The final part of the concluding episode of the 7 Up documentary series will air on 22 September. The series, which has tracked the experiences of fourteen people since 1964, has captivated audiences for over six decades while also showcasing the value of longitudinal studies.
To mark the final episode, we asked Professor Meena Kumari, Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), for her thoughts on the series. Based at the University of Essex, the ISER is a leading centre for longitudinal studies and the home of Understanding Society. Professor Kumari told us the 7 Up series highlights both the power of longitudinal data and some of the key challenges faced by those who administer longitudinal studies.
Q: How important has the 7 Up series been in raising awareness about the power of longitudinal studies?
A: The most important contribution is that the 7 Up series has raised awareness about the power of longitudinal studies at an intuitive level. In the series they use a Jesuit maxim ‘give me the child for seven years and I’ll show you the man’ which helps illustrate the value of following the same people from the age of seven, in this case, into adulthood.
We really get to see and understand their lives. The series highlights the power of repeatedly going back to the same person over time in an entertaining and informative way.
Although not framed as research in the series, the programme raises research questions that are similar to ones that many researchers have addressed using the longitudinal studies that are available via the UK Data Service, including the birth cohort studies and Understanding Society. All these studies help us answer the question: do early life conditions shape later outcomes?
Q: The lives of the people who have featured in the series have varied dramatically. How have their stories helped illustrate some of the key trends experienced by people living across the UK?
A: The series has featured people whose lives ‘map’ onto a number of the social changes that have occurred in the last sixty years. You can see this in the opening up of educational opportunities that happened in the 1960s, with a number of the 7 Up participants going to university from working class backgrounds. The programme has also tracked changes in gender expectations or family formation, with a number of the women participants marrying later than in earlier times and delaying the start of families.
Q: The series also highlights the challenges that come with administering longitudinal studies, such as maintaining contact with participants over time. What lessons can be taken from 7 Up for current and future studies?
A: The series follows a very small number of people compared with the UK’s major longitudinal studies, which typically track thousands of participants. Even with only fourteen individuals, the project still experienced participant withdrawal, although the reasons for leaving may be specific to the programme.
The Up series nevertheless illustrates the kinds of life circumstances that can make continued participation in longitudinal research difficult. For example, two participants faced job loss and periods of economic hardship, suggesting that competing pressures and instability in people’s lives can reduce their ability to remain engaged in long‑term studies.
Although the series is great and very interesting, it only tells us the stories of 14 people who took part in a television series for sixty years. We don’t know what the impact of being filmed might be.
In contrast, UK longitudinal studies try to take a scientific approach to the populations that they sample, so that we can find out about the experiences of the whole population. For example, Understanding Society, the study I currently work on, can statistically ‘weight’ the data collected to enable researchers to make population level inferences.
Q: Is the withdrawal of participants a major issue with the surveys you work on too?
A: The series has been very helpful in highlighting some of the challenges that many of us that work in longitudinal studies must navigate. Longitudinal studies such as Understanding Society work hard to keep in touch with participants, but all longitudinal studies experience ‘loss to follow-up’, which is when they lose contact with participants. This can happen when people move abroad, or become homeless or otherwise unavailable.
The 7 Up series showed us that circumstances can get in the way of participation, as a number of the original participants moved abroad for extended period of times and one participant became homeless. It was interesting to see that participants left the series when times were difficult but later came back. For example, one participant didn’t take part in one year because they were going through a divorce. We see this happen in longitudinal studies too – sometimes people take a short break from the study but return later.
Q: How much have you personally enjoyed the series?
A: I do personally love this series. It speaks to some of my own research interests, as it asks the question of whether our early life experience is the only thing that matters for a person’s later life. The programme shows that the actual answer is that life is not like that, even if we follow just fourteen people.
The theories we use about what happens across life are pertinent and show that we need to collect longitudinal data that illustrate how people respond to changes in society in their many ways. We’re so fortunate to have such rich data on the experiences of the UK population through our longitudinal studies. Additionally, the study has been fun to watch and will be missed once it ends.