National Child Development Study (or 1958 Birth Cohort)

Abstract

The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is one of Britain’s world-renowned national longitudinal birth cohort studies, three of which are run by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London. The study is an ongoing multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which follows the lives of around 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1958. Over the course of cohort members lives, the NCDS has collected information on health, physical, educational and social development, and economic circumstances among other factors. The broad aim of the study is to examine the impact that circumstances and experiences at one stage of life have on outcomes and achievements in later life. Since the birth survey in 1958, there have been ten ‘sweeps’ of all cohort members at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 44/5 (a biomedical collection) 46, 50 and most recently at 55. Data has been collected from a number of different sources (the midwife present at birth, parents of the cohort members, teachers, doctors and the cohort members themselves). The data has been collected in a variety of ways including via paper and electronic questionnaires, clinical records, medical examinations, physical measurements, tests of ability and educational assessments. The information collected forms a high quality data resource for scientific investigations across a full range of domains of individuals’ lives and across different points in time in them. The study has been designed so as to ensure comparability with other major cohort studies so as permit the examination of links between social change and the changing experiences of different cohorts. The majority of NCDS survey data can be accessed by bona fide researchers through the UK Data Service at the University of Essex.