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

Staying social helps people keep physically active in midlife

22 May 2024

People who remain members of clubs and societies throughout their lives tend to have a higher daily step count and exercise more in their mid-40s.

News

Men’s overconfidence helps them reach top jobs

24 April 2023

Men are 34% more likely than women to be employed in top jobs at age 42 with overconfidence explaining up to 11% of the gender gap, on average, for full-time workers.

News

Poor mental health doubled likelihood of experiencing financial hardship during pandemic

19 January 2023

Up to one in five adults with a history of poor mental health reported they were ‘much worse off’ financially a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to one in ten of those who had never had psychological problems in adulthood.

News

Inequalities in early child development remained stubbornly high through the 2010s

23 June 2022

Inequalities in the early cognitive, social and emotional development of children in the UK, which are so important in shaping later life outcomes, have changed little between those born in the early 2000s and those born in the early 2010s. Researchers from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies […]

News

Only children more likely to care for ageing parents, but don’t suffer worse mental health

6 April 2022

Only children can manage the emotional and psychological demands of caring just as well as those who share duties with siblings, according to UCL researchers.

50 stories

2010s: the middle years – an animated tour

4 March 2021

Celebrating 50 years of the 1970 British Cohort Study – As our look back at the 1970 British Cohort Study through the 2010s draws to a close, let us whisk you away on a tour of the decade just gone by.

News, Data release

NHS administrative data now linked to 1958 and 1970 birth cohort studies

15 February 2021

Information from the NHS about cohort members’ health care and treatment in hospitals has now been linked to two longitudinal cohort studies, which have collected survey data over six decades – the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70).

50 stories

Important discoveries from the 1970 British Cohort Study – Midlife mental health

4 February 2021

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) has been an important source of evidence on midlife mental health, helping to improve our understanding about why middle age is such a vulnerable period for adults.

50 stories

Age 42 Sweep – Vocabulary task

28 January 2021

During the Age 42 Sweep, study participants were asked to repeat a vocabulary assessment they had previously taken in 1986, at age 16.

News

Up to a fifth of adults have mental health problems in midlife

21 January 2021

Baby Boomers and Generation X are at the greatest risk of mental ill-health in middle age, finds new research by UCL.

50 stories

Important discoveries from the 1970 British Cohort Study – The gender wage gap

14 January 2021

Britain’s birth cohort studies have been some of the leading sources of evidence on women’s education, employment and pay, helping us to monitor and understand the possible factors behind the gender wage gap.

Reading for pleasure and children’s cognitive development

6 November 2020

Research using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) has revealed how reading for pleasure can help children excel in English and maths. It has also shown that good reading habits in childhood have a significant longer term impact on people’s vocabulary, with the benefits being evident even 30 years later.

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