BCS70 frequently asked questions

What is the main objective of the BCS70?

How often are people interviewed for the survey and who is interviewed?

What formats are the data available in?

Are the same questions asked in each wave?

Where can I obtain statistics and tables from the BCS70?

Does the BCS70 use standard coding schemes?

What is the most detailed regional level I can analyse the data at?

Before I order, how do I find out what questions/variables are included?

What is the file and variable naming convention?

When are future waves/sweeps likely to be made available?

What is the main objective of the BCS70?

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) began in 1970 when data were collected about the births and families of babies born in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in one particular week in 1970. The first survey, called the British Births Survey, was carried out by the National Birthday Trust Fund in association with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and its aims were to look at the social and biological characteristics of the mother in relation to neonatal morbidity, and to compare the results with those of the 1958 National Child Development Study.

With each successive sweep, the scope of the enquiry has broadened from a strictly medical focus at birth, to encompass physical and educational development at the age of 5, physical, educational and social development at the ages of 10 and 16, and physical, educational, social and economic development at 26 years.

How often are people interviewed for the survey and who is interviewed?

To date there have been six attempts to gather information from the full cohort: in 1975 (when members were aged five years), 1980 (age 10), 1986 (age 16), 1996 (age 26), 1999-2000 (age 29-30) and 2004-2005 (age 34-35). The five-year and 10-year surveys were carried out by the Department of Child Health, Bristol University, and the survey at these times was named the Child Health and Education Study (CHES). The 16-year survey was carried out by the International Centre for Child Studies and named Youthscan. There are also a number of other datasets (studies conducted on sub-samples of BCS70 respondents) associated with the main study - see 1970 British Cohort Study datasets.

What formats are the data available in?

Each sweep of the BCS70 is available in SPSS, Stata, and ASCII tab-delimited formats. The data can be requested in other formats, such as SAS.

Are the same questions asked in each wave?

The questionnaires used for each BCS70 sweep do not include a large number of repeated questions. This is because the BCS70 is a cohort study rather than a panel study and focuses on the progress of the cohort members (CMs) over their whole lifecourse. For each sweep, the information collected is relevant to the development of the cohort at that time point - the information collected when the CMs are five-years old is therefore different to that collected when the CMs are aged 29-30. Some topics are repeated, however. These generally relate to the CM's physical attributes, health status, employment status, family relationships, housing and education.

Where can I obtain statistics and tables from the BCS70?

Details of publications are given in the BCS70 resources section of the Guide to the 1970 British Cohort Study.

Does the BCS70 use standard coding schemes?

The data for sweeps 4 and 5 contain employment data in which occupations are coded according to various standard schemas, including SOC, KOS, CODOT, Goldthorpe social class and Registrar General's social class. Employment data on the cohort members' parents is also collected in sweep 1 of the study and coded according to the Registrar General's social class schema. Data for a number of standard health indicators have also been collected over the course of the BCS70; among them, Rutter et al's Malaise Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Lawseq (self-esteem scale), Caraloc (locus of control scale), Connors's Hyperactivity/Behavioural Scale and Rosenberg's Index of Mental Health. Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test scores are included in the 26-year survey data file.

What is the most detailed regional level I can analyse the data at?

For information on the availability of geographical variables for each of the major ESDS Longitudinal studies, see the Database of geography variables.

Before I order, how do I find out what questions/variables are included?

Variable lists and PDF user guides (including questionnaires) are freely available via 1970 British Cohort Study datasets.

What is the file and variable naming convention?

There are no obvious naming conventions.

When are future waves/sweeps likely to be made available?

See the following Centre for Longitudinal Studies British Cohort Study web pages: Current data collection and Data deposits.