Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)

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Measures describe a question asked to a participant during a survey or an item of information requested from a manager when they fill out a data return. For example, ‘Who do you live with?’ is a measure and the possible responses might be, mother, father, brother, sister etc.

View additional information about these measures on CLOSER Discovery →

Need/provision/receipt	Description of measure	Start Year	Age range	Age from	Age to	Informant	Multiple rater	Reporting term	Sweep title	Standard instrument	Question/Data item	Response scale	Notes	Physical health measures	Dataset
Provision;	Caring responsibilities	2018	17-17	17	17	Participant	No	Currently	MCS7 (Age 17 Survey)	No	Taking account of all the unpaid help you give, including travelling time, about how long did you spend looking after people last week?	1 0-2 hours 2 3-4 hours 3 5-9 hours 4 10-19 hours 5 20-29 hours 6 30 hours or more		None	MCS
Provision;	Caring responsibilities	2018	17-17	17	17	Participant	No	Currently	MCS7 (Age 17 Survey)	No	Please tell us who you care for.	1 Your mother 2 Your father 3 Your brother(s) 4 Your sister(s) 5 Your grandmother(s) 6 Your grandfather(s) 7 Somebody else (PLEASE WRITE IN)		None	MCS
Provision;	Caring responsibilities	2018	17-17	17	17	Participant	No	Currently	MCS7 (Age 17 Survey)	No	Some people have extra responsibilities because they look after someone who has long- term physical or mental health difficulties or disability, or problems related to old age. ADD INFO BUTTON: “For example: cooking, cleaning, shopping, providing nursing and personal care, and giving emotional support.” Do you regularly look after anyone who is ill, disabled or elderly and in need of care, without being paid? This includes both people who live with you and those who live elsewhere. Please do not include caring you do for others that you do in a professional capacity (i.e. as a job).	1 Yes 2 No	None		MCS

Aims

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a national longitudinal birth cohort study following the lives of around 19,000 young people born in the United Kingdom in 2000-01. This multidisciplinary survey aims to capture the influence of early family context on child development and outcomes. Children from minority ethnic backgrounds and children in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are oversampled to help capture the diversity of backgrounds into which children are born in the beginning of the 21st century.

Institution

Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) - Institute of Education (IoE), UCL

Geographic coverage - Nations

England; Northern Ireland; Scotland; United Kingdom; Wales;

Start date

2000

Minimum age at recruitment

Sample Size

18,818

Sample

Study design

Birth cohort

Sample details

Children born between September 2000 and January 2002. The sample was selected from a random sample of electoral wards, disproportionately stratified to ensure adequate representation of all four UK countries, deprived areas and areas with high concentrations of Black and Asian families.
An additional 692 families who were eligible for MCS1 but weren't picked up by the child benefit system were recruited at the age 3 survey.

Sex

All

Sample Characteristics

Birth cohort

Sample size at most recent sweep

11,726 children (MCS6)

Data Access

UK Data Service

https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/data-access-training/access-ukds/

Complementary Data

Genetic/genomic data
Linked administrative data
Mapping/spatial data

Genetic Data Collected

Yes

Linked Data

Education data

HDR UK Innovation Gateway

https://web.www.healthdatagateway.org/dataset/2b09ea87-5b22-4049-b7dd-de0889699115

Website

cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/millennium-cohort-study/

Notes

Also known as Child of the New Century

Related Measures

Benefits, Cognitive measures, Covid-19 data collection, Diet and nutrition, Education, Ethnicity and race, Faith/religion, Housing, Income/household income, Language and literacy, Loneliness and social isolation, Mental health measures, Migration and immigration, Neighbourhood and community, Parenting and family, Physical health assessment, Political and social attitudes, Sexuality and gender identity, Sleep problems, Social support, Socioeconomic status and deprivation, Technology - Assistive/Digital, Work and employment,

Study Code

MCS

Reference paper(s)

Connelly R & Platt, L. (2014) Cohort Profile: UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). International Journal of Epidemiology, 43, 1719-1725.

doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyu001

Joshi H & Fitzsimmons E. (2016) The Millennium Cohort Study: the making of a multi-purpose resource for social science and policy. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 7, 409-430.

dx.doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v7i4.410

Catalogue of Social Care Data

UNITING SOCIAL CARE DATA

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