BCS70 Age 16 Sweep

Sweep details

Dates March 1986 – September 1986
Age 15-16
Achieved sample 11,622 (cohort members)
Respondents Cohort members, parents, teachers, headteachers, medical examinations
Survey mode Face to face
Data access

Main dataset available via the UK Data Service [SN 6095]. Visit the UK Data Service website to access the data (link opens in a new tab).

Description

The Age 16 Sweep took place in 1986 and was known as Youthscan. The survey aimed to monitor the continued social, physical and educational development of the cohort throughout their teenage years.

The Age 16 Sweep was the last time that parents were interviewed. They were asked about family circumstances, the cohort member’s health, family health, family income, housing and the cohort member’s education.

A medical assessment took place that involved measurements of height, weight, head circumference, blood pressure, pulse, vision, hearing and co-ordination.

Cohort members completed a large number of questionnaires that covered many aspects of life including education, leisure activities, smoking, drinking, relationships with family and friends, beliefs and aspirations for the future.

A number of assessments were administered: Shortened Edinburgh Reading Test, BAS Matrices, Arithmetic Test, Vocabulary Test, Spelling Test.

Participants also completed 4-day diaries covering diet and leisure activities.

Questionnaires were completed by class teachers and headteachers. Head teachers provided information about the characteristics of the schools attended, and the class teacher questionnaire focused on ability, behaviour and attendance.

Special features at age 16

Alcohol

BCS70 cohort members were first asked about alcohol consumption at age 16.

Questions about drinking habits have been included in all subsequent sweeps of the study. BCS70 is a fantastic resource for researchers wishing to study trajectories in drinking behaviour, the factors associated with differing levels of alcohol intake over time and the long-term consequences of alcohol consumption.

Depression

BCS70’s principle measure of depression has been the ‘Malaise’ scale, which was first included at age 16.

The scale has been featured in almost every survey ever since. Measuring mental health and depression has long been a key focus of BCS70. Researchers can examine factors associated with different trajectories of mental health and the impact that depression has on other aspects of life. The cohort members’ mothers also answered the same set of questions, which allows researchers to explore how mental health may be transferred from one generation to the next. NCDS cohort members have also answered the Malaise scale over time, facilitating cross-cohort comparisons of mental health.

Documentation

  • User guides
  • Questionnaires
  • Technical reports
  • Data notes
  • Additional
User guides

BCS70 Age 16 Survey Leisure and Television Diaries User Guide

Date published: 01/04/2022
PDF: 598,59 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Dietary Diaries User Guide

Guide to the Age 16 Dietary Diaries for BCS70.

Date published: 01/05/2020
PDF: 2,22 MB

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BCS70 Age 16 Guide to the Data

Guide to the Age 16 dataset for BCS70

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 5,88 MB

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BCS70 Age 16 Guide to the Head Teacher Questionnaire

This document is a guide to the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) Sixteen-year Head Teacher Questionnaire.

Date published: 01/05/2000
PDF: 439,06 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Guide to the Arithmetic Test

This document provides a brief guide to the data deriving from an arithmetic test administered to the subjects of the 1970 British Cohort Study

Date published: 01/05/2011
PDF: 297,66 KB

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BCS70 Partnership Histories (1986-2013) Guide

Date published: 01/10/2016
PDF: 370,43 KB

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BCS70 Activity Histories (1986-2013) Guide

Date published: 01/07/2017
PDF: 660,51 KB

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Questionnaires

BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document A: Information manual for teachers

The information manual given to teachers as part of the age 16 sweep of BCS70.

