Growing Up in Scotland: Cohort 2, Sweeps 1-3, 2011-2015: 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 several groups of Scottish children from infancy through childhood and adolescence, 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. A key objective of GUS is to address a significant gap in the evidence base for early years policy monitoring and evaluation. The study seeks both to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years (and their parents) in Scotland and, through its longitudinal design, to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and development.<br> <br> Since 2005 fieldwork and analysis have been undertaken by ScotCen Social Research in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, based at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unity. The survey design consisted of recruiting an initial total of 8,000 parents in 2005, comprising two cohorts of children (5,000 from birth, 3,000 from age two years and ten months), and then interviewing parents annually until their child reached age five years ten months. Further fieldwork was undertaken with the birth cohort when the children were just under eight years old. A new birth cohort comprising a little over 6000 children was recruited in 2011. This dataset contains information collected from the second birth cohort.<br> <br> Further information about the survey may be found on the <a title="Growing Up in Scotland" href="http://www.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 variables removed are:</p>
<ul><li>Sweep 1: ALaLow15, ALaHBdBc;</li><li>Sweep 2: ALcLow15, ALcURin1, ALcHBdBc.</li></ul>
<p><em>New edition information</em><br>For the third edition (August 2018), data and documentation for Sweep 3 were added to the study.</p>