Join us and over 120 presenters from UK and international institutions for a celebration of the remarkable possibilities of CLS cohort data.
About the conference
For 80 years, the UK’s cohort studies have tracked generations of Britons, providing invaluable evidence on how our early lives continue to shape us as we grow up, and grow old.
The CLS Conference 2026 will bring together researchers from across disciplines, sectors and career stages to showcase outstanding life course research using cohort data. It is an opportunity to hear about the latest findings from the cohorts, share learning with colleagues, and network with fellow data users. The conference is also a chance to meet the staff running the studies, and give your input on the work of CLS and future direction of the cohorts.
Our two-day programme features four parallel sessions across key CLS research themes, including ageing, child development, cognition, families, labour market and skills, mental and physical health, social mobility, and statistical and survey methods. The programme features presenters from all career stages with a special poster session and a complimentary drinks reception on day one.
Our keynote speakers
Susan Harkness
University of Bristol, Professor of Public Policy at the School for Policy Studies
Susan Harkness is a Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bristol. Her current research focuses on family change and its implications for poverty and inequality, and on gender inequalities. Susan's research, while focused on the UK, frequently takes a comparative perspective to understand how cross-national institutional differences affect socio-economic outcomes.
Laura Kubzansky
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences; Co-Director of the Healthy Aging Initiative at the Chan School of Public Health; and Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Laura Kubzansky is Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Co-Director of the Healthy Aging Initiative, founding director of both the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship Program and the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. With over 400 publications, Laura has published extensively on the role of psychological and social factors in health, wellbeing, and ageing, and whether these factors are pathways underlying social disparities in health. Moreover, she has served as principal or co-investigator on grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and other distinguished organizations. She is an elected fellow in multiple organizations and has served as an expert advisor to numerous foundations, health agencies, and the government.
Conference programme
Regent Suite
Emla Fitzsimons, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies
Council Chamber
Meghan Rainsberry, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies
Council Chamber
Family Processes and Child Development
- A dual cohort analysis of parenting practices, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, anger, and emotion dysregulation in middle childhood: Findings from a UK and Zurich sample
(Evelyn Mary-Ann Antony, University of St Andrews) - Tracing the Path: Child Maltreatment Relates to Trajectories of Peer Aggression and Victimisation
(Pin Chen, University of Oxford) - How Externalising Behaviour Mediates the Impact of Highest Parental Education on School Absences
(Samara Marta, University of Strathclyde) - The interaction of genes and parenting in the formation of socioemotional skills
(Giovanni Scotti Bentivoglio, University of Groningen)
Symposium: Intersectional inequalities in youth mental health: using existing data from longitudinal population studies to investigate social inequalities from an intersectional perspective
- Intersectional inequalities in adolescents’ psychological distress: Integrative Data Analysis of UK population-based studies
Thomas Steare (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - An intersectional analysis of consent to administrative health record linkage among young people in England
Laura Havers (ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King’s College London) - Intersectional inequalities in youth mental health measurement and outcomes: evidence from age 23 sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study
Darío Moreno-Agostino (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Embedding lived experience in research using existing data: reflections and challenges
Usayd Abid, Yusra Nawaz, & Hemlata Pant (‘Making the margins visible’ YPAG)
The Long Arm of Childhood: Pathways to Later-Life Health
- Proteomic signatures underlying the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and multimorbidity: evidence from the 1958 National Child Development Study
(Raphaële Castagné, EQUITY research team, CERPOP, Toulouse INSERM-University) - Drawing Your Inner Self: How Children’s Drawings Predict Their Future
(Gabriella Conti, UCL) - Dimensions of Childhood Adversity and Midlife Orthostatic Stress Response in the 1958 British Birth Cohort
(Sidonie Roque, UCL) - Using Longitudinal Cohort Data to Inform Prevention Interventions: Analysis of Early-Life Determinants of Multiple Long Term Conditions
