The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a longitudinal survey conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, following the lives of a sample of about 18,818 babies born in the UK in the year 2000–2001.

History

The MCS is the fourth longitudinal birth cohort study conducted in the UK. Its aim is to create a multi-purpose data-set that describes the diversity of backgrounds into which children are born in the beginning of the 21st century. The information collected includes topics such as child development,

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). A ...

and family life in order to identify possible advantages and disadvantages that the children are facing. The survey is conducted in different sweeps with the first one concentrating on the circumstances of the pregnancy and birth as well as the first few months of life. This first part of the survey is also important to record the socio-economic background of the family into which the child is born. The second sweep took place when the children were about 3 years of age and the main focus was on continuity and change in the family as well as the parenting environment to extract information about the child’s development. In the third sweep in 2006, the children were at the age of starting primary school. The fourth sweep took place in 2008, the fifth was in 2012 and the sixth in 2015. The following sweep was planned for 2018. The MCS is funded mainly by the

Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...

(ESRC) and various government departments, such as the

Department for Children, Schools and Families Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was repla ...

, the

Department of Health (United Kingdom) The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwis ...

(DH) and the

Department for Work and Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stre ...

(DfWP). The Scottish Government, the

Welsh Assembly Government Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

and the

Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the term ...

have also contributed to fund the survey.

Heather Joshi Heather Evelyn Joshi, ( Spooner; born 21 April 1946) is a British academic, economist, and demographer. She is Emeritus Professor of Economic and Developmental Demography at the University of London. She was Director of the Centre for Longitudin ...

was director of the survey from 2000 to 2011. Emla Fitzsimons was the director from 2013.

Methodology and scope

The sample is structured by geographical clusters, allowing certain areas with significant

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

(in England), high levels of

child poverty Child poverty refers to the state of children living in poverty and applies to children from poor families and orphans being raised with limited or no state resources. UNICEF estimates that 356 million children live in extreme poverty. It's estima ...

, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be overrepresented.

Survey results

By 2016 the MCS findings have already been included in over 700 journal articles, books, etc.

References

Bibliography

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External links

ESDS Longitudinal website Millennium Cohort Study data setsCentre for Longitudinal Studies website
British medical research Society of the United Kingdom Child welfare in the United Kingdom Cohort studies Demographics of the United Kingdom UCL Institute of Education