1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

Summary

There are over 15,000 different variables in the BCS covering some of the following topics: • Wave 1 (Birth) 1970: Social, biological and medical features of the mother and baby. • Wave 2 (Five year follow up) 1975: Behaviour of child and maternal depression. • Wave 3 (Ten year follow up) 1980: Child medical history, child at school and skills, attitudes towards various life events. • Wave 4 (Sixteen year follow up) 1986:Arthimetic, school history, exercise, diet, health, social features. • Wave 5 (Twenty-six year follow up) 1996: Qualifications and skills, training, employment relationships, health. • Wave 6 (Thirty year follow up) 2000: Household, housing, employment, health, opinions on various events. • Wave 7 (Thirty-four year follow up): Housing, employment, health, education, attitudes, skills, computer use. • Wave 8 (Thirty-eight year follow up): Housing, relationships, births, family, education, health. These are not definitive lists. For detailed information on the variables available visit the UK Data Service website. In the past, certain waves of the study have been linked with health records. More information about the data collected in each of the waves is available from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies website here. It may be possible to link the BCS to administrative datasets and other datasets / surveys. This will need to be discussed at the time of application. The 1970 British Cohort Study: Thirty-Eight-Year Follow-up, 2008-2009 was conducted when respondents were aged 38. The latest sweep was conducted for the first time as a telephone interview (CATI). The main aim of the most recent survey was to explore the factors central to the formation and maintenance of adult identity in each of the following domains: • lifelong learning • relationships, parenting and housing • employment and income • health and health behaviour • citizenship and values For the third edition (May 2013) a new derived variables data file was deposited with accompanying documentation. The survey explored the following areas: • housing • relationship history • births and other pregnancies • periods of lone parenthood • children and the wider family (social relationships and support) • family income • employment status/employment history • academic education • general health • smoking

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Cohort study

Data gathering method
Telephone
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire
Other: The way that the data is collected changes for each wave. For example, the 1970 wave collected data from the midwife who had undertaken delivery of the cohort member and information was then also obtained from routine health records. Later waves collected information from parents, school class and head teacher questionnaires. In 2012, telephone interviews are planned in order to collect information from cohort members. For more information, see the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) website: http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/default.aspx

Access to data

Conditions of access
Data are available from the UK Data Service (previously the Economic and Social Data Service, ESDS): http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ The website contains detailed information on conditions of access, and it is also possible to contact the UK Data Service by phone: +44 (0)1206 872143, or by email: help@ukdataservice.ac.uk

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata

Formats available
Data from the UK Data Service are usually available to download in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited (suitable for use in MS Excel) formats.

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) began as the British Births Survey (BBS), collecting data on the births and families of just under 17,200 babies born in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a particular week in April 1970. The BBS was sponsored by the National Birthday Trust Fund in association with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. After the initial birth survey, Northern Irish participants were dropped from the sample. Since BCS70 began, there have been seven full data collection exercises in order to monitor the cohort members' health, education, social and economic circumstances. These took place when respondents were aged 5, in 1975, aged 10, in 1980, aged 16, in 1986, aged 26, in 1996, aged 30, 1999-2000, and aged 34, in 2004-2005. The first two sweeps (at 5 and 10 years) were carried out by the Department of Child Health at Bristol University. During these times, the survey was known as the Child Health and Education Study (CHES). The 16-year survey was carried out by the International Centre for Child Studies and named Youthscan. The Social Statistics Research Unit (SSRU) became involved with the BCS70 study at this time, and eventually changed its name to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), based at the Institute of Education, University of London. With each successive attempt, the scope of BCS70 has broadened from a strictly medical focus at birth, to encompass physical and educational development at the age of 5, physical, educational and social development at the ages of 10 and 16, and physical, educational, social and economic development at 26 years and beyond. Further information about the BCS70 and may be found on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies website. As well as BCS70, the CLS now also conducts the NCDS series. A range of sub-sample and supplementary surveys have also been conducted, such as the Ten-year Follow-up Special Needs Survey and a supplementary survey of head teachers at the time of the 16-year follow-up in 1986. A related study, Coding of Text Data from BCS70 at 10 and 16 Years: Health Care Utilisation of School Aged Children, 1970-1986, is also held by the Archive. The aim of this project was to code text variables from BCS70 files, selected from the ten- and 16-year follow-ups to provide information about health care utilisation by the target age group. The BCS70 follows the lives of all people born in England, Scotland and Wales in one particular week of April 1970. The BCS70 has both longitudinal and cross-sectional samples. Longitudinal samples • The longitudinal target sample consists of all those born (including stillbirths) in Great Britain in the particular week, until they die or permanently emigrate from Britain. The longitudinal achieved sample is all those members of the longitudinal target sample who participate in a particular sweep (meaning at least one survey instrument partially completed). Cross-sectional samples • The cross-sectional target sample for each sweep consists of all those born anywhere in the world in the same week as the longitudinal sample, who are living in Britain at the time of the sweep, and who joined the NCDS sample during the school years. The cross-sectional achieved sample is all those members of the cross-sectional target sample who participate in a particular sweep (at least one survey instrument partially completed). • The cross-sectional sample only includes immigrants who moved to Britain before the age of 16, as there were no attempts to include further members beyond the age 16 survey in 1986. The thirty-eight year follow-up (BCS8) had a sample size of 8,874 cases

First year of collection
1970

Stratification if applicable
The data includes a variety of demographic variables, including age and sex. The sample is not stratified.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Great Britain

Age range
The age of birth cohort study members varies over time. At the last wave of data collection, cohort members were 38 years old.

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) is a continuing, multi-disciplinary longitudinal survey monitoring the development of babies born in the UK in one particular week in April 1970. The BCS was first called the British Births Survey and was carried out by the National Birthday Trust Fund in association with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Its aims were to look at the social and biological characteristics of the mother in relation to neonatal morbidity, and to compare the results with those of the 1958 National Child Development Study. With each successive sweep, the scope of the enquiry has broadened from a strictly medical focus at birth, to encompass physical and educational development at the age of 5, physical, educational and social development at the ages of 10 and 16, and physical, educational, social and economic development at 26 years. Waves of data have been collected from the cohort members in 1970, 1975, 1980, 1986, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. The next follow up will take place in 2012 when the members will be 42. This follow up is currently ongoing and information is not yet available on the UK Data Archive.

Linkage

Standardisation
There is an ongoing cross-governmental programme of work in the UK which aims to develop and improve standardised inputs and outputs for use in official statistics. This is known as harmonisation, and is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While this work primarily affects government-run surveys, the results have an impact on most national UK data sources. Furthermore, harmonisation has important benefits for all researchers using these surveys, and not just government statisticians. For more information, see: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/harmonisation/harmonisation-index-page/index.html

Possibility of linkage among databases
Data are anonymised

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
In addition to unit non-response and attrition, the data include item non-response and may be subject to other errors that are typical of cohort studies. There are incomplete data for some individuals in some waves. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Breaks
There are no major breaks for this data source, although different data has been gathered at different time-points over the life of the birth cohort.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
In general, the consistency of this data source is good. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Governance

Contact information
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education
University of London
20 Bedford Way
WC1H 0AL London United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)207 612 6875
Email: cls(at)ioe.ac.uk
Url: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Timeliness, transparency
Timetables vary according to the data collected in each wave