(Sebastian Stannard, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine)
Symposium: UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UKLLC): unlocking health and socio-economic data linkages for our CLS partner studies and the research community
- The UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration: the UK’s national Trusted Research Environment for record linkage in the longitudinal research community
(Andy Boyd, University of Bristol) - Longitudinal studies linked with participants’ HMRC & DWP records: a long-sought-after capability for UK LPS
(Emma Turner, University of Bristol) - A DWP perspective: how linked longitudinal research can inform DWP “Areas of Research Interest”
(Mike Daly, Department for Work and Pensions) - New research opportunities unlocked by UK LLC, including linkage to HMRC and DWP records
(Lindsey Macmillan, UCL)
Regent Suite
Reproductive Health, Partnerships, Fertility, and Wellbeing
- Miscarriage reporting in longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys in Great Britain
(Selin Köksal, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) - Menopause, HRT and women’s well-being: Evidence from the UK
(Fatima Najeeb, UCL) - When Pain Shapes Careers: Labour Market Effects of Endometriosis Across the Life Course
(Katharina Richter, University College Dublin) - Fertility and childlessness in UK cohort studies
(Aase Villadsen, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - British Parents’ Trajectories of Partnership and Fertility and Midlife Mental Health
(Yan Zhang, University of Southampton)
Skills, Learning, and Educational Trajectories
- Lost learning, lasting consequences? COVID-19 educational disruption and attainment at A level
(Jake Anders, UCL Institute of Education) - Childhood Aspirations and Adult Outcomes
(Irina Merkurieva, University of St Andrews) - Impact of cognitive skills at school entry on adolescent educational attainment and health outcomes: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study
(Zaheen Umar, Centre for Health Economics, University of York) - A Deep Dive into School Qualifications: Examining (In)Consistencies in General Certificates of Secondary Education Results in the Millennium Cohort Study and Linked National Pupil Database
(Sarah Stopforth, University of York)
Mental Health, Neurodiversity, and Youth Transitions
- How early mental and physical health trajectories shape NEET outcomes in young adulthood: a lifecourse perspective with the Millennium Cohort Study
(Dominic Kelly, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Economic outcomes of autistic and ADHD young adults: findings from the Millennium Cohort Study at Age 23
(Ella Moxon, University of Sheffield) - Adolescent mental health, area deprivation and risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET) in early adulthood: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study.
(Katie Taylor, UCL) - Rethinking Special Educational Needs Labels
(Umar Toseeb, University of York) - Better parent-child relationships attenuate the impact of special educational needs and disabilities on educational outcomes: Evidence from Next Steps and linked National Pupil Database
(Ziqing Ye, University of Exeter)
Symposium: Advances in Survey Methods for Cohort Studies 1
- Consent to Data Linkage in Longitudinal Studies: Patterns, Predictors and Change Over Time
(Konstantinos Tsigridis, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Evaluating the impact of short online follow-ups of non-respondents in UK cohort studies
(Alessandra Gaia, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Use of AI in Questionnaire Development in Generation New Era
(Julia Pye, Ipsos) - Using an Innovative Smartphone App (BabySteps) in the Children of the 2020s Birth Cohort Study
(Marialivia Bernardi, Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, UCL)
Regent Suite
Susan Harkness, University of Bristol
Council Chamber
View abstract
Symposium: Analysing Cohort Data in Practice: The CLS User Guides
- Handling Missing Data
(Martina Narayanan, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Causal Inference
(Liam Wright, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Handling Mode Effects
(Richard Silverwood, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Symposium: Inter- and intra-generational transmission of mental health
- Associations of quality of social support with affective symptoms from midlife to later life: evidence from the National Study of Health and Development (NSHD)
(Alexandra Schmidt, University of Sussex) - Does it Matter Who Reports? Parental Psychological Distress and Adolescent Emotional and Behavioural Outcomes Across Reporters and Parental Birth Sex
(Ellen Thompson, University of Sussex) - Intergenerational Transmission of Mental Health: The mediating role of social disadvantage
(Darya Gaysina, University of Sussex)
Labour Market Trajectories and Later-Life Outcomes
- Employment Stability and Social Origin: Cumulative Advantages in Young Adults’ Homeownership and Financial Asset Accumulation
(Ann Berrington, University of Southampton) - Early Pathways, Lasting Consequences: Mapping Youth Labour Market Trajectories with Next Steps
(Gerda Buchmueller, University of Westminster) - Social class, differentiated career trajectories and financial and wellbeing outcomes in later life
(Shireen Kanji, University of Greenwich) - Pensions and economic status among the 1958 birth cohort prior to reaching State Pension age (SPa)
(Bozena Wielgoszewska, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Council Chamber
Poster session
- Why are some autistic children more likely to experience bullying? A systematic review of risk and promotive factors
(Olivia Cheriton, University of Oxford) - Co-developmental trajectories of emotional symptoms and peer problems from childhood to adolescence: Associations with positive and negative mental health outcomes
(Aersheng Haidabieke, Fudan University) - Physical activity, decision-making and mental health across development: a longitudinal cohort study of sex-specific pathways
(Denise Kohlhepp, University of Oxford) - Interactive and Cumulative Effects of Polygenic Risk and the Early-Life Exposome on Depression Trajectories Across Development: The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
(Min Xie, Department of Psychiatry, West China Hospital, Sichuan University; Visiting Scholar, University of Cambridge) - Trajectories of internalising and externalising difficulties throughout childhood and the exploration of early life predictors and early adult behaviours in the UK Millennium Cohort Study
(Jasmine Aherne, University of Manchester) - Reducing illiteracy in the UK using risk factor analysis
(Katherine Collier, Durham University) - Neighbourhood green space and psychological distress among adults in the UK Millennium Cohort Study
(Cedric Galera, Université de Bordeaux) - Life Course Socioeconomic Position and health in older adulthood age: A Formal Mediation Analysis in the 1958 British Birth Cohort
(Yiling Guo, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Plasma proteomics reveals early biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology: prospective association analyses in the 1946 British birth cohort
(Tahsina Khatun, UCL) - Parental involvement in maths at age 7: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study
(Maria Kireeva, UCL) - Generational Changes in Diet Quality and Mid-Life Blood Pressure: Evidence from the 1946 and 1970 British Birth Cohorts
(India Robb, UCL) - Changing Faces of Policing: Austerity and the Symbolic Function of the Police in (Re)shaping Social Identity
(Tirza Sey, University of Warwick) - Accumulated Family Adversities as Moderators of Genetic Associations in Child Development
(Kim Stienstra, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science) - Mapping Childhood Neurodevelopmental Trait Profiles and Adult Outcomes: Extending ADHD Measurement to Autism and AuDHD in the 1970 British Cohort Study
(Yujia Zhang, UCL) - Sex Differences in the Genetics of Depression: Insights from Large-Scale Cohort Studies
(David Howard, King’s College London) - Is Grey Divorce Leading Blues? Later-Life Divorce Stages and Depression Relation
(Özlem Kiliç, Trinity College Dublin) - Gendered disparities in medical career progression: assessing the influence of family responsibilities and societal expectations
(Joanne Lawrence, UCL) - Dynamic Family Structure and Offending Trajectories: A gendered analysis using the Millennium Cohort Study
(Krystal Li, University of Warwick) - Evaluating Links Between Early-Life Social Behaviour and Later-Life Social and Wellbeing Outcomes: A Genetically Informed Multivariate Approach Including Contextual Information
(Nicole Ng, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) - The impacts of stop and search on young people’s mental health and involvement in crime
(Thiago Oliveira, University of Manchester) - Longitudinal Examination of Perceptions of Social Support by Ethnicity and Sex regarding Wellbeing using Age 23 Sweep of the MCS Data
(Abigail Williams-Butler, Rutgers University)
Regent Suite
Education, Skills and Labour Market Returns
- Adolescent Core Self-Evaluation and Adult Interpersonal Trust: Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study
(Anna Adamecz, UCL Institute of Education) - Explaining Human Capital Inequalities: Evidence from Millennium Cohort Study and Linked Education Data
(Habtamu Beshir, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Qualification Mismatch Across the Career: Evidence on Persistence and Consequences from the Next Steps Cohort
(Golo Henseke, UCL Institute of Education) - The labour market returns to graduation: reconciling administrative and survey data estimates
(Matt Dickson, University of Bath) - Extrapolating childhood policy effects to young adulthood: Extending LifeSim Childhood to age 23
(Shrathinth Venkatesh, University of York)
Symposium: Understanding Unequal Life Chances: How cohort data can help us understand place-based inequalities in outcomes for coastal communities in England
- “Something to do and somewhere to go”: adolescent leisure participation and life satisfaction in early adulthood
(Emily T Murray, University of Essex) - Exploring spatial inequalities in educational outcomes: Are young people in coastal communities less likely to get a degree-level qualification?
(Avril Keating, UCL Institute of Education) - Coastal places and children’s leisure time: Social infrastructure and children’s wellbeing
(Claire Cameron, UCL Social Research Institute) - Is living on the coast associated with midlife multimorbidity? An analysis of the relationship between long-term residence and selective migration
(Stephen Jivraj, UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care)
Midlife and Later-Life Cognitive and Psychological Health
- Psychosocial assets and cognitive function across 12 years: A mixed methods investigation from the National Child Development Study
(Julia Boehm, Chapman University) - Associations between biomarkers of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease at age 70 and cognitive performance over the subsequent 7 years in members of the British 1946 Birth Cohort
(Kirsty Lu, UCL) - Social mobility and long term episodic memory in Britain
(Gindo Tampubolon, NIHR Policy Research Unit on Healthy Ageing, University of Manchester) - Psychometric Comparability of the Backward Digit Span Task Across UK Longitudinal Cohorts: A Rasch and Differential Item Functioning Approach
(Eren Halil Ozberk, National Foundation for Educational Research)
Symposium: Advances in Survey Methods for Cohort Studies 2
- Insights from Developing an Internet Use Study within A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents
(Larissa Pople, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Web-First or Face-to-Face at the Transition to Adulthood? Experimental Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study Age 23 Survey
(Matt Brown, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - An Evaluation of the Look-up Tool for Occupation Coding
(Helena Koerber, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - “Thinking back to your childhood”: How accurate is our recall? Evidence from the National Child Development Study Age 62
(Darina Peycheva, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Laura Kubzansky, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Council Chamber
View abstract
Symposium: Pupil absences and academic achievement: Role of timing, trajectories, and psychosocial pathways
- Does the timing of pupil absence matter for academic achievement?
(Edward Sosu, School of Education, University of Glasgow) - School Absence Trajectories and Children’s Academic Achievement
(Markus Klein, Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde) - Beyond learning loss: Psychosocial pathways between school absenteeism and academic achievement
(Samara Marta, Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde)
Adolescent neurodevelopment, behaviour and mental health
- Influence of pubertal development on behavioral disorders in adolescents, mediated by body mass index (BMI) – evidence from a large British cohort
(Luciana Maestri Karoleski, Federal University of Sao Paulo / University of Pisa) - Characterising the longitudinal relationship between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in adolescents in England
(Tom Metherell, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Disentangling late-onset ADHD in adolescence: Informant-specific evidence from polygenic risk, neurodevelopmental CNVs, and childhood resources
(Egle Padaigaite-Gulbiniene, Cardiff University) - Investigating the associations between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and physical activity across childhood and adolescence in a representative UK birth cohort
(Amandine Senequier, Queen Mary University of London) - Social Media Use in Early Adolescence and Mental Health in Young Adulthood: The Roles of Distrust, Social Isolation, and Polygenic Risk for Psychopathology
(Dimitris Tsomokos, UCL Institute of Education)
Genetic, Biological, and Social Dimensions of Child and Adolescent Development
- A Genetically Adjusted Propensity Score (GAPS) Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Psychopathology
(Athena Chow, UCL) - Nature and Nurture in the Production of Childhood BMI
(Nancy Daza Baez, UCL) - Youngest in the school year: Exploring how trajectories of socio-emotional development differ by month-of-birth in England
(Maxime Perrott, Education Policy Institute and University of Bristol) - Do early internalising and externalising problems mediate the effects of the educational attainment polygenic index
(Chloe Austerberry, University of Cambridge)
Symposium: The Generational Health Drift: Understanding Causes and Consequences Using the British Birth Cohort Studies
- The Generational Health Drift: Evidence from the British birth cohorts
(George Ploubidis, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - What explains increasing diabetes prevalence across cohorts? A causal mediation analysis in the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts
(Laura Gimeno, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
- Weight loss and economic activity in the 1970 British Cohort Study
(Charis Bridger Staatz , UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Regent Suite
Symposium: Adulthood Unfolding: Insights from the Millennium Cohort Study and Next Steps
- Parenthood and Mental Health: Findings from Next Steps aged 32
(Rosie Mansfield, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Living arrangements during the transition to adulthood among Gen Z
(Alina Pelikh, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
- Women’s pay penalty and job quality: Initial findings from Next Steps at Age 32
(Bozena Wielgoszewska, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Identifying risk factors for gambling problems in early adulthood: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study
(Aase Villadsen, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Educational Inequalities Across Childhood and Adolescence
- Genes, Parental Education, and Inequality in Human Capital: Evidence from Two British Cohorts
(Gabriella Conti, UCL) - Family Income Volatility and Children’s Education by Income Level and Genotype
(Gaia Ghirardi, WZB Berlin Social Science Center) - Little Change, Persistent Gaps: Evidence from three English cohorts of socioeconomic inequalities in academic pathway participation
(Dominic Kelly, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Building Foundations: Investigating childhood skill development, gaps and solutions
(Luke Bocock, National Foundation for Educational Research) - The Hidden World of Disadvantage in English School Qualifications: Why Sociologically Informed Measures Matter
(Sarah Stopforth, University of York)
Symposium: Understanding the mental health and wellbeing of autistic young people: findings from the Millennium Cohort Study
- Mental health and social difficulties of early and late-diagnosed autistic children across childhood and adolescence
(William Mandy, UCL) - A participatory qualitative approach to co-designing research questions on factors influencing mental health in autistic youth using longitudinal cohort data
(Sarah Hampton, UCL) - Bidirectional Associations of Internalising Problems with Friendship Quantity and Satisfaction: Differences by Autistic Social Communication Traits
(Reesha Zahir, UCL) - Autism and Problematic Substance Use in Adolescence: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study
(Adam James Shea, UCL)
Early-Life Influences on Health and Well-Being Across the Life Course
- Tobacco smoking and vaping in pregnancy and neonatal outcomes: results from a UK cohort study
(Anthony Laverty, Imperial College London) - Breastfeeding and child cognitive outcomes: Evidence from a hospital-based breastfeeding support policy
(Nuno Braz, University of Reading) - Understanding health and premature mortality in men and women, role of social capital in inequality of opportunity
(Alexia Bigorne, Institut de recherche santé société) - To what extent do hypothetical interventions on the early childhood environment reduce inequalities in child and adolescent mental health?
(Yu Wei Chua, University of Liverpool)
Early Childhood Environments and Child Development
- Babies and screentime: Evidence from Children of the 2020s
(Tammy Campbell, Education Policy Institute) - Intergenerational Transmission of Parental Reading: Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study
(Markus Klein, University of Strathclyde) - Early bilingualism is associated with lower mental health problems across childhood: A longitudinal investigation
(Paulina Salgado-Garcia, University of Birmingham) - Same-Ethnic Friendships in Adolescence in England: The Role of Same-Ethnic Share and Diversity in Schools and Neighbourhoods (Millennium Cohort Study)
(Priyasha Khurana, University of Essex)
Methodological Innovations in Longitudinal Population Studies
- A new perspective on the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) for epidemiological studies
(Luciana Maestri Karoleski, Federal University of Sao Paulo) - Extending a data-driven approach to non-response in the Millennium Cohort Study: predictors of non-response at sweep 8
(Martina Narayanan, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Agentic coding without the cloud: evaluating open-weight large language models on longitudinal data preparation tasks
(Mack Nixon, UCL) - Unconditional and conditional incentives in a UK birth cohort: a randomised 3×2 factorial experiment embedded in the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study
(Konstantinos Tsigaridis, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Social, Political, and Environmental Determinants Across the Life Course
- Early life course air pollution and greenness exposure and neurodevelopmental conditions
(Gergo Baranyi, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - Evidence on physical activity and the local environment in the Millennium Cohort Study: exploiting new longitudinal greenspace data 2001 – 2024
(David Church, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) - How Can We Use Multiple Cohort Studies to Explore Social, Economic and Political Change?: Thatcherism, New Labour and the Life-Course Perspective
(Stephen Farrall, University of Nottingham) - Neighbourhood greenspace exposure throughout childhood and quality of decision-making in adolescence: Robust links across buffer sizes
(Stephanie Gyimafi, UCL)
Social Determinants of Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being
- Young carers’ mental health during and after the Covid-19 pandemic: variation by gender, ethnicity, income and peer, school or social support
(Rebecca Lacey, City St George’s, University of London) - How does attainment in high stakes exams affect mental health? Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study and National Pupil Database
(Nicolas Libuy, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez) - Examining the Role of Ethnicity, Sex, and Social Support in Shaping Adolescents’ Perceptions of Well-Being in the United Kingdom
(Abigail Williams-Butler, Rutgers University) - The Social Gradient in Mental Health From Age 3 to 23: When Does Inequality Emerge, When Does It Widen, and What Mechanisms Drive It?
(Mengya Zhao, University of Liverpool)
