Consultation on MCS age 14 Survey

CLS is seeking advice from the academic, policy and practitioner communities on what should be covered in the age 14 survey of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), scheduled for 2015.

The latest stage of the MCS6 consultation is taking place from December 2012 to March 2013. We are asking academics, policy makers and other stakeholders to put forward their specific suggestions for content and questions. This information will then be summarised and presented for further debate the MCS6 consultative conference to be held on 27 March 2013 at the Institute of Education, University of London.

For more information see the CLS website:  http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?&sitesectionid=1110&sitesectiontitle=MCS+age+14+survey+consultation

Intro-level ‘What is?’ audio slideshows online

The audio slideshows from ‘What is?’ sessions at the 5^th ESRC Research Methods Festival are available online:

·         What are qualitative research ethics?
·         What is analytic induction?
·         What are cohort studies?
·         What are community studies?
·         What is discourse analysis?
·         What are electronic data collection methods?
·         What is event history analysis?
·         What is geosimulation?
·         What is multilevel modelling?
·         What is multimodality?
·         What is narrative interviewing?
·         What is online research?
·         What is propensity score matching?
·         What is the regression discontinuity approach?
·         What is social network analysis?

More research methods videos from the 5^th ESRC Research Methods Festival are available on NCRM website.

Innovative approaches to methodological challenges facing ageing cohort studies

Day 1: Wednesday 25 July 2012
MANDEC, 3rd Floor, University Dental Hospital, Higher Cambridge Street, Manchester, M15 6FH
Booking form

Day 2: Thursday 26 July 2012
Room: TBC

Booking form

This conference brings together key themes explored in the previous NCRM workshops on the methodological challenges to ageing cohort studies (http://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk/ageingcohort/). The focus of this conference will be innovative solutions that have been developed by researchers to deal with problems associated with ageing cohort studies. In particular, some solutions to challenges related to attrition, missingness, comparability across cohorts and over time, and data collection will be highlighted over two days. The first day will feature presentations and where appropriate, a demonstration of syntax programming for statistical packages. The second day will feature practical sessions in a computer lab using statistical software packages.

Please note: It is not compulsory to attend both days.

Day 1 Presentations: 11am- 4pm
James Banks (IFS and University of Manchester)- Attrition and Health in Ageing Studies: Evidence from ELSA and HRS. This presents an investigation into observable characteristics associated with attrition in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), with a particular focus on whether attrition is systematically related to health outcomes and socioeconomic status.
Ian Plewis (University of Manchester)- Using auxiliary variables to adjust for longitudinal missingness. Different sorts of auxiliary variables – variables measured at previous waves, frame variables and paradata - can be used to improve the accuracy of response propensity models, and to enhance adjustments for missing longitudinal data. These variables can be used when constructing iterative probability weights, carrying out multiple imputations, and specifying models that jointly model a substantive process and the missingness mechanism. Data from the first two waves of the UK Millennium Cohort Study are used to illustrate the potential value of auxiliary variables.
Rebecca Hardy (NSHD and UCL)- Statistical issues in meta-analysing multiple ageing cohort studies. This presentation examines recent publications from the HALCYON study team that have overcome methodological challenges to meta-analysis of observational cohort studies. In particular, challenges on data comparability across cohorts and over time will be highlighted.
Natasha Wood (Natcen)- Overcoming problems associated with retrospective data collection in cohort studies. This presentation looks at the development of the lifegrid for retrospective data collection and its CAPI implementation in the ELSA life history interview.

Day 2 Computer based practical workshops: 10am- 4pm
Rebecca Landy (QMW) : A simulation of 1946 birth cohort data under three missing data mechanisms (