Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a longitudinal birth cohort study, following a nationally representative sample of over 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. Cohort members have been sureveyed throughout their childhood and adult lives, mapping their individual trajectories and creating a unique resource for researchers. It is one of very few longitudinal studies following people of this generation anywhere in the world.Since 1970, cohort members have been surveyed at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42 and 46. Featuring a range of objective measures and rich self-reported data, BCS70 covers an incredible amount of ground and can be used in research on many topics Evidence from BCS70 has illuminated important issues for our society across five decades. Key findings include how reading for pleasure matters for children's cognitive development, why grammar schools have not reduced social inequalities, and how childhood experiences can impact on mental health in mid-life. Every day researchers from across the scientific community are using this important study to make new connections and discoveries.BCS70 is run by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), a research centre in the UCL Institute of Education, which is part of University College London.  The content of BCS70 studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.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 BCS70 that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.Secure Access datasetsSecure Access versions of BCS70 have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL). Currently, only sensitive variables from the age 46 sweep are available under SN 9115, although sensitive survey data across all sweeps will be made available over time.

The 1970 British Cohort Study: Age 29, Sweep 6, 1999-2000 was conducted when respondents were aged 29-30. Fieldwork was conducted alongside the sixth wave of the National Child Development Study (NCDS6). SN 5558 supersedes the former combined NCDS6/BCS70 1999-2000 dataset. The Centre for Longitudinal Studies updated several BCS70 studies in late 2006, and as part of this work separated the composite NCDS6/BCS70 dataset. Improvements made include further data cleaning and the addition of new documentation. Users who have previously obtained SN 4396 should no longer use it, and should completely replace it with this one. The NCDS6 component is now held separately under SN 5578 National Child Development Study: Sweep 6, 1999-2000. For the fourth edition (June 2016) a small number of primary identifiers (BCSID) have been changed to realign them to previous sweeps of data. See the documentation for full details of the work done.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the BCS70 cohort member interview for 1999-2000 covered:household: household memberships and interrelationships; ethnicity; languages spoken in the homehousing: current address; intentions to move; homelessness; housing historyrelationships: marital status; relationship historychildren: pregnancy history; lone parenthood; infertility; adopted children; partner's children from a previous relationship; children over 16; family activities; demands of parentingfamily, social relationships and support: contact with family; emotional supportfamily income, including sources of income other than work; financial situationemployment: economic activity; current job; other paid work; unemployment; labour market histories; partner's joblifelong learning: qualifications; current course for qualification; assessment of current/most recent course; other courses and training; any lack of formal learning; contact with information technology; literacy and numeracyhealth: general health; long-term health conditions; respiratory problems; mental health; sight and hearing; other conditions; accidents/injuries; hospital admissions; smoking; drinking; diet; exercise; height and weightcitizenship and values: involvement with organisations; voting behaviour and intentions; political alignment; trade union membership; religion; newspaper readership; car ownership; values; political activityself-completion: opinions on key areas of life; quality of relationship with husband, wife or partner; work-related skills; psychological morbidity; experience of school exclusion and truancy; contact with the police and crime; use of illegal drugsStandard Measures: The attitude questions included in the instrumentation employ Likert-like scales. Other standard measures used include:Malaise Inventory: a measure of for assessing psychiatric morbidity, developed by Rutter and others at the Institute of Psychiatry from the Cornell Medical Index; Rutter, M., Tizard, J. and Whitemore K. (1970) Education, Health and Behaviour, London; and Rodgers, B. et al. (1999) 'Validity of the Malaise Inventory in general population samples', Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34, pp.333-341General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a self-administered screening test, designed to identify short-term changes in mental health (depression, anxiety, social dysfunction and somatic symptoms)Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, a measure of marital distress/happiness (see Locke, H. J., and Wallace, K. M. (1959) 'Short marital adjustment and prediction tests: their reliability and validity', Marriage and Family Living, 21, pp.251-255)

No sampling (total universe)

Face-to-face interview

Self-administered questionnaire

Psychological measurements and tests