New
babies to join GUS
Sweep 5 complete
Launch of Sweep 6
Sweep 4 findings published
Reaching a wider audience
Sweep 4 data now available
How
GUS is being used
Early
Years news
New research findings from other longitudinal studies
Links to other birth cohort studies
Contact us
New babies to join GUS
A new group or ‘cohort’ of babies will be joining GUS from January 2011. Around 6,000 families with children born between 1st March 2010 and 28th February 2011 will be recruited to take part. As with the previous cohorts, a representative sample of families from all parts of Scotland will be invited to participate. The information collected will be used to find out if the circumstances and experiences of children in Scotland are changing and whether current policies and services for young children and their families are improving lives.
Preparations for the launch of the new cohort are already well underway. A broad range of stakeholders have been consulted on the proposed content of the first questionnaire and responses are currently being reviewed. The themes of the questionnaire will broadly match those covered at sweep 1 of the initial cohort including household composition, family socio-economic circumstances, the pregnancy and birth, child health and development, use of childcare and parenting. However, the current review process aims to improve on the original questionnaire by addressing any identified gaps in the original data and updating some questions and instruments. The new questionnaire will be piloted twice during autumn this year.
Sweep 5 complete
The fifth round of annual interviews with our existing birth cohort is now complete with just over 3,800 families taking part. Response rates remained high at around 92%. At Sweep 5, the children are aged just under 5 years old and some had started primary school.
The GUS team have now started to analyse the new data from Sweep 5. Findings will be published in spring 2010.
Launch
of Sweep 6
The sixth round of annual interviews with our existing birth cohort
began in April and will run until May 2011. By the time of their Sweep
6 interview, the children are nearly 6 years old and all have started
primary school. As well as updating core information on family composition,
socio-economic circumstances, childcare, housing and child health,
the sweep 6 interview is also collecting data on contact with and support
from the child’s grandparents, awareness of and attendance at
parenting programmes, early experiences of primary school, levels of
physical activity and social networks. The children and their mothers
are also having their height and weight measurements taken.
Birth cohort families will not be visited next year but will be contacted again to arrange an interview when the children are aged just under 8 years. The families with children in the older cohort may not be visited for a few years but we will stay in touch and keep them up to date with what is happening with GUS.
If you are taking part in GUS and have moved home, please contact us with your new address by e-mailing gus@scotcen.org.uk or by completing the change of details form on our website. This will make it easier for us to keep in touch with you.
Sweep
4 findings published
Five new reports using information collected during the first four
years of GUS were published in April. The new findings were widely
reported in the media. The report topics are:
• Health inequalities in the early years
• The circumstances of persistently poor children
• Maternal mental health and its impact on child development and behaviour
•
Children’s social, emotional and behavioural characteristics at
entry to primary school.
• Impact of the home learning environment on child cognitive development:
secondary analysis of data from GUS
Themes emerging from the new findings include the impact of poverty and poor health (of parent or child) on child development during the early years, which in turn affects readiness for school.
The reports and summaries can be downloaded from our website.
Our annual newsletter for study participants summarises some of the key findings. You can download the newsletter here.
The findings were presented at our Annual Conference in Edinburgh on 29th April which was attended by 170 people representing a wide range of organisations working with for families with young children. Adam Ingram MSP, Minister for Children and the Early Years welcomed the new findings. Mr Ingram said ‘The GUS findings show that children’s early outcomes are affected by a range of factors including their own and parent’s health, family relationships and social support; and perceptions of the local neighbourhood. Thus, to tackle inequalities a broad range of issues need to be addressed. We are clear that, together, our three social frameworks provide the broad –based , collaborative approach necessary to tackle the problems of childhood disadvantage and I am confident they will contribute to an improvement the outcomes of young Scottish children, by not just focusing on individuals, but also paying attention to the role of their wider families and communities’.
You can read a full version of the speech here
The conference was followed up by a series of 4 lunchtime seminars to provide opportunities for targeted audiences of policy makers and practitioners to discuss the findings of each report in more detail. The seminars were attended by a range of professionals, including senior people from Government, Education and Health. You can read a summary of the seminar discussions here.
Reaching
a wider audience - further dissemination of GUS findings
Paul Bradshaw, Research Director for GUS, has been asked to speak
at a conference on Child Poverty in Scotland being organised
by Holyrood Events. The aim of the conference is to consider
how national targets to reduce child poverty can be met through
local activity. Paul will talk about the findings from our persistent
poverty report. The Scottish Government’s Tackling Poverty
team will use this event as a consultation event for Scotland’s
Child Poverty Strategy. For more information about this conference,
please click here.
Members of the GUS team are also contributing to the following events by giving presentations and running workshops:
- The Scottish Learning Festival (22/23 September, SECC, Glasgow)
- Annual Conference for Educational Psychologists in Scotland (30 September, Heriot Watt University)
- NHS Health Scotland Early Years conference (5/6 October, Heriot Watt University)
- Parenting Across Scotland conference, 10 November, Edinburgh
Sweep 4 data now available
The data from Sweep 4 of GUS is now available to download from the UK Data Archive
As with Sweeps 1 to 3, the data documentation including a copy of the Questionnaire is also available to download from the Archive or from the GUS website (see Using GUS data button).
