Our studies
Here you can search our series of working papers, dating back to 1983. These papers use data from our four cohort studies and cover a wide range of topics, from social inequalities and mobility, to physical health, education and cognitive development. Other papers in the series seek to improve the practice of longitudinal research. At the present time, we are only able to accept papers if at least one author is a member of the CLS research team. Some of the working papers below will subsequently have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
For more information about our working papers series, please email us at clsworkingpapers@ucl.ac.uk.
This CLS working paper examines youth factors and labour market experience in job satisfaction using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The paper links two components of psychological state – job satisfaction and malaise – to general list satisfaction.
This CLS working paper analyses the pay gap between men and women in the 1958 National Child Development (NCDS) and 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) using data from the Age 42 and Age 30 sweeps respectively. The paper examines cohort members’ hourly earnings in full-time jobs.
Harvey Goldstein, Huiki Pan and John Bynner show how repeated durations of particular events within individuals can be modelled using a flexible discrete time event history model that incorporates individual level random effects. The model is applied to the analysis of partnership episodes for adult members of the National Child Development Study followed up between the ages of 16 and 33.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, event history, random effects, partnership episodes.
John Bynner, Neville Butler, Elsa Ferri, Peter Shepherd and Kate Smith outline the entire content of the 1991-2000 surveys of the National Child Development Study & the 1970 British Cohort Study: a landmark follow-up where, for the first time, both national birth cohort studies were in the field at the same time with exactly the same questionnnaires.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, BCS70, 1970 birth cohort, fieldwork methodology, survey design.
Dick Wiggins, M. Ely and Kevin Lynch provide an evaluation of a range of currently available (2000) software remedies to handle missngenss in the context of longitudinal research, illustrating their use with data from the NCDS 1958 birth cohort. The software modules compared are NORM, SOLAS and the SPSS Missing Values Analysis Module.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, missingness, unit non-response, item non-response, attrition, bias, imputation.
This CLS working paper details the design, development and conduct of a new round of data collection for the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The data collections took place in 1999-2000.
Heather Joshi, Elizabeth Cooksey, Lynda Clarke, Dick Wiggins and Andrew McCulloch use national data from both Great Britain (NCDS 1958 birth cohort) and the United States to examine the relationship between children’s family history and their educational and behavioural development. They use a multivariate, multi-level modelling strategy to estimate heterogeneity both within and between families. Their results show that associations between family living situations and children’s well-being appear to be mediated by levels of human, financial and social capital available to children. Contrary to expectations, they found no evidence that children with non-traditional family living experiences are any more likely to be negatively impacted in Britain than across the Atlantic where diverse living arrangements are more widespread.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, child development, childhood well-being, living arrangement, multi-level modelling
Elsa Ferri and Kate Smith identify a group of NCDS (1958 cohort) members who had separated from a partner who was the other parent of their children, and investigate the circumstances and aftermath of the relationship breakdown. They also look at parents in ‘intact’ families whose relationship with their partner appeared to be in difficulty. The outcome of childhood developmental problems is tested.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, family breakdown, separation, lone parenthood, family conflict, child development.
John Bynner, Dick Wiggins and Samantha Parson test competing hypotheses about the role of qualifications as opposed to personal agency in labour market entry at times of economic stress. This is demonstrated by a comparative analysis involving data collected in the 1970 and 1958 cohorts. Using regression models the findings demonstrate, in line with human capital theory, that at times of economic stress, the part of personal agency concerned with individual skills and psychological well-being, over and above educational qualifications, does appear to provide a measure of protection against unemployment in the transition from education to work. An analysis is included in which the NCDS data are re-weighted to take attrition into account. The paper also includes an examination of some of the design requirements for data collection in cohort studies on participation in education and the labour market, across the period of transition from childhood to adulthood.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, BCS70, 1970 birth cohort, fieldwork methodology, survey design, labour market, qualifications.
Scott Montgomery, Mel Bartley and Richard Wilkinson observe associations between small stature at 7 years (lowest quintile) in the NCDS 1958 birth cohort study, and family conflict in early life, controlling for overcrowding, social class, sex and genetically pre-determined height. After adjustment, family conflict was significantly associated with slow growth, and overcrowding also had an independent effect.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, childhood adversity, slow growth, family conflict, social class, overcrowding, height.
David R. Jones and Philip Sedgwick look at earlier-life factors predicting accidents between 16-23 in the NCDS 1958 cohort. They report gender differences and also the propensity for thoe who reported more accidents between 11-16 to have a higher probability of an accident between 16-23. There is a discussion of the hypothesis of ‘accident-proneness.’
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, accident, accident-prone.
David R. Jones and Philip Sedgwick look at 11,009 accidents leasing to hospitalisation bewtween ages 16 and 23 in the NCDS 1958 cohort. They report gender differences, with female accidents being more likely to happen at home and males at work. Other life events are explored for associations, such as death of father/mother, termination of marriage, death of child, miscarriage/abortion, termiantoin of job and periods of unemplyemnt.
Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, accident, unemployment, bereavement, divorce, separation.
Find the latest developments and insights from across all our longitudinal studies.
The CLS Bibliography is a searchable database of published work based on our cohort studies. Search by keyword, author, date range and journal.
Data from our studies are mainly available through the UK Data Service. We run training to support researchers who are interested in using our studies in their work.
Centre for Longitudinal Studies
UCL Social Research Institute
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Email: clsdata@ucl.ac.uk
