Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing longitudinal study that seeks to follow the lives of all those living in Great Britain who were born in one particular week in 1958. The aim of the study is to improve understanding of the factors affecting human development over the whole lifespan. The NCDS has its origins in the Perinatal Mortality Survey (PMS) (the original PMS study is held at the UK Data Archive under SN 2137). This study was sponsored by the National Birthday Trust Fund and designed to examine the social and obstetric factors associated with stillbirth and death in early infancy among the 17,000 children born in England, Scotland and Wales in that one week. Selected data from the PMS form NCDS sweep 0, held alongside NCDS sweeps 1-3, under SN 5565. Survey and Biomeasures Data (GN 33004):To date there have been nine attempts to trace all members of the birth cohort in order to monitor their physical, educational and social development. The first three sweeps were carried out by the National Children's Bureau, in 1965, when respondents were aged 7, in 1969, aged 11, and in 1974, aged 16 (these sweeps form NCDS1-3, held together with NCDS0 under SN 5565). The fourth sweep, also carried out by the National Children's Bureau, was conducted in 1981, when respondents were aged 23 (held under SN 5566). In 1985 the NCDS moved to the Social Statistics Research Unit (SSRU) - now known as the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS). The fifth sweep was carried out in 1991, when respondents were aged 33 (held under SN 5567). For the sixth sweep, conducted in 1999-2000, when respondents were aged 42 (NCDS6, held under SN 5578), fieldwork was combined with the 1999-2000 wave of the 1970 Birth Cohort Study (BCS70), which was also conducted by CLS (and held under GN 33229). The seventh sweep was conducted in 2004-2005 when the respondents were aged 46 (held under SN 5579), the eighth sweep was conducted in 2008-2009 when respondents were aged 50 (held under SN 6137) and the ninth sweep was conducted in 2013 when respondents were aged 55 (held under SN 7669). Four separate datasets covering responses to NCDS over all sweeps are available. National Child Development Deaths Dataset: Special Licence Access (SN 7717) covers deaths; National Child Development Study Response and Outcomes Dataset (SN 5560) covers all other responses and outcomes; National Child Development Study: Partnership Histories (SN 6940) includes data on live-in relationships; and National Child Development Study: Activity Histories (SN 6942) covers work and non-work activities. Users are advised to order these studies alongside the other waves of NCDS.From 2002-2004, a Biomedical Survey was completed and is available under End User Licence (EUL) (SN 8731) and Special Licence (SL) (SN 5594).Linked Geographical Data (GN 33497): A number of geographical variables are available, under more restrictive access conditions, which can be linked to the NCDS EUL and SL access studies. Linked Administrative Data (GN 33396):A number of linked administrative datasets are available, under more restrictive access conditions, which can be linked to the NCDS EUL and SL access studies. These include a Deaths dataset (SN 7717) available under SL and the Linked Health Administrative Datasets (SN 8697) available under Secure Access.Additional Sub-Studies (GN 33562):In addition to the main NCDS sweeps, further studies have also been conducted on a range of subjects such as parent migration, unemployment, behavioural studies and respondent essays. The full list of NCDS studies available from the UK Data Service can be found on the NCDS series access data webpage.  How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:For information on how to access biomedical data from NCDS that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.Further information about the full NCDS series can be found on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies website. 

NCDS6: The sixth NCDS sweep took place in 1999-2000, when cohort members were aged 41-42 years. Fieldwork was combined with the 29-year follow-up for the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), also conducted by CLS. SN 5578 supersedes the former combined NCDS6/BCS70 1999-2000 dataset, which was held under SN 4396 National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) Follow-ups, 1999-2000. The Centre for Longitudinal Studies updated the first six waves of NCDS in late 2006, and as part of this work separated the composite NCDS6/BCS70 dataset. Improvements made include further data cleaning and the addition of new documentation. Users who have previously obtained SN 4396 should no longer use it, and should completely replace it with this one. The BCS70 component of SN 4396 is now held separately under SN 5558 1970 British Cohort Study: Twenty-Nine-Year Follow-up, 1999-2000. For the second edition (August 2008), the serial number has been replaced with a new one, variable Ncdsid. This change has been made for all datasets in the NCDS series. Further information may be found in the ‘CLS Confidentiality and Data Security Review’, included in the documentation.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the NCDS6 cohort member interview covered:household: household memberships and interrelationships; ethnicity; languages spoken in the homehousing: current address; intentions to move; homelessness; housing historyrelationships: marital status; relationship historychildren: pregnancy history; lone parenthood; infertility; adopted children; partner's children from a previous relationship; children over 16; family activities; demands of parentingfamily, social relationships and support: contact with family; emotional supportfamily income, including sources of income other than work; financial situationemployment: economic activity; current job; other paid work; unemployment; labour market histories; partner's joblifelong learning: qualifications; current course for qualification; assessment of current/most recent course; other courses and training; any lack of formal learning; contact with information technology; literacy and numeracyhealth: general health; long-term health conditions; respiratory problems; mental health; sight and hearing; other conditions; accidents/injuries; hospital admissions; smoking; drinking; diet; exercise; height and weightcitizenship and values: involvement with organisations; voting behaviour and intentions; political alignment; trade union membership; religion; newspaper readership; car ownership; values; political activityself-completion: opinions on key areas of life; quality of relationship with husband, wife or partner; work-related skills; psychological morbidity; experience of school exclusion and truancy; contact with the police and crime; use of illegal drugsStandard Measures: The attitude questions included in the instrumentation employ Likert-like scales. Other standard measures used include:Malaise Inventory: a measure of for assessing psychiatric morbidity, developed by Rutter and others at the Institute of Psychiatry from the Cornell Medical Index; Rutter, M., Tizard, J. and Whitemore K. (1970) Education, Health and Behaviour, London; and Rodgers, B. et al. (1999) 'Validity of the Malaise Inventory in general population samples', Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34, pp.333-341General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a self-administered screening test, designed to identify short-term changes in mental health (depression, anxiety, social dysfunction and somatic symptoms)Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, a measure of marital distress/happiness (see Locke, H. J., and Wallace, K. M. (1959) 'Short marital adjustment and prediction tests: their reliability and validity', Marriage and Family Living, 21, pp.251-255)

No sampling (total universe)

See documentation for further details.

Face-to-face interview

Self-administered questionnaire