Here is a reminder of the broad topics covered by GUS so far:
Household composition
Non-resident parents
Pregnancy and birth (at Sweep 1)
The first few months of parenting (at Sweep 1)
Child health and development (including cognitive ability testing and
height and weight measurements)
Food and nutrition
Parental support
Parenting styles and responsibilities
Parenting activities
Parental health, including mental health
Child, parent and family social networks
Childcare
Transitions to school and pre-school
Neighbourhood and community
Work, employment and income
Accommodation
Access to services, use of services and attitudes about service use
For an A-Z of findings to date please see our A-Z Topic Index, covering 70 topics.
If you are using GUS data, please let us know (contact lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk)
Earlier this year, we ran two Data Workshops to promote and support the use of GUS data by academics and others. You can access the workshop materials, including presentation slides, here.
How GUS is being used
The GUS report on 'The Circumstances of Persistently Poor Children' was discussed at the Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee meeting on 5th May 2010, where Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister gave her assurances that the evidence would be used to 'drive debate and action'. See note of the meeting here.
We asked delegates at our Annual Conference how they have been using data and findings from GUS in their work. Here are some examples of the responses we received:
‘GUS is always a useful source of information for funding applications’
‘We are using GUS to help develop a Family Support Network for our area’
‘I use GUS as part of the course materials for BA Childhood Practice students’
‘I disseminate the findings to schools so they can use the information to inform practice and health improvement activities’
‘As antenatal educator, information on maternal well-being and how it affects child development can help to inform my approach in preparing women for the realities of motherhood and how to access support in their and their babies' interests’
‘We have created briefing papers about physical activity and food and nutrition for key staff within Culture and Sport Glasgow (play workers, community education teams etc.)’
‘I use the findings to provide a research evidence base in reports and recommendations for our children's plan/ social work’
Early Years news
Susan Deacon to lead new dialogue on early years action
Former Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon is to lead a wide-ranging, national dialogue on how best to take action to improve children's early years of life. Recommendations for practical action will be made by the end of the year.
Read the Press Release here.
Pledge for Scotland's Children 2010
At Scotland’s first Children’s Summit on 23rd June, Education Secretary Mike Russell called on everyone to recognise the social and economic benefits of investing in the critical early years of children's lives and to now work together in the national interest. Education and Health Ministers signed a pledge at the Children's Summit to improve outcomes for children despite the financial climate. All participants at the event, including frontline staff working with children across Scotland and representatives from children's charities, were also invited to sign the pledge.
Read the Press Release here.
Download a copy of the pledge
here.
New Early Years Health Improvement
Web Resource
NHS Health Scotland will launch a new Maternal and Early Years website
for professionals on the 5 October. The website aims to provide a 'one
stop shop' for health improvement information spanning from pregnancy to
8 years. The website has been designed to be used by early years professionals
across the NHS, Local Government and the Community and Voluntary Sector
and aims to support partnership working and the delivery of shared outcomes.
New research findings from other longitudinal research studies
Some interesting examples of the use of data from longitudinal studies have been published recently:
Marriage and relationship stability
Using data from the Millennium cohort study, researchers at the Nuffield Foundation have found that while cohabiting parents are more likely to separate than married ones, there is little evidence that marriage per se is the cause of greater stability between parents. Relationship stability is determined not by marriage but by other factors such as age, education, income and delaying and planning pregnancy. The researchers also found that children’s development outcomes are not affected by their parents’ marital status once other factors are taken into account.
The Briefing Note is available at:
http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn107.pdf
Poorer children’s educational attainment: how important are attitudes and behaviour?
Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of
Parents and Children, the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and
the British Cohort Study 1970, researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
found that that the performance of children with the same ability varies widely
depending upon the attitudes of both the children themselves and their parents.
These were shown to be very different between rich and poor families throughout
the primary and early secondary years (ages 7 to 16).
http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/educational-attainment-poor-children
The causal effect of breastfeeding on children’s cognitive development
Further evidence of the relationship between breastfeeding and cognitive development
by researchers at University College Dublin using data from the MCS and the
1958 National Child Development Study:
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/ucnwpaper/201005.htm
Article by Polly Toynbee on the value of birth cohort studies
In this article, featured
in The Guardian, Polly Toynbee comments on the unique nature and value of
the British Cohort Studies;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/07/deficit-cuts-birth-cohort-studies-britain
Other research
Action for Children report ‘Deprivation
and risk: the case for early intervention’
http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/uploads/media/36/9432.pdf
Links to other birth cohort studies
Millennium Cohort Study
http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/
Growing up in Ireland
http://www.growingup.ie/
Growing Up in Australia (Longitudinal Study of Australian children)
http://www.aifs.gov.au/growingup/
Growing Up in New Zealand
http://www.growingup.co.nz/
GUS
Contacts
Paul Bradshaw, Research Director, The Scottish Centre
for Social Research
paul.bradshaw@scotcen.org.uk
Lesley Kelly, GUS Dissemination Officer, CRFR, Edinburgh University
lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk
Wendy
van Rijswijk, Senior Research Officer, Scottish Government
Wendy.vanRijswijk@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
If
you no longer wish to receive information about GUS, please
contact lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk to
be taken off the e-mail list.
GUS is funded by The Scottish Government and
is being carried out by The Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen)
in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships
(CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC Social and Public
Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow.