Data from the Age 17 Sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) are now available from the UK Data Service.
MCS
is a birth cohort study following the lives of just over 19,500 young
people across the UK, born in 2000-02. The data collected from this
latest sweep provide rich insights into the experiences of a generation
at a pivotal point in their lives, on the cusp of adulthood, and add to
the wealth of information previously collected from the cohort
throughout their formative years.
The Age 17 Sweep is the seventh
sweep of the study and is the first to focus predominantly on hearing
direct from cohort members about their experiences rather than
questioning their parents, reflecting their increased independence as
they moved into their adult lives.
A total of 10,757 cohort
members took part in the sweep, which included a face to face interview
and self-completion and online questionnaires. Cohort members were also
asked to complete a numbers-based task, providing an objective measure
of their numeracy skills. Their height, weight and body fat were
measured, capturing valuable objective data for health research. Both
cohort members and parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire - a first for cohort members – strengthening the
study’s position as a leading resource for examining the mental health
and wellbeing of young people today.
Researchers will be able to
use the new data, alongside information collected through previous
sweeps, to examine how young people’s pathways diverge and the role
prior life experiences play in this. The data cover a comprehensive
range of topics, including education and training, transitions to the
job market, mental health and wellbeing, physical development,
personality, identity, attitudes and expectations, engagement in risky
behaviours, and social media activity.
Professor Emla Fitzsimons,
Director of the Millennium Cohort Study, said: “The Millennium Cohort
Study has been tracking the lives of thousands of people since they were
babies and is uniquely placed to help researchers better understand Gen
Z and the influences on different spheres of their lives now, including
their mental and physical health, their intellectual development and
relationships.
“Taken together with data from our earlier sweeps,
the new age 17 data will shed further light on how experiences in
childhood can resonate through life, shaping the adults we become, and
the pressures and challenges young people face. This in turn will help
policymakers understand how best to support young people.
“Crucially,
these new data give us a detailed picture of a generation’s lives
before the coronavirus crisis struck, and this will be an important
piece of the puzzle when we look at what the long term impacts of the
pandemic have been on the lives of people in the UK.”
As part of
this sweep, cohort members were also asked for consent to link a range
of administrative records to their survey data, adding to the education data
that have already been linked to the study. When available in the
future, these linked datasets will expand the range of research
opportunities made possible by MCS.
How to access the data
The Age 17 Sweep data are available from the UK Data Service.
Find out more
Detailed information on the content of the Age 17 Sweep is included in the user guide, available from the CLS website and the UK Data Service website. The MCS Data Handling Guide is also available here.
The
Longitudinal Family File contains information about the outcomes of a
family in each sweep. This means that it can be used to follow cases
longitudinally. It also includes the weights that have been calculated
for sweeps 1 to 6 and the user can use them either for research on one
sweep or when using more than one sweep. A user guide for this file is
available here.