Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO) is a longitudinal cohort study, a collaboration between the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), and the Sutton Trust. The overarching aim of COSMO is to provide a representative data resource to support research into how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the life chances of pupils with different characteristics, in terms of short-term effects on educational attainment, and long-term educational and career outcomes.The topics covered by COSMO include, but are not limited to, young people's education experiences during the pandemic, cancelled assessments and education and career aspirations. They have also been asked for consent for linking their survey data to their administrative data held by organisations such as the UK Department for Education (DfE). Linked data is planned to be made available to researchers through the ONS Secure Research Service.Young people who were in Year 11 in the 2020-2021 academic year were drawn as a clustered and stratified random sample from the National Pupil Database held by the DfE, as well as from a separate sample of independent schools from DfE's Get Information about Schools database. The parents/guardians of the sampled young people were also invited to take part in COSMO. Data from parents/guardians complement the data collected from young people.Further information about the study may be found on the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO) webpage.
COSMO Wave 2, 2022-2023All young people who took part in Wave 1 (see SN 9000) were invited to the second Wave of the study, along with their parents (whether or not they took part in Wave 1). Data collection in Wave 2 was carried out between October 2022 and April 2023 where young people and parents/guardians were first invited to a web survey. In addition to online reminders, some non-respondents were followed up via face-to-face visits or telephone calls over the winter and throughout spring. Online ‘mop-up’ fieldwork was also carried out to invite all non-respondents into the survey one last time before the end of fieldwork. Latest edition information:For the second edition (April 2024), a standalone dataset from the Keeping in Touch (KIT) exercise carried out after the completion of Wave 2, late 2023 have been deposited. This entailed a very short questionnaire for updating contact details and brief updates on young people's lives. A longitudinal parents dataset has also been deposited, to help data users find core background information from parents who took part in either Wave 1 or Wave 2 in one place. Finally, the young people's dataset has been updated (version 1.1) with additional codes added from some open-ended questions. The COSMO Wave 1 Data User Guide Version 1.1 explains these updates in detail. A technical report and accompanying appendices has also been deposited. Further information about the study may be found on the COSMO website.
Main Topics:
For young people, Wave 2 included: a household gridchanges to current status since Wave 1qualifications studied towardsearly labour market experienceresidual disruption due to the pandemicuniversity applicationsattitudes to education and future careersspare time/leisure activitieshomelessnesshealth and wellbeingfriends, peers and family supporthealth-related behaviours. For parents, Wave 2 included: demographicsattitudes to education/education and career aspirationsparenting, home learning, tuition and catch-upworking status across the pandemic (since the last interview for parents also interviewed in Wave 1)parental tenure, HRP and occupation detailsparental educationparental incomegrandparentsCOVID-19 history and vaccinationparent health and wellbeingdisadvantage.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)
Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)
Face-to-face interview: Computer-assisted (CAPI/CAMI)
