Growing Up in Scotland: Cohort 1, Sweeps 1-8, 2005-2015: Special Licence Access

<p>The <em>Growing Up in Scotland</em> (GUS) study is a large-scale longitudinal social survey which follows the lives of groups of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens, and aims to provide important new information on young children and their families in Scotland. The study forms a central part of the Scottish Government's strategy for the long-term monitoring and evaluation of its policies for children, with a specific focus on the early years. Unlike other similar cohort studies, this survey has a specifically Scottish focus. <br> <br> The primary objective of GUS is to address a significant gap in the evidence base for early years policy monitoring and evaluation. The data collected will also serve wider policy research requirements for cross-sectional analysis of issues affecting children and young people. The study seeks both to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years (and their parents) in Scotland 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. <br> <br> The development, fieldwork and analysis for GUS are being undertaken by ScotCen Social Research in collaboration with the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow and the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, based at the University of Edinburgh. The survey design consisted of recruiting an initial total of 8,000 parents in 2005, comprising two sub-cohorts of children (5,000 from birth, 3,000 from age two), and then interviewing parents annually, until their child reached age five. Funding has been secured for the first eight sweeps of data collection, comprising Cohort 1 (2005 onwards) and the introduction of a new birth cohort in 2011 (Cohort 2, see under SN 7432).<br> <br> Further information about the survey may be found on the <a title="Growing Up in Scotland" href="https://growingupinscotland.org.uk/">Growing Up in Scotland</a> web site.<br> <br> <em>Special Licence data</em><br> Following a statistical disclosure review of these data by the Depositor they have been re-classified as Special Licence (SL). <br> <br> <em>Removal of Geographical Variables and Spatial Unit Variable</em><br> As of February 2018, at the data owner's request, the variables recording the 15% most deprived data zones, the 8 fold urban-rural classification and the Health Boards have been removed from all sweeps (where included). The list below contains the names of the variables that have been removed from each sweep.</p>
<ul><li>Sweep 1: ALaLow15, ALaHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 2: ALbLow15, ALbHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 3: DcURind1, DcADsco3, ALcHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 4: ALdURin1, ALdLow15, ALdHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 5: ALeURin1, ALeLow15, ALeHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 6: ALfURin1, ALfLow15, ALfHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 7: ALgURin1, ALgLow15, ALgHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 8: ALhURin1, ALhLow15, ALhHBdBc.</li></ul>
<p>Edition History:</p>
<ul><li>The first edition of the study (December 2007) contained data and documentation for Sweep 1, 2005.</li><li>The second edition (January 2008) contained revised data for Sweep 1 with some syntax corrections and amended documentation.</li><li>The third edition (April 2008) contained new versions of the data files with two additional variables (DaPSU, DaStrat) which can be used for taking account of design effects when producing standard errors.</li><li>For the fourth edition (October 2008) data and documentation for Sweep 2, 2006-2007 were added to the study. </li><li>For the fifth edition (December 2008), data from Sweep 1 data were revised. Variable DaHGnp01 in the child cohort data was updated, and some new derived variables (highest qualification for respondent and partner) were added to both Sweep 1 files. The documentation remained unchanged.</li><li>For the sixth edition (August 2009) data and documentation for Sweep 3, 2007-2008 were added to the study.</li><li>For the seventh edition (January 2010), Body Mass Index (BMI) variables were added to both the birth and cohort Sweep 2 datasets.</li><li>For the eighth edition (July 2010), data and documentation for Sweep 4, conducted in 2008-2009, have been added to the study.</li><li>For the ninth edition (November 2011), data and documentation from Sweep 5, conducted in 2009-2010, were added to the study.</li><li>For the 10th edition (January 2012), updated data and documentation for Sweeps 1-4 were added to the study; the various updates and amendments made are described in the documentation.</li><li>For the 11th edition (June 2013), data and documentation for Sweep 6 were added to the study.</li><li>For the 12th edition (November 2016), data and documentation from Sweep 7 were added to the study.</li><li>For the 13th edition (September 2017), the Sweep 2 Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) variables have been revised, and new variables have been added to Sweeps 3 and 5 data to allow comparisons with Cohort 2 data; the documentation for Sweeps 3 and 5 has been updated accordingly.</li><li>For the 14th edition (January 2018), data and documentation from Sweep 8 were added to the study.</li></ul>