1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS)

Site: https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/1958-national-child-development-study/

Updated 5/16/22

Country: Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales)

Study design: Observational cohort with repeated measurements over time

Participant age range: Infants at enrollment

Number of participants at baseline: 17,415

Year of initial enrollment: 1958

Number of data collection waves: 10

Measures of well-being:

  • Positive psychological well-being (overall / multidimensional)
  • Flourishing
  • Positive affect
  • Purpose / meaning in life / ikigai
  • Life satisfaction
  • Subjective happiness
  • Prosocial behavior and attitudes
  • Healthy family functioning
  • Positive parenting practices

Quantity of well-being measures (e.g., number of constructs, number of times well-being was assessed): High

Quality of well-being measures (e.g., were measures reliable and valid in the study population): High

Measures of physical health: 

  • Self-rated / questionnaire-based health
  • Self-report medical history or medication use
  • Measured anthropometrics, e.g., weight
  • Biomarkers

Access Information:

This dataset is available to all researchers.

Researchers are not required to submit an application to access this data.

There are no fees required to access this dataset.

Notable citation:

Power C & Elliott J. (2006). Cohort profile: 1958 British birth cohort (national child development study). International journal of epidemiology, 35(1), 34-41.