Our studies
Our briefings and impact library includes summaries of our research findings as well as reports highlighting the impact of our cohort studies.
This briefing note shows the overall prevalence of shoplifting and neighbourhood crime at age 17 and its co-occurrence with other types of offences. Various prior factors are examined in terms of their association with engaging in these crime types, including family socioeconomics and environment, mental health, and previous experiences of offending.
This report focuses on excess weight at age 17 in the Millennium Cohort Study, presenting prevalence of obesity, overweight, normal weight and underweight. Examining also previous measures collected from the cohort since age 3, it highlights stark inequalities by family socioeconomic circumstances. It underlines the strong persistence of excess weight throughout childhood and adolescence, with one third of a whole generation either overweight or obese as they enter their prime adult years.
The prevalence of COVID-19 in the community following the onset of the UK epidemic is unknown, and there are likely to be many predisposing factors which affect exposure to, or severity of, the disease. Clarity on these issues will help to inform public health strategies directed at virus suppression or elimination, and/or risk stratification measures tailored for different members of society. Here, we provide self-reported cohort-specific estimates of COVID-19 prevalence, symptoms and testing, along with estimates stratified by a range of traits. These estimates benefit from weighting for non-response using information from past data collections.
This report focuses on mental ill-health at age 17, using data collected from participants in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) in 2018-19. It presents prevalence of psychological distress, self-harm and attempted suicide. It describes important mental health inequalities across the following key socio-demographic characteristics: sex, ethnicity, sexuality and socioeconomic position. Combined with data collected from a subset of participants during the COVID-19 national lockdown in May 2020, when they were aged 19, the report also presents evidence on changes in psychological distress from ages 17 to 19.
This exploratory study provides descriptive evidence on household composition, couples’ relationship quality, and social support during the May 2020 national lockdown in the UK. Specifically, it examines changes in living arrangements, conflicts with people, and relationship satisfaction and conflict among couples. It also considers changes in social connections, emotional support, and practical help among participants.
Our survey’s open-ended question gave respondents the opportunity to describe their experience of the pandemic in their own words. We received just under 11,000 open text responses across the five generations of our study, and these responses provide an important complement to the more structured survey data by providing direct reports of study members’ lived experiences of the coronavirus outbreak; these responses can thus be seen as a ‘time capsule’ of those experiences.
This study focuses on trust in government, trust in others and compliance with the Government’s social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This briefing paper reports on the mental health of four different generations of people in Britain in May 2020, amid the national lockdown.
This briefing, based on the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies, looks at the scale of the changes in employment and the unequal effects of the pandemic on household finances, as perceived by the four different generations who took part in the survey.
This briefing, based on the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies, looks at the time parents spent on home schooling and doing other interactive activities with their children during the nationwide lockdown, in May 2020. We examine differences between parental involvement based on gender, socioeconomic background, and other characteristics and circumstances.
Our last episode of the series examines how BCS70 and our study members have been faring during the pandemic and looks to the future of longitudinal research. We find out more about the COVID-19 survey, sent to over 50,000 participants in five of Britain’s cohort studies, including BCS70, and we speak to study participants about their experiences of lockdown. We also find out more about the benefits of launching a new cohort study in the coming years.
In this episode, we move into the 2010s to find out how our study members were faring in their forties. We learn how BCS70 cast light on increasing rates of mental ill-health among men, and find out more about the most recent biomedical survey where participants were given a health MOT. We also chat to one of our in-house study detectives about the role they play tracing long lost study participants.
In this fourth episode, we move into the new millennium, when the study enjoyed a golden decade. With BCS70 greatly valued by scientists and policymakers, the study was funded to meet participants on three occasions and was regularly cited by New Labour in government policy. With this new-found recognition, researchers across the globe started using BCS70 in conjunction with other birth cohort studies to see how members of Generation X were faring compared to other generations. We also speak to study participants about their careers and lives in their thirties.
Find the latest developments and insights from across all our longitudinal studies.
The CLS Bibliography is a searchable database of published work based on our cohort studies. Search by keyword, author, date range and journal.
Data from our studies are mainly available through the UK Data Service. We run training to support researchers who are interested in using our studies in their work.
Centre for Longitudinal Studies
UCL Social Research Institute
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Email: clsdata@ucl.ac.uk