Date published: 07/07/1986
PDF: 1012,38 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document B: Student Test Booklet

Student Test administered at Age 16 sweep of BCS

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 2,86 MB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document C: Student Test Score Form

Score form for the BCS age 16 student test

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 537,24 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document D: Occupational Interests Guide

Questionnaire at BCS Age 16 sweep for future career interests

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 961,66 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document E: ‘Moving On’ Student Test

“Moving On” student test for the age 16 sweep of BCS70

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 471,73 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document F: Health-Related Behaviour Student Self-Completion Questionnaire

Self-Completion questionnaire for Cohort Members on Health behaviours

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 572,16 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document G: ‘Home and All That’ Student Self-Completion Questionnaire

“Home and All That” student self-completion questionnaire

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 641,19 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document H: ‘Friends and The Outside World’ Student Self-Completion Questionnaire

“Friends and The Outside World” student self-completion questionnaire

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 742,5 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document J: ‘Life and Leisure’ Student Self-Completion Questionnaire

“Life and Leisure” student self-completion questionnaire

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 915,57 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document K: Dietary Diary

Cohort member dietary diary

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 648,59 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document L: Educational (Teacher’s) Questionnaire

Education questionnaire given to teachers for the age 16 sweep of BCS70

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 334,63 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document M: Head Teacher Questionnaire

Questionnaire given to head teachers

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 363,95 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document N: Information for Health Personnel

Information for health personnel for the age 16 sweep of BCS70

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 615,98 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document O: Parental Interview Form

Interview form given to the parents of cohort members

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 867,23 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document P: Maternal Self-Completion Form

Self-completion form given to the mother of cohort members

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 754,31 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document Q: Student Self-Completion Health Questionnaire

Student self-completion health questionnaire for the age 16 sweep of BCS70

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 668,67 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document R: Medical Examination Form

Medical examination form given to cohort members

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 622,73 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document S: Leisure and Activity Diary

Cohort member leisure and activity diary

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 753,5 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Survey- Document T: Family Follow-Up Form

Follow-up form sent to family members

Date published: 01/05/1986
PDF: 213,44 KB

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Technical reports

No material of this type is available.

Data notes

BCS70 Age 16 Enhancing the Head Teacher School level Dataset

Information on the data cleaning and matching of Age 16 school data with BCS70, and on the reliability of the resulting dataset

Date published: 01/05/2012
PDF: 119,21 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Arithmetic Dataset

Data Note explaining the process of cleaning up the dataset and deriving variables which facilitate analysis of the Age 16 Arithmetic test for BCS70.

Date published: 01/05/2008
PDF: 218,27 KB

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BCS70 Review of Research on Health Behaviours

Review of research using information from the childhood waves of BCS70 (birth to 16 years) as either health outcomes or as predictors of later health outcomes.

Date published: 01/10/2013
PDF: 1,07 MB

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BCS70 Childhood Cognition

An overview of cognitive tests cohort members took at ages 5, 10 and 16

Date published: 01/11/2014
PDF: 2,34 MB

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Additional

Deriving highest qualification in NCDS and BCS70

This Data Note explains the derivation of variables on Highest Educational Qualification obtained by cohort members in the National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70).

Date published: 01/01/2011
PDF: 514,11 KB

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BCS70 Age 10, 16 Psychological Scales

Details on the ‘What about Work?’ and CARALOC (Locus of Control) Scales administered to the cohort at ages 10 and 16

Date published: 01/05/2010
PDF: 467,03 KB

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BCS70 Revised Region Variables (Third Edition)

This User Guide accompanies the deposits at the UK Data Archive of derived variables for each sweep of BCS70. These derived variable datasets are found under the study number for each of the sweeps and include variables for country of interview, region and government office regions.

Date published: 01/02/2014
PDF: 307,78 KB

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BCS70 Age 16 Derived Variables

This User Guide describes the dataset of derived variables for the 1986 sweep of BCS70

Date published: 01/02/2013
PDF: 391,98 KB

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BCS70 Ethical Review and Consent

Review of Ethical procedures used for each Sweep of BCS70.

Date published: 01/01/2019
PDF: 4,18 MB

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Contact us

Centre for Longitudinal Studies
UCL Social Research Institute

20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL

Email: clsdata@ucl.ac.uk

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