Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children - sampler files

ESDS Longitudinal has recently released a set of social science sampler datasets from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Each of the six datasets contains a subset of variables compiled using questionnaire and/or assessment data on a particular topic – household composition, attitudes toward neighbourhood, housing conditions, socio-economic information, child/parental height and parental employment/occupation. These bespoke datasets were created by the ALSPAC study team with ESRC funding and are designed both as introductory data files for researchers and for use in undergraduate classrooms as teaching resources for quantitative methods courses.

ALSPAC (also known as the 'Children of the 90s' study), which is based at the University of Bristol, is an ongoing longitudinal study of a population of children born to mothers resident in one geographic area in England.

Information has been collected at regular and frequent intervals from pregnancy and throughout childhood concerning the child's physical environments, parental characteristics (including economic and educational indicators), social circumstances, and family relationships. ALSPAC recruited more than 14,000 pregnant women with estimated dates of delivery between April 1991 and December 1992, who were living in the Avon Health Authority area, to take part in the study.

The ALSPAC team have created an online forum for social and economic researchers, which includes information for those wishing to apply for access to other ALSPAC data.