Guide to Millennium Cohort Study
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ESDS Longitudinal provides:
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a web-based download service
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specialist user support (linking with specialist support provided by the Centre
for Longitudinal Studies (CLS))
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training and workshops
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a range of value-added data enhancements for a number of key UK longitudinal
data collections, including the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
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The MCS follows the lives of a sample of nearly 19,000 babies born between 1
September 2000 and 31 August 2001 in England and Wales, and between 22 November
2000 and 11 January 2002 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Information has been
collected from parents when the children were aged nine months and at around
three years of age. The sample design allowed for disproportionate
representation of families living in areas of child poverty, in the smaller
countries of the UK and in areas with high ethnic minority populations in
England.
The first survey recorded the circumstances of pregnancy and birth, as well as
those of the all-important early months of life, and the social and economic
background of the family into which the children have been born. The main
objectives of the second survey were to chart continuity and change in the
child's family and parenting environment, to assess key aspects of the child's
physical, cognitive, social and emotional development and to maximise
longitudinal potential for predicting and explaining future development.
The study's broad objective is to create a new multi-purpose longitudinal
dataset, describing the diversity of backgrounds from which children born in
the new century are setting out on life.
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Access to the MCS
Users registered with the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) have access
to the MCS datasets via the instant download service or can analyse, visualise,
subset and download selected data from MCS via the online Nesstar software
tool.
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MCS datasets:
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ESDS Nesstar Catalogue:
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Exploring data online using the ESDS Nesstar Catalogue:
Users can register with ESDS at:
MCS - ESDS data holdings and planned future developments
The MCS data currently available via ESDS are Surveys 1 to 3, a sub-study of
mothers who received assisted fertility treatment, birth registration/maternity
hospital episode data, and hospital of birth data (under special licence). Also
under special licence are ward, Census Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) and
Output Area (OA) geographical identifiers. The MCS team plan to deposit
additional data at a later date, including:
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further sub-studies on childcare and a health visitor survey are likely to be
accessible via special licence conditions only
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MCS Survey 4 dataset: fieldwork for MCS4 takes place across the whole of 2008 and it is
envisaged that the data will be released to users in 2010
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MCS in Nesstar
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The full MCS1 dataset is available to browse in Nesstar - . Unregistered users may browse
unweighted frequency counts and access the study's metadata. Users registered
with the ESDS may cross-tabulate variables, subset the data, weight their
results, create derived variables and download the study via Nesstar.
ESDS Longitudinal plans to add additional MCS data to Nesstar over the next 12
months.
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MCS resources
There are a host of invaluable MCS resources available on the CLS web site,
including:
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MCS survey design:
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results:
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current and future data collections:
See also the Question Bank - Millennium Cohort Study - Overview:
Users interested in longitudinal studies more generally, including other UK and
non-UK birth cohort studies, may be interested in the resources linked to from
the ESRC United Kingdom Longitudinal Studies Centre:
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UK Longitudinal Surveys
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non-UK Longitudinal Surveys
Users are also welcome to keep up to date with MCS and other longitudinal data
developments via the ESDS Longitudinal JISCmail list and/or by registering
with the CLS.
User documentation
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ESDS user documentation for the MCS can be downloaded in the form of
multi-volume user guides in PDF format from the Data Catalogue at . These guides cover the elements
of MCS that are currently held by ESDS and include the Technical Report on
Response, Neighbourhood Assessment Form, Study Information and Citation, and
Guide to the Datasets.
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Key publications
Shirley Dex and Heather Joshi (eds.) (2004)
Millennium Cohort Study first
survey: a user's guide to initial findings, downloadable via
Kirstine Hansen and Heather Joshi (eds.) (2007)
Millennium Cohort Study second
survey: a user's guide to initial findings, downloadable via
For further work on the MCS, search the resource at:
www.esds.ac.uk/longitudinal longitudinal@esds.ac.uk
L33359 Guide to Millennium Cohort Study
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