Overview of key data sources: Growing Up in Scotland

Organisation responsible: The Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study is commissioned by the Scottish Government and 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 at the University of Glasgow.

Background and purpose: GUS follows the lives of a national sample of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens. It is one of the largest longitudinal studies ever done in Scotland and is designed to provide information that will help develop policies affecting children and their families. The study seeks to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years (and their main carers) and to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and development with particular reference to the role of early years' service provision.

Study length: The survey began in 2005 and initially recruited a total of 8,000 children in 2 cohorts: 5000 babies (~10 months) and 3,000 toddlers (~34 months). Funding was originally secured for the first four sweeps of data collection (2005/06-2008/09) with parents of children in both cohorts interviewed annually. The Scottish Government has recently commissioned the second stage of GUS (2009/10-2012/13) which will involve follow up the original birth cohort for a further four years and the introduction of a new birth cohort in 2011/12. There is currently no funding commitment for further follow up of the child cohort, i.e. beyond 2008/09. Fieldwork for Sweep 5 (2009/10) has now started and will run until May 2010.

Survey content: The interviews at each sweep collect information from the child's main carer about a range of issues related to young children and their parents including:

• characteristics and circumstances of children and their families in Scotland;
• housing, neighbourhood and community - including accommodation characteristics, ownership of material goods, moving home, appraisal and use of local facilities, involvement in local groups;
• food and eating - including eating habits, main meals, types of food eaten, sources of advice on children's diets/healthy eating;
• activities with others - including participation in educational, social or recreational activities at home and elsewhere, and visits to places or events;
• child health and development - including general health, long-standing and acute illness, health service contact, use of Accident and Emergency, hospital admissions, anthropometric measurements, communication and behavioural development indicators;
• parenting styles and responsibilities - including awareness, use and appraisal of parenting techniques, parent-child activities, household division of labour;
• main carer support - including informal social networks, access to informal support, attendance at groups and classes, attitudes towards and use of formal support services;
• childcare and work-life balance - including details of childcare used, cost, choice, employers' family friendly policies, and attitudes to work-life balance;
• experience of pre-school - including uptake, reasons for enrolling, child's adjustment to and readiness for pre-school, sources of advice and information;
• main carer's physical and emotional health - including general health, long-standing illness, depression and stress, couple relationships.

Target population: Young children resident in Scotland.

Sample size: The study was designed to achieve a random stratified sample of 5,000 babies (birth cohort) and 3,000 toddlers (child cohort) at the time of initial interview. The sample was drawn from Child Benefits Records (CBR) held by the Department of Work and Pensions. Initial interviews were successfully completed with 5,217 families from the birth cohort and 2,858 from the child cohort.

Response rate: In the first year (2005/06), 81% of families in the birth cohort and 80% of those in the child cohort responded. The response rate for the second sweep (2006/07) was 88% for the birth cohort and 89% for the child cohort. Ninety percent of each cohort that participated in Sweep 2 also took part in Sweep 3.

Method of data collection: The main source of data is a face-to-face computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) with the cohort child's main carer, usually the child's mother.

Smallest geographical unit reported: Scotland.

Availability of results and further information: Reports from Sweeps 1, 2 and 3 (2005/06-2007/08) of the survey are currently available from the Growing Up in Scotland. The datasets from Sweeps 1 and 2 of the study are available to download from the UK Data Archive. Data from Sweep 3 will be available by August 2009.