Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Next Steps, previously known as the 'Longitudinal Study of Young People in England' (LSYPE1), follows the lives of around 16,000 people born in 1989-90 in England. There have been eight sweeps of the study so far, between 2004 and 2016.The study began in 2004 and included young people in Year 9 who attended state and independent schools in England. Following the initial survey at age 13-14, the cohort members were interviewed every year until 2010, when they were aged 19-20, to map their journeys from compulsory schooling to university, training and, ultimately, entry into the labour market. The survey over the past seven sweeps (2004-2010) has thus mainly focused on the educational and early labour market experiences of young people, but also included diverse information on aspects of their lives including social participation and attitudes, risky-, crime- and anti-social behaviours, health and wellbeing, family formation, and aspirations for the future. The survey data has also been linked to the National Pupil Database (NPD) records, including cohort members' individual scores at Key Stage 2, 3 and 4.Interviews for the first four sweeps were conducted face-to-face, and young people were interviewed along with their parents. At Sweeps 5 to 7, a mixed mode approach was introduced and respondents – the young person only - could complete the interview online, over the telephone, or face-to-face.The first seven sweeps of the study (2004-2010) were funded and managed by the Department for Education (DfE). In 2013 the management of Next Steps was transferred to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Institute of Education.In 2015 Next Steps was restarted, under the management of CLS, to find out how the lives of the cohort members have turned out at age 25. The eighth sweep of the study took place between August 2015 and September 2016 with the fieldwork carried out by NatCen Social Research. The Next Steps age 25 survey was aimed at increasing the understanding of the lives of the young adults growing up today, and in particular the transitions out of education and into early adult life. It maintained the strong focus on education, but the content was broadened to become a more multi-disciplinary research resource. Data was collected about cohort members' education and job training, employment and economic circumstances, housing and family life, physical and emotional health, and identity and participation. A wide range of administrative data linkage consents were collected covering health, education, economics and criminal behaviour. The collection of the data involved a sequential mixed-mode design. Participants were first invited to participate online, non-responders were then contacted by telephone and face-to-face interview afterwards.The age 25 survey sample design comprised contacting all cohort members who had ever taken part in any of the previous sweeps of the study (except those who had given a clear refusal or are ineligible). Further information for Sweep 8 of Next Steps may be found on the CLS website.Secure Access datasets:Secure Access versions of Next Steps have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access' section).Secure Access versions of the Next Steps include:sensitive variables from the questionnaire data for Sweeps 1-8. These are available under Secure Access SN 8656.   National Pupil Database (NPD) linked data at Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and 5, England. These are available under SN 7104.Linked Individualised Learner Records learner and learning aims datasets for academic years 2005 to 2014, England.  These are available under SN 8577.detailed geographic indicators for Sweep 1 and Sweep 8 (2001 Census Boundaries) - available under SN 8189 and geographic indicators for Sweep 8 (2011 Census Boundaries) - available under SN 8190. The Sweep 1 geography file was previously held under SN 7104.Linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics) for years 1998-2017 held under SN 8681.Linked Student Loans Company Records for years 2007-2021 held under SN 8848.When researchers are approved/accredited to access a Secure Access version of Next Steps, the End User Licence version of the study - Next Steps: Sweeps 1-8, 2004-2016 (SN 5545) - will be automatically provided alongside.

SN 5545 - Next Steps: Sweeps 1-8, 2004-2016 includes the main Next Steps survey data from Sweep 1 (age 14) to Sweep 8 (age 25). For the sixteenth edition (August 2021) the following updates have been made:two new datasets have been added: 'Next_Steps_Activities_Longitudinal' and 'Next_Steps_Longitudinal_File'. Further information is available in the updated Age 25 Survey User Guide.the income variable W8DINCW has been identified as incorrectly calculated and is now updated in data file 'NS8_2015_Derived'. Further information is available in the new documentation file 'next_steps_continuous_income_note_july_2021.pdf'.three variables previously available in data file 'NS8_2015_Main_Interview' (W8NUMROOMS, W8JOBDOSOCCODE and W8MAKESICCODE,) have removed and are now available under Secure Access SN 8656. They have been replaced by truncated variables W8DNUMROOMS, W8SOC3 and W8SIC3.

Main Topics:

The content of the Next Steps Sweep 8 (Age 25 Survey) covers the following topics: Household relationships: This module included information on current relationship, previous cohabiting relationships (dating back to September 2006), children, childcare, non-resident children, non-resident parents, and other household members.Housing: This module covered current and previous housing (summary data is collected about the different addresses the study members have lived in since they were 16, if other than the parents' home).Employment: Included information about current activity, current employment, second job, prospective employment (for unemployed), activity history, employment details for first job after September 2006 (aged 16), employment support, work attitudes, and partner employment. Data on current economic activities and activity history was obtained back to the time of the last interview and no earlier than September 2006.Finance: This module captured current pay/salary main job, pay from second job, income from other jobs, partner's income, benefits, income from other sources, household income, pensions, and debt. Education and job training: The module included job training, education since previous interview/September 2006, current education, fees, and partner's education.Health and wellbeing: Included information on general health, height and weight, exercise, sleep, diet, accidents and injuries. Identity and participation: This module provided information on young people's ethnicity and religion, measures of trust, risk, patience, meritocratic beliefs, adult identity, leisure, politics, social networks and social media participation.Self-completion module: The self-completion module included data on gender identity, locus of control, overall life satisfaction, mental health, self-harm, crime and harassment, drinking and smoking behaviour, drugs, bullying, sexual behaviour, and pregnancy history. A key component of the Age 25 Survey sweep is data linkage to administrative records held about individuals by government departments. At Sweeps 1-4 information was gathered on: the young person's family background;parental socio-economic status;personal characteristics;attitudes, experiences and behaviours;attainment in education;parental employment;income and family environment as well as local deprivation;the school(s) the young person attends/has attended;the young person's post-16 plans. The questionnaires at Sweeps 5-7 consisted of two modules: Household Information Module: included questions on the young person's household situation details of any persons living with themYoung Person Module: topics included demographics, attitudes to local area, activity history and current activity, jobs and training, qualifications being studied, higher education, attitudes to work and debt, childcare and caring responsibilities, young people Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET), Apprenticeships, information, advice and guidance, risk behaviours, relationships and sexuality, and own children. The additional 'Monthly Main Activity' dataset takes responses to the Activity History section of the questionnaire at Sweeps 4-7 and synthesises this information into variables that represent a monthly time series running from September 2006 (two months after the respondents completed compulsory education) until May 2010 (the first month of interviews for Sweep 7). For each of the 45 months in this period, this file contains the respondent's derived 'main' activity which is classified as one of Education, Employment, Apprenticeship/Training or Unemployed/Inactive (NEET). In order to deal with the large number of variables in the study, the dataset has been split into more manageable subsets based on the type of respondent being examined and the source of the information. More information on the composition of each sweep of the study and how to link data from different sweeps together can be found in the User Guides. Two separate User Guides are available for Sweeps 1-7 and Sweep 8. Sweep 7 weight variable: A change to the variable name and variable label has been made to the Sweep 7 weight variable W7_lsype_wt_incskip ‘Weight: All Wave 7 respondents’. The weight variable has been renamed w7finwt, with the label "Weight: W7 final weight (w6 final weight * w7 non-response weight)". This has been done in order to provide greater clarity to users on the provenance of the variable. This latest edition was revised in July 2021. The main changes relate to additional datasets: longitudinal files containing information about activities, outcomes and weights for all sweeps. In addition, a couple of issues with variables have been detailed. A few variables have been recoded including SOC and SIC codes and the original variables moved to Secure Access. A couple of issues have been raised: the first relates to first degrees and higher and the second relates to the imputed continuous weekly income variable. All changes are detailed in the user guide.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Telephone interview

Self-completion

Face-to-face interview

Web-based interview