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.

Youth data website

Check out our youth data website which reveals what life is like for 10-15-year olds now and what’s changed over time

Visit the youth website

Screenshot of the youth website homepage

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.

We have brought these data together in one cross-wave file called Pregnancy and Early Childhood: PEACH. This file gives key data reported by parents for all children aged under 10. You can access the PEACH file via the UK Data Service.

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

Tips for analysts

Index terms

To find out about the specific questions asked in the Study use the index terms where you can search for children and young people variables including children, child care, family life and fertility.

Training: Using UKHLS child and youth data

This workshop runs twice a year and is for new users of our children and youth data. It explains the different files and data collected, and helps users manage the data for statistical analysis for their own research projects.

Use the code creator

Create your own Stata code to extract the data you need from the EUL main survey. Save your variables, then use the code creator to generate your code. The code will allow you to create your own data file containing your variable selection, plus a handy set of commonly used sociodemographic variables and cross-sectional and longitudinal weights.

Need help?

Visit our new user pathway to explore the data and online resources or contact the User Support forum if you have a question for the Study team.

Blog: Young people’s aspirations rise with parents’ income

Most teenagers are optimistic, but life goals are strongly influenced by wealth

User deposited syntax: Transition to adulthood

This Stata syntax creates datasets for events marking the transition from childhood to adulthood for different cohorts of children in the UK.

If you have syntax that you would like to share please contact the user support team.

Podcast: Pregnancy and early childhood data

Find out about the PEACH data file and how to use it.

Working Paper: Recruiting and retaining young people in longitudinal surveys

Young interviewees from Understanding Society indicate some useful strategies for recruitment and retention in surveys that focus on participation mode, incentives, study materials, the role of the mother, and other factors affecting retention.