National Child Development Study 1958
The National Child Development Study 1958 (NCDS) provides data on the physical, educational, social and economic development of around 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1958.
Background
The NCDS began as a Perinatal Mortality Survey that gathered data from clinical records, the midwife and mother following births in one week in 1958. Following that initial survey at birth, participants have been contacted eight times, most recently in 2008.
Purpose
The NCDS was originally designed to examine the social and obstetric factors associated with still birth and death in early infancy. Since birth, the participants have been surveyed through their childhood and adolescence, and into adult life providing an unparalleled resource for the study of 50 years' of change in British society.
Types of data collected
Birth: obstetric history, pregnancy details, labour, birth and family background.
Childhood: health, lifestyles, behaviour, school experiences and educational attainment, aspirations, family circumstances.
Adult: family and partnerships, employment, housing, income, health, reproductive history, courses, qualifications, basic skills, expectations and biomedical information (such as blood pressure).
NCDS links to additional sources of data on cohort members include: information on death, information to trace cohort members, and consent to link routine health and economic records.
Contribution
March 2008 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the National Child Development Study. Over this half-century the data has provided an invaluable resource for understanding changes in society, and has had an enormous impact on policy making and service provision across a full range of spheres: from employment and education to health and housing. Particular policy interest has arisen from NCDS evidence on the consequences of people's choices on education, training, health behaviours, family formation and employment. Planned areas of research include the impact of early life circumstances on outcomes in adult life.
Further information
Jane Elliott, Research Director, NCDS, and Executive Director, CLS
Email: j.elliott@ioe.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7612 6395
Mina Thompson, Administrator
Email: m.thompson@ioe.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7612 6875
Website: Centre for Longitudinal Studies
