSE). This research explores the role of gendered pathways in the intergenerational and life-course linkages of childhood antecedents to adult disadvantages. Recent work has included health outcomes, becoming a parent, resilience, and the links between depression and divorce.

EU FP7 Infrastructures funded project on Generations and Gender Programme. I chair the Consortium Board [comprising 10 institutions - The Demographic Research Institute of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO-DRI), the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), Bocconi University, Statistics Norway, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), the University of Utrecht (UU), the University of Ljubljana (UL), the University of York, the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and the Institut national d’études démographiques (INED)] and the Network of National Focal Points [representing each participant country]. I lead Work Programme 11 on ‘genetics and biomarkers’ and am engaged in WP 9 on ‘life course and decision making’ and WP10 on ‘development of psychological instruments’. I am researching on the circumstances of young adults in 6 GGP countries.

Through the Institute for Effective Education at York I am engaged in a substantial research project which explores the individual, family, school and contextual antecedents of educational, cognitive and behavioural outcomes for children in the UK Millennium Cohort.

Collaboration with the US Fragile Families Project at Princeton and Columbia, working with Professors Sara McLanahan, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Dan Notterman and others in exploring the interplays of genes and environments in relation to a variety of behaviours and outcomes, including parenting, partnership, and depression.

I am collaborating with colleagues at Essex and Warwick in developing and implementing the incorporation of biomarkers and related measures in the Understanding Society study.

Professional activities

• Elected member of Academia Europaea
• Member, ESRC/ MRC Birth Cohort Facility Development Group
• Chair, Consortium Board and Network of National Focal Points, Generation and Gender Programme
• Vice-Chair, Governing Board for Understanding Society
• Chair, British Birth Cohort Studies Scientific Committee
• Member, University Research Committee, York