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. 

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What data do Understanding Society collect?

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

The questionnaire asks them 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, 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 crosswave file Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) which gives key data reported by parents for all children aged under 10.

Young person’s age	Type of Questionnaire	Who answers the questions
16	Adult questionnaire	Young person
10-15	Self-completion questionnaire	Young person
0-9	Adult questionnaire	Parents or carers

What can you do with these data?

Researchers can: 

• explore family circumstances, relationships, transitions, and changes over time, both within households and as individuals move out and form their own households
• use the Family Matrix (xhhrel) data file to map familial relationships across the Study identifying connections between individuals and households
• take advantage of the Study’s longitudinal design to track family generations over time, including data from the British Household Panel Survey (a subset of the Understanding Society sample), which dates back to 1991
• use the Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) data file to investigate topics related to child development by using the rich information available on conditions before and after childbirth

You can find out how Understanding Society youth data has already been used by looking in our publications library. This search shows all the results for politcs and social attitudes publications.