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Title:
Growing Up in Scotland: Sweeps 1 to 4, 2005-2009
(GUS)

Subject Categories:
Primary, pre-primary and secondary - Education
Childbearing, family planning and abortion - Health
General - Health
Nutrition - Health
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and culture
Child development and child rearing - Social stratification and groupings
Social and occupational mobility - Social stratification and groupings
Youth - Social stratification and groupings

Depositor(s):
Scottish Centre for Social Research

Principal Investigator(s):
Scottish Centre for Social Research

Sponsor(s):
Scottish Executive. Education Directorate

Other Acknowledgements:
The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, contributed to questionnaire design.

Abstract:
The Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study is a large-scale longitudinal social survey which follows the lives of groups of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens, and aims to provide important new information on young children and their families in Scotland. The study forms a central part of the Scottish Government's strategy for the long-term monitoring and evaluation of its policies for children, with a specific focus on the early years. Unlike other similar cohort studies, this survey has a specifically Scottish focus.

The primary objective of GUS is to address a significant gap in the evidence base for early years policy monitoring and evaluation. The data collected will also serve wider policy research requirements for cross-sectional analysis of issues affecting children and young people. The study seeks both to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years (and their parents) in Scotland and to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and development with particular reference to the role of early years service provision.

The development of the study and the first four years of fieldwork and analysis are being undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, based at the University of Edinburgh. The survey design consisted of recruiting an initial total of 8,000 parents in 2005, compiling two cohorts of children (5,000 from birth, 3,000 from age two), and then interviewing parents annually, until their child reaches age five. Funding has been secured for the first eight sweeps of data collection (2005 - 2012) including the introduction of a new birth cohort in 2011.

Further information about the survey may be found on the Growing Up in Scotland web site.

The first edition of the study (December 2007) contained data and documentation for Sweep 1, 2005. The second edition (January 2008) contained revised data for Sweep 1 with some syntax corrections and amended documentation. The third edition (April 2008) contained new versions of the data files with two additional variables (DaPSU, DaStrat) which can be used for taking account of design effects when producing standard errors. For the fourth edition (October 2008) data and documentation for Sweep 2, 2006-2007 were added to the study. For the fifth edition (December 2008), data from Sweep 1 data were revised. Variable DaHGnp01 in the child cohort data was updated, and some new derived variables (highest qualification for respondent and partner) were added to both Sweep 1 files. The documentation remained unchanged. For the sixth edition (August 2009) data and documentation for Sweep 3, 2007-2008 were added to the study. For the seventh edition (January 2010), Body Mass Index (BMI) variables were added to both the birth and cohort Sweep 2 datasets. For the eighth edition (July 2010), data and documentation for Sweep 4, conducted in 2008-2009, have been added to the study.

Main Topics:
The interviews at each sweep collected information from the child's main carer about a range of issues related to young children and their parents including:

• characteristics and circumstances of children and their families in Scotland - including contact with non-resident parents
• housing, neighbourhood and community - including accommodation characteristics, ownership of material goods, moving home, availability, use and assessment of local facilities, satisfaction with and child-friendliness of local area, feelings of safety, involvement in local groups
• food and eating - including eating habits, main meals, types of food eaten, sources of advice on children’s diets/healthy eating
• activities with others - including participation in educational, social or recreational activities at home and elsewhere, and visits to places or events, watching TV and videos, child's involvement in physical activity
• child health and development - including general health, longstanding and acute illness, health service contact, use of Accident and Emergency, hospital admissions, anthropometric measurements, cognitive, physical and behavioural development indicators and assessments, immunisations, short-term illness, problems in the last 3 months
• parenting styles and responsibilities - including awareness, use and appraisal of parenting techniques, parent-child activities, household division of labour, amount of children's media in household, parent-child attachment
• parental support - including informal social networks, access to informal support, attendance at groups and classes, attitudes towards and use of formal support services, contact with and support from child's grandparents, access to informal support, attendance at groups and classes, use of formal support services, attitudes to help-seeking and formal support
• childcare and work-life balance - including details of childcare used, cost, choice, employers' family friendly policies, and attitudes to work-life balance
• experience of pre-school - including uptake, reasons for enrolling, child’s adjustment to and readiness for pre-school, sources of advice and information
• early experiences of Primary school - including choice and enrolment at primary school, child’s adjustment and readiness, sources of advice and information, parental involvement in school events, child's support needs, educational aspirations, lunch, travel to and from school, breakfast and after-school clubs, homework, attitudes to schooling and education
• parental physical and emotional health - including general health, long-standing illness, depression and stress, mental and physical well-being, couple relationships, parental alcohol, tobacco and drug use
• child, parent and family social networks - including parental family and friendship networks
• parental employment, income and education - including index of material deprivation

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: Sweep 1 – 1 April 2005 to 28 February 2006; Sweep 2 – 1 April 2006 to 30 April 2007; Sweep 3 – 1 April 2007 to 31 May 2008; Sweep 4 – 1 April 2008 to 31 May 2009
Country: Scotland
Spatial Units: No spatial unit
Observation Units: Individuals; Families/households
Kind of Data: Numeric data; Individual (micro) level

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:National
Population:Interviews were conducted with the parents or main carers of babies born between June 2004 and May 2005, and children born between June 2002 and May 2003, resident in Scotland during 2005-2009

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Longitudinal/panel/cohort
Eight sweeps planned.
Sampling Procedures: Multi-stage stratified random sample
Number of Units: Sweep 1 - Babies: 5,217 (file gussw1b). Children: 2,859 (file gussw1c).
Sweep 2 - Babies: 4,512 (file gus_sw2_b). Children: 2,500 (file gus_sw2_c).
Sweep 3 – Babies: 4,193 (file gus_sw3_b). Children: 2,332 (gus_sw3_c)
Sweep 4 – Babies: 3,994 (file gus_sw4_b). Children: 2,200 (gus_sw4_c)
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview; Self-completion; Physical measurements
Weighting: Weighting used. See documentation for details.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: ESDS Access and Preservation, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: help@esds.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 4 December 2007
Latest Edition: 29 July 2010 ( 8th Edition )

Copyright:
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland

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