About the event

This flagship CLS webinar will give first-time users an insight into four world-leading cohort studies. 

These studies follow generations born between 1958 and 2002 and are a powerful resource for addressing a wide range of scientific questions in various social, economic, health, political and geographical sciences. The data are free to download from the UK Data Service. 

What’s covered in the event?

You will learn about the data collected in each study, possible research topics, how to access and get started with the data and examples of the types of analyses that can be undertaken using the following studies: 

• 1958 National Child Development Study 
• 1970 British Cohort Study 
• Next Steps 
• Millennium Cohort Study. 

Who should attend?

This webinar is suitable for a wide range of researchers including: 

• postgraduate students (Masters and PhD) interested in using the cohorts for a dissertation or thesis
• undergraduate students looking for data resources for their final year dissertation
• researchers in academia (particularly early career researchers)
• researchers in the public or the third sector new to the cohort studies. 

Why take part?

• Gain an overview of the type of research topics that the data could offer.
• Find out about the types of analyses that can be performed with the data.
• Learn how the cohort studies could be used in coursework or dissertations.
• Discover how to access and get started handling the data.
• Get answers to specific questions about the cohort studies and how to use them.

Who is presenting?

• Morag Henderson is a Professor of Sociology and Principal Investigator of Next Steps.
• Vanessa Moulton is a Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
• Richard Silverwood is Professor of Statistics and Chief Statistician at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies. 

Draft programme

Part 1) Introduction 
What are birth cohort studies?
Overview of NCDS, BCS70, Next Steps and MCS
Type of information collected 

Part 2) Content by ‘subject area’ 
Physical health
Mental health
Family and relationships
Education
Economics 

Part 3) Examples of the types of analyses that can be undertaken using CLS cohort data 
Simple analyses
Confounder control
Repeated measures
Cross-cohort analysis 

Part 4) Getting started with the data 
Available resources
Accessing the data
Data protocols, structure and merging
Study design and weights
Dealing with attrition
Where to go for more information 

Previous attendee endorsements

“Thank you CLS for this excellent intro to using the Centre’s cohort studies! Informative presentations and exciting ideas for research possibilities.”

“Knowledgeable speakers, content wasn’t too advanced/specialist but also general enough to understand.”

“The whole webinar was well structured, all parts were equally good and complemented each other very well.”

Register now