Title: The Millennium Cohort Study Sweep 6 (Age 14) Survey
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a unique, multidisciplinary research resource. Following the lives of over 19,000 children born across the UK around the turn of the millennium, it builds on the UK's rich, and unequalled, array of cohort studies. With collection of information at ages 9 months, 3, 5, 7 and 11 years, it enables analysis of change in children's lives and of the processes that influence them as they grow up. The MCS has provided a resource for research across a wide range of disciplines and subject areas. It has used a variety of data collection methods and instruments, as well as data linkage to enable research and policy agendas in areas ranging from obesity to school choice; from the emergence of socio-economic differences in cognitive functioning to ethnic differences in breast-feeding; from the impacts of maternal employment to father's involvement in children's activities; from home learning environment to physical activity; from patterns of behavioural difficulties to changes in family structure over the early years. MCS has already shown clear policy impacts; and it has influenced the design and development of birth cohort studies in other countries, including New Zealand, Ireland and France, as well as the new British birth cohort study. It is widely used not only in UK-based research, but internationally. The reputation and significance of the MCS is well-established and is set to increase in coming years. The current proposal is for a further survey of the MCS cohort at age 14 as a critical point in young people's lives, both in terms of their development and education. In doing this it builds on the accumulation of information collected at key developmental stages of the cohort members. It is important scientifically because it is a time when people are in-between childhood and adulthood, when many trajectories are still possible, but many will also be heavily influenced by the choices and behaviours they engage in at this age. It is a time when we can see the outcome of early childhood indicators; while, looking forward, age 14 will constitute a point at which teenage paths can diverge through disengagement and different educational aspirations and choices. The measures we capture at age 14 will be significant for addressing the relation to later life outcomes and enabling understanding of change over time through cross-cohort comparisons. The age 14 sweep is also important in data collection terms, since it may be the last sweep at which the cohort members are surveyed at their parental home. At the same time, it is an age when direct engagement of the respondents themselves, distinct from their families, is crucial to the long-term viability of the study. Like earlier sweeps, the age 14 sweep plans to combine continuity with previous sweeps, comparability with other surveys, and innovation in its selection of measures. It will do this through a variety of data collection instruments comprising interviews and self-completion with both parents; interview and self-completion with the cohort member; measures of height, weight and body fat; direct assessments of cognitive functioning; teacher perspectives on the cohort child and the school context; a time diary to record the child's daily activities; and collection of consent to enable the survey data to be complemented and amplified through administrative data linkage. Through careful development; rigorous data collection; high quality data deposit; comprehensive dissemination, capacity building and user engagement, MCS6 will provide enormous scientific and policy relevant potential and will consolidate the study's national and international reach and reputation.


Research activity codes: 2.4 SURVEILLANCE AND DISTRIBUTION
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE