Children and young people

Understanding Society covers everyone in a household, so we ask questions about children and young people, as well as the adults. All young people aged 10 – 15 complete their own questionnaire and adults are asked about the children in their care.

Exploring what young people think and do helps us understand life choices and the challenges of growing up in the UK in the 21st century.

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What information does Understanding Society collect from young people?

Young people aged 10-15 complete a self-completion questionnaire confidentially once their parent or carer has given permissions for them to take part in the survey. When a young person turns 16 they move on to the adult survey.

The youth questionnaire asks about their family relationships and home life, about how they see themselves as a person and how they feel about different aspects of their life. We ask about their school life, homework, any paid jobs that they have, and their plans for the future. Also included are questions on their health and wellbeing.

What about younger children?

All parents of children under the age of 16 are asked about mother’s return to work plans, child care arrangements, how parents and children interact at home, parenting styles, and, if applicable, non-resident parent relationships and child maintenance. They are also asked questions dependent on the child’s age.

Pregnancy and early childhood data (PEACH)

The Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) data file is a single cross-wave file that brings together the key data reported by parents for all children aged under 10 years, plus information on pregnancy and parenting styles, from all waves of the main survey. The information is provided at the child level using the child’s identifier to ensure each row is uniquely identifiable. In addition, the pidp identifier of the parent or carer providing information at different waves is included to make it easy to link to family circumstances.

The PEACH dataset is designed to be linked to the main Understanding Society datasets SN 6614 (EUL), SN 6931 (Special Licence) and SN 6676 (Secure Access), so that the child’s development can be related to their broader family

Questions asked at specific ages

Birth to one year:

• Type of conception
• Outcome of pregnancy
• For live births, the type of delivery
• Whether smoked or drank in different pregnancy trimesters
• Due date, whether baby born early or late
• GAINS scale basic development questions about feeding and sleeping

At three years old:

• Whether the child has a long-term health condition
• A series of questions about learning physical and cognitive skills
• Behaviour and psychological wellbeing

At five and eight years:

• How happy they are at school,
• Risk aversion behaviours
• Strengths and difficulties.

At three, five and eight years:

• Parental reading with the child
• Questions about meals and bedtimes

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