NCDS Sub studies

Qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of 36 purposively selected study members, with varied work histories, which explored attitudes, aspirations, plans and expectations for retirement and the factors – past, present and projected future – that  influenced the way they felt about retirement.  The interviews took place as part of a wider project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which also included quantitative analysis of lifetime employment history data and responses to questions about retirement asked at 50 and 55.

The Social Participation and Identity project combined quantitative longitudinal data with a qualitative investigation of a sub-sample of 220 NCDS cohort members.   This was the first attempt to interview members of a national, longitudinal cohort study in depth, with the possibility of linking such biographical narratives to structured survey data collected throughout the life course.  The interviews were organised into six main sections focussing on: 1) Neighbourhood and belonging; 2) Leisure activities and social participation; 3) Personal communities; 4) Life histories; 5) Identity; 6) Reflections on being part of the NCDS.

A pilot study completed by an inter-disciplinary network of researchers as part of the ESRC’s Understanding Individual Behaviour programme. The network’s core aim was to explore individual differences in mid-life cognitive capacity and how these relate to experiences and behaviour earlier in life.

The pilot study was conducted with a sub-sample of NCDS members living in and around Cambridge in 2010, when study members were aged 52, and sought to investigate the potential for conducting neuro-psychological assessments with purposive sub-samples from the British Birth Cohort Studies. The aim was to recruit individuals with particular cognitive ability trajectories between childhood and mid-adulthood:

Decline group: Those whose performance in the cognitive assessments completed at age 50 was poorer than would have been predicted from their childhood cognitive ability as measured at age 11.

Consistent high scorer group: This group were matched to the decline group on childhood cognitive ability level, but did not exhibit any signs of decline.

Consistent low scorer group: This group were matched to the experimental group on their age 50 cognitive ability, but had different cognitive ability levels in childhood (most likely having low cognitive ability throughout their lives).

Potential participants were invited to a research centre at the University of Cambridge to complete a 90 minute testing session which involved three main elements:

• Repetition of the cognitive assessments included in the NCDS age 50 survey: a) Word-list recall/delayed word-list recall b) Animal naming c) Letter cancellation
• Five CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery) tasks: a) Paired Associates Learning test (PAL) – a visuospatial associative learning test which assesses visual memory and new learning; b) Graded Naming Test (GNT) – a test of semantic and/or verbal memory; c) Affective Go/No-go(AGN) – a test of affective decision making and information processing biases; d) Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) – a test of decision making and risk taking; and e) Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP) – a test of attention and general information processing.
• A short self-completion questionnaire.

Twin studies are often used to study the relative importance of nature versus nurture. NCDS did not have particularly reliable information about zygosity (whether twins are genetically identical) which made it difficult to conduct this type of research with the information collected from NCDS twins. As such, in 2008, a questionnaire was sent to all pairs of twins which asked a series of questions to allow zygosity to be accurately identified.

This NCDS 37-year sample survey was conducted in 1995, between the full surveys that took place at 33 and 42. The 1995 survey aimed to collect details about cohort members’ basic skills. It was designed to supplement the information on self-reported literacy and numeracy problems gathered at 33 and 42, with objective assessments of skills in these areas. It provides for a detailed analysis of the extent, antecedents and correlates of basic skills in the NCDS cohort.

There were three parts to the survey: the interview, a set of literacy and numeracy assessments and a self-completion questionnaire:

• the interview covered full-time education, qualifications; youth and other training; current employment; unemployment; respondent’s literacy and numeracy; respondent’s children’s literacy and numeracy problems; household composition; relationships; children; housing; income; and health
• the literacy and numeracy assessments comprised a series of 18 tasks, using showcards, to assess reading, writing, comprehension and simple mathematical skills
• the self-completion questionnaire covered health; how respondent felt about their life so far; self-assessed basic skills ability; employment history since age 16; education history since age 16

The Sweep 4 Feasibility Study took place between the Age 16 and Age 23 Surveys.  Efforts were made to contact 1001 participants, of whom 800 were interviewed.  Interviews covered education and training since 16, employment, marriage, children, household composition, housing, income and savings.  An additional paper self-completion questionnaire about smoking behaviour was left with participants in the feasibility study to post back.  The questionnaire was also posted to a further 200 study members – resulting in a total of 801 completed questionnaires being received.

The Warnock Study of Handicapped School Leavers, 1976 was carried out in the summer and autumn of 1976, with selected members of the NCDS when they were 18 years of age. Information was gathered from 508 individuals, both handicapped and non-handicapped. The study was carried out for the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People (the Warnock Committee) by a team based at the National Children’s Bureau. The central aim of the study was to provide information on how handicapped young people negotiated the crucial transition from school to work, the employment opportunities available to them and to describe their early experiences in the labour market.

The questionnaire covered: education, leaving school, employment, income, health and household composition.