Understanding Society: Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH), 2009-2024

<p><span style="font-style: italic;">Understanding Society</span>, (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.</p>
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<p>Understanding Society (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Kantar Public and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.</p>
<p>The annual information across a wide range of topics gathered as part of Understanding Society before and after childbirth, coupled with data on the entire family, provides contextual insight into the development of children. Moreover, all children in the household are themselves participants of Understanding Society from birth, parents provide information on their child’s health and development until the age of 10, when data is gathered directly from all children.</p>
<p>The Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) dataset consists of a single crosswave file that brings together the key data reported by parents for all children aged under 10 years as reported in the w_child file, w_newborn file and information on pregnancy and parenting styles from w_indresp files across waves 1 to 14 of the main study. The information is provided at the child level using the child's identifier (crosswave person identifier - pidp) to ensure each row is uniquely identifiable. In addition, the pidp of the parent or responsible adult providing information at different waves is included to make it easy to link back to family circumstances. A total of 299 variables are included. Full details can be found in the user guide.</p>
<p>This dataset is designed to be linked to the main Understanding Society datasets <a href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6614" target="_blank">SN 6614</a> (end user licence), <a href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6931" target="_blank">SN 6931</a> (special licence) or <a href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6676" target="_blank">SN 6676</a> (secure access), so that the child’s development can be related to their broader family circumstances. Information can be linked for the child using the crosswave personal identifier variables beginning with “pidp” as appropriate or for the parent providing the information.</p>
<p><b>Latest edition information</b></p>
<p>For the fourth edition (September 2025), the data file has been updated to include data from Wave 14 of the main study. Primary sample unit and Strata variables have been added to aid researchers. Six parenting scale derived variables have been removed to match changes in the main study.</p>
<p><b>Co-funders</b></p>
<p>In addition to the Economic and Social Research Council, co-funders for the study included the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, the Department for Transport, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Community and Local Government, the Department of Health, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs, and the Food Standards Agency.</p>
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