The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a continuing, multi-disciplinary
longitudinal survey
A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of obs ...
monitoring the development of babies born in the UK during the week of 5–11 April 1970.
History
Since the start of the BCS70, eight full sets of data have been collected in 1970, 1975, 1980, 1986, 1996, 1999/2000, 2004/2005 and 2012. The following survey was planned for 2016/2017.
The first wave in 1970, called th
British Births Survey was conducted by th
National Birthday Trust Fundtogether with the
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is a professional association based in London, United Kingdom. Its members, including people with and without medical degrees, work in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, that ...
in order to collect information to compare with those of the
National Child Development Study
The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which follows the lives of 17,415 people born in England, Scotland and Wales from 17,205 women during the week of 3–9 March 1958. The results from ...
(NCDS). The following two sweeps in 1975 and 1980, when the study was known as th
Child Health and Education Study(CHES), were carried out by the Department of Child Health at Bristol University. The 1986 survey was conducted by th
International Centre for Child Studiesand called Youthscan which was then taken over for the following surveys by the Social Statistics Research Unit (SSRU), now known as th
Centre for Longitudinal Studies(CLS). By 2016 there were 770 papers and books published about the 1970 British Cohort Study.
The scope of the BCS70 has been broadened in the course of the different surveys. While the focus was on medical aspects at birth, factors such as physical, educational, social and economic development were subsequently taken into account.
Members of the 1970 birth cohort study created a
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page for themselves.
Methodology and scope
The primary method of data collection consists of face-to-face interviews (with the parents), self-completion questionnaires and psychological and educational measurements. The sample size included 17,287 babies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland born in 1970.
Survey results
The findings from the BCS70 have generated over 770 publications, a list of which can be foun
here One key publication which also includes data of other British Cohort Studies i
Elsa Ferri, John Bynner and Michael Wadsworth (eds.)(2003) Changing Britain, Changing Lives: three generations at the turn of the century ref>ESDS Longitudinal, BCS70 dataset guide
Re-using the data
The data and additional study information are available on the website of th
Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). Users will have t
registerin order to access the download section.
See also
*
Up Series
The ''Up'' series of documentary films follows the lives of ten males and four females in England beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled ''Seven Up!'', with later films adjusting the number in the title t ...
*
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study
References
Bibliography
External links
CLS websiteESDS Longitudinal website{Dead link, date=February 2021 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
British medical research
Society of the United Kingdom
Child welfare in the United Kingdom
Cohort studies
Human development
UCL Institute of Education
British Cohort Study
British Cohort Study