News and opinion

Welcome to our news and blogs section. Here you’ll find the latest developments and insights from across our longitudinal studies.

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News

Parental divorce in childhood linked to increased risk of inflammation in adulthood

15 July 2013

People of divorced parents have higher levels of an inflammatory marker in the blood which is known to predict future health, according to new research using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study. Researchers at University College London (UCL) found that children who experienced the breakdown in their parents’ relationship before the age of […]

News

Irregular bedtimes curb young children’s brain power, new research suggests

9 July 2013

Going to bed at different times every night curbs children’s brain power and may affect health in adult life, suggests new research using Millennium Cohort Study data. Researchers at University College London (UCL) looked at whether bedtimes in early childhood were related to brain power in more than 11,000 seven-year-olds. They compared the children’s bedtimes […]

News

Grandparents influence where you are on the social ladder

1 July 2013

For the first time, a study using data from the 1946, 1958 and 1970 birth cohort studies has suggested that the position of grandparents in the British class system has a direct effect on which class their grandchildren belong to. It has long been accepted that parents’ social standing has a strong influence on children’s […]

News

Breastfeeding boosts ability to climb social ladder

25 June 2013

Breastfeeding not only boosts children’s chances of climbing the social ladder, but it also reduces the chances of downwards mobility, suggests study based on 1958 and 1970 cohort data. The findings are based on changes in the social class of  17,419 members of the 1958 National Child Development Study and 16,771 members of the 1970 […]

News

Children’s cognitive abilities relatively unaffected by having working mothers, latest analysis shows

11 June 2013

Children’s literacy, maths ability and behaviour are not on average harmed if their mothers go out to work during the first years of their lives, a leading researcher said today. Data from earlier UK studies had indicated a small disadvantage in literacy among children born before the mid-1990s whose mothers had worked in their early […]

News

Reading and maths ability at age seven linked to higher income in adulthood

15 May 2013

Children with stronger reading and maths skills at age seven are more likely to earn higher wages in later life, according to new research using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study.

News

Social mobility depends on parents’ education and social class, not parenting styles, study finds

13 May 2013

Parents’ qualifications, social class and wellbeing have a bigger effect on their children’s development than poor parenting, according to researchers from the Institute of Education, University of London. A new study based on data from almost 14,000 seven-year-olds included in the Millennium Cohort Study has explored the link between children’s cognitive ability and their social and […]

News

Poor attainment of summer-born pupils limits their options for higher education, study suggests

10 May 2013

August-born pupils achieve worse exam results, on average, than children born in September, simply because they are 11 months younger when they sit national achievement tests, a new study finds. Researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, the Labour […]

News

1970 British Cohort Study age 42 survey completed

7 May 2013

Members of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), who turned 42 this year, have now completed their ninth survey since they were born. More than 9,800 cohort members were interviewed between May 2012 to April 2013, which is a larger response than either the age 38 or age 34 surveys. Each cohort member completed a […]

News

Light drinking in pregnancy does not harm babies, new evidence suggests

17 April 2013

Light drinking during pregnancy does not affect a child’s behavioural or mental development, according to new research using data from the Millennium Cohort Study

News

Money worries are keeping us from a good night’s sleep

13 April 2013

Many of us lie in bed counting money rather than sheep, it seems. And it is causing us to lose a huge amount of sleep.

News

Working-class women left behind as gender pay gap closes, study finds

10 April 2013

Dramatic differences in pay between professional and unskilled women suggest that 20th century feminism may have left the working-class behind, a new study shows.

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