Family and households

Family life in the UK is changing. One in four children under 15 no longer live with both biological parents, cohabitation is growing and children are leaving the parental home later. Families also contribute to the growing number of informal carers in the UK and there is increasing evidence of a ‘sandwich generation’ looking after both their children and their parents.

What data do Understanding Society collect?

Understanding Society is a study based on households. We interview all members of the household over the age of ten, and we ask parents a variety of questions for younger children. The Study is longitudinal, so follows the same people over time. In this way we create a holistic, dynamic picture of family life in the 21st century; how families are changing, how different family members interact with each other and how things that one family member does affects the rest of the family.

We also ask about how families interact with their wider family outside the household whether that is with grandparents caring for children or separated families taking care of their children together. The longitudinal design of the surveys allows research on family circumstances, relations, transitions and changes over time both within households and as people move out, for all kinds of reasons, and form households of their own. Further, a sub-set of the Understanding Society sample can be traced back to 1991 using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).

The family matrix

As a household panel study, Understanding Society allows researchers to study families across generations and within and across different households. Making family connections across different households over time can be challenging, so to help researchers link families we have created the family matrix. This datafile identifies all family relationships across the Study, allowing researchers to see where people and households connect. The cross-wave file contains familial relationship identifiers reported over the survey period and generate an origin household identifier variable so that sample members who are connected with each other can be identified. The family matrix is available in the main survey dataset, which can be downloaded from the UK Data Service.

Join our next Child and Youth Data in Understanding Society training course.