Children of the 2020s longitudinal study, England
A longitudinal study focusing on early childhood that tracks a cohort of children who were born in 2021.
Children of the 2020s (COT20s), is a Department for Education (DfE) funded study focusing on early childhood. It is following a random probability sample of 8,500 children, starting from the age of 9 months in 2022, with plans to conduct annual data collection until the age of 5 years.
The study gathers evidence via questionnaires about parents and carers and their children’s background, behaviours and experiences. The study will build up statistical evidence to enable varied analyses and intends to improve our understanding of factors associated with variations in intermediate and longer term learning and wellbeing outcomes for different groups of children.
The sample for the Children of the 2020s study was selected from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) child benefit records for all registered births between September and November 2021. The sample was designed to boost the sample in the most deprived quintile of areas, to ensure a large enough sub-sample for analysis of families experiencing economic deprivation. The over-sampling was based on the aggregated Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) scores for lower super output areas (LSOAs).
Wave 1 consisted of a face-to-face quantitative interview with the sampled children’s primary caregiver, defined as the parental figure who spent most time caring for the child, and an online survey with the non-primary caregiver, for which the child’s other parental figure or non-resident parent were eligible, if applicable. There are two wave 1 datasets, one containing the primary caregiver data and another containing the non-primary caregiver data. Waves 2 to 5 will be deposited as separate datasets when available. The researcher is required to specify which waves of data they are requesting as part of their project application.
All data hosted on the Integrated Data Service (IDS) are de-identified.