This article explores how parents in couple families reconcile employment and child-care, and how far the current emphasis of EU-level policy on enhancing the formal provision of child-care fits with patterns and/or preferences in Western European member states. We use European Social Survey data from 2004-05 on working patterns and preferences, and on child-care use and preferences regarding the amount of formal provision. We find that working hours remain a very important dimension of work/family reconciliation practices, with large differences in both patterns and preferences. There is very little evidence of convergence towards a dual, full-time worker model family outside the Nordic countries, although the balance between the hours which men and women spend in paid work is becoming less unequal. The part that kin (partners and grandparents) play in providing child-care remains important in all but three countries, and, for the most part, mothers report that they are content with the amount of formal child-care available. We suggest that work/family reconciliation measures need to encompass a more extended policy package, the components of which are likely to be specific to member states.

In recent years, several OECD countries have taken steps to promote policies encouraging fathers to spend more time caring for young children, thereby promoting a more gender equal division of care work. Evidence, mainly for the United States and United Kingdom, has shown fathers taking some time off work around childbirth are more likely to be involved in childcare related activities than fathers who do not take time off. This paper conducts a first cross-national analysis on the association between fathers’ leave taking and fathers’ involvement when children are young. It uses birth cohort data of children born around 2000 from four OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. Results show that the majority of fathers take time off around childbirth independent of the leave policies in place. In all countries, except Denmark, important socio-economic differences between fathers who take leave and those who do not are observed. In addition, fathers who take leave, especially those taking two weeks or more, are more likely to carry out childcare related activities when children are young. This study adds to the evidence that suggests that parental leave for fathers is positively associated with subsequent paternal involvement.

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Summary Current evidence of the impact of childhood obesity on human capital development does not point in a consistent direction, and its interpretation is challenging. We carried out a systematic review of studies from high‐income countries that used robust causal inference approaches to assess the impact of childhood overweight and obesity on outcomes typically linked to human capital development in economics. Global Health, Medline and EconLit were used to search for peer‐reviewed papers. Three reviewers independently assessed study quality using the Newcastle‐Ottawa Scale. Nineteen papers representing 22 studies met the inclusion criteria. Included studies were categorized based on three components of human capital: cognitive performance (n = 18), measured through test scores; educational attainment (n = 3), through grade progression and college completion; and labour market outcomes (n = 1), through wages. We find that childhood overweight and obesity hinder education outcomes, with effects mostly observed at older ages of exposure measurement (12+ years). Girls with overweight and obesity experienced larger negative effects and more often than boys. Future research should elucidate the pathways through which childhood obesity impacts human capital development, to support policies that may mitigate those impacts, thus averting social costs that are currently widespread, increasing and unaccounted for.

This paper analyzes the diversity of dung and carrion beetles (Scarabaeinae and Silphidae) in four human-induced habitats of a disturbed tropical montane cloud forest: polyspecific shade coffee plantations, monospecific shade coffee plantations, tropical montane cloud forest fragments, and clear cuts. The four habitats had similar richness, species composition, and assemblage structure of dung and carrion beetles. Differences were found in abundance and biomass levels for the four dominant species in the landscape. Dung beetles were more abundant than carrion beetles, but the biomass was higher for the latter. Carrion beetles were seasonal, while dung beetles were clearly not. When forest fragments and shade coffee plantations were compared to other similar habitats in the region, the same general pattern was observed. However, forests with high disturbance and monospecific shade coffee plantations had lower species richness than forests with low and medium disturbance and polyspecific shade coffee plantations. Thus shade coffee plantations maintain connectivity between patches of cloud forest in a landscape that is strongly affected by human activities. Protecting landscape diversity appears to ensure high species richness.

Dung beetles are holometabolous insects that feed on herbivorous mammal dung and provide services to the ecosystem including nutrient cycling and soil fertilization. It has been suggested that organisms developing on incomplete diets such as dungs require the association with microorganisms for the synthesis and utilization of nutrients. We describe the diversity and composition of the gut-microbiota during the life cycle of the dung beetle Copris incertus using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that C. incertus gut contained a broad diversity of bacterial groups (1,699 OTUs and 302 genera). The taxonomic composition varied during the beetle life cycle, with the predominance of some bacterial genera in a specific developmental stage (Mothers: Enterobacter and Serratia; Eggs: Nocardioides and Hydrogenophaga; Larval and pupal stages: Dysgonomonas and Parabacteroides; offspring: Ochrobactrum). The beta diversity evidenced similarities among developmental stages, clustering (i) the adult stages (mother, male and female offsprings), (ii) intermediate developmental (larvae and pupa), and (iii) initial stage (egg). Microbiota differences could be attributed to dietary specialization or/and morpho-physiological factors involved in the transition from a developmental stage to the next. The predicted functional profile (PICRUSt2 analysis) for the development bacterial core of the level 3 categories, indicated grouping by developmental stage. Only 36 categories were significant in the SIMPER analysis, including the metabolic categories of amino acids and antibiotic synthesis, which were enriched in the larval and pupal stages; both categories are involved in the metamorphosis process. At the gene level, we found significant differences only in the KOs encoding functions related to nitrogen fixation, uric acid metabolism, and plant cell wall degradation for all developmental stages. Nitrogen fixation and plant cell wall degradation were enriched in the intermediate stages and uric acid metabolism was enriched in mothers. The data reported here suggested the influence of the maternal microbiota in the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota of the offspring.

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to foster such skills. This paper presents evidence on the importance of social and emotional skills; on how policy makers and schools are currently enhancing and monitoring such skills; and, on the existing gaps between knowledge, expectations and practices to mobilise these skills. The paper concludes by pointing ways in which education stakeholders can do more to better develop and mobilise the skills that drive individual's well‐being and social progress. The paper draws on findings and frameworks that are being published in a full OECD report entitled ‘Skills for Social Progress: the Power of Social and Emotional Skills’ in the first half of 2015.

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