Working papers

Dougal Hutchison looks at reasons (other than non-response) why final sample sizes in longitudinal research may be much lower than the target population of the study: for instance, restrictions of analyses to sub-populations, and losses in the course of operationalizing concepts.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, attrition, bias, loss-to-follow-up, sub-populations, item non-response,

Chris Power and C. Moynihan find that social class differences in the prevalence of overweight and obesity were found to be negligible in childhood but marked by early adulthood, with a greater percentage of overweight and obesity in lower social classes. This difference was three-fold among obese men and two-fold among obese women when respondents were classified on the basis of their own occupation.  But a longer-term effect of early class backgrounds also emerged. Children from manual backgrounds were more likely to become overweight and obese young adults (7 per cent of those with average weight-for-height at age 7) compared with their non-manual contemporaries (3 per cent).  They were also more likely to remain overweight or obese through to early adulthood.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, obesity, overweight, BMI, social class, gender.

Gill Jones’s research looks at what has happened to young people aged 23 in the NCDS 1958 cohort since they left full-time education, looking at notions such as youth as a transition, and the place of young adults in the social structure.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, housing, social class, gender.

Gill Jones’s analysis of early housing careers in the NCDS 1958 cohort looks at factors such as movement from school to work, family formation and the effects of social class and gender on early housing decisions in the context of  leaving the parental home.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, young adult, housing, parental home, social class, gender.

Alan C. Kerckhoff’s research compares those in the NCDS 1958 cohort who have been  educated in ability groups with those who have not.   Covariates are social background, parental influences, school influences, and contingencies such as residential moves from birth to age 11.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, education, streaming, ability

Chris Power,  Ken Fogelman and John Fox describe a DHSS-funded project concerned with relationships between social class, social mobility and health during the early years of life.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, social class, SES, social mobility, health, young adult.

Mildred Blaxter reviews the value of all the longitudinal research done so far on the NCDS cohort, under the following broad categories:

Social mobility, inequality and health;

Social and geographical mobility, the environement and health;

Stress in childhood;

The long-term effects of adverse factors at birth;

The sequellae of developmental and behavioural problems;

The conseqeuences of labelling;

The predictive value of different assessments;

The natural history of specific conditions;

The study of special sub-groups;

Accidents;

Health and employment/unemployment;

Emotional problems and health;

Alcohol consumption;

Smoking;

Intergenerational analyses.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, alcohol, smoking, drinking, emotional problems, adolescence, young adult, education, employment.

In this third piece of research in a 3-part series, Mayer Ghodsian analyses the relationship between alcohol consumption early-adulthood (age 23) and its associations with a wide range of characteristics during childhood and adolescence in the NCDS 1958 cohort.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, alcohol, intoxication, drinking, adolescence, young adult.

In this second piece of research in a 3-part series, Chris Power and Mayer Ghodsian analyse the relationship between alcohol consumption in adolescence (age 16) and early-adulthood (age 23) in the NCDS 1958 cohort.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, alcohol, intoxication, drinking, adolescence, young adult.

In this first piece of research in a 3-part series, Chris Power analyses the personal, social and economic characteristics of young adults in relation to alcohol consumption, using the NCDS 1958 cohort follow-up at age 23.

Keywords: 1958 birth cohort, NCDS, National Child Development Study, alcohol, intoxication, drinking, young adult.