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. 

NCDS4: The NCDS4 follow-up, conducted in 1981, differs from previous sweeps in that information was obtained from the subject (who was interviewed by a professional survey research interviewer) and also from the 1971 and 1981 Censuses (variables describing area of residence were used). This dataset also includes public examination results for the respondents, obtained from schools study members were known to attend at the time of the NCDS3 follow-up in 1974. Schools were asked to provide details of all Certificate of Secondary Education, General Certificate of Education, and in Scotland, Scottish Certificate of Education examinations entered up to 1978. They were also asked to indicate where the individual was known to have moved on to another establishment (another school, sixth-form college, further education college etc.) and might have taken other examinations. In such cases those other institutions were also contacted and relevant results obtained. The Centre for Longitudinal Studies updated the first six waves of NCDS in late 2006. Improvements made include further data cleaning and the addition of new documentation. 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:

The fourth NCDS sweep, carried out when the cohort members were aged 23, covered the following topics: employment, unemployment and periods out of the labour force; participation in government special schemes; apprenticeship and training; post-school education; marriage, cohabitation and children; housing and household details; family income, savings and investment; respondent-reported health state and health-related behaviour; voluntary activity and leisure; malaise inventory (a 24-item inventory completed by the respondents at the completion of the interview. This is a measure indicating a tendency towards non-clinical depression developed by the Institute of Psychiatry from the Cornell Medical Index (Rutter and others, 1970)). In addition, area data, based on the Small Area Statistics (SAS) of both the 1971 and 1981 Censuses, were obtained which summarise the characteristics of the area in which each cohort member was living at the time of both the 1974 and 1981 surveys. Public Examination Results 1978: These data cover examination results supplied by schools, for examinations respondents had taken up to 1978. See documentation for further details.

No sampling (total universe)

See documentation for further details.

Face-to-face interview

Self-administered questionnaire

Educational measurements and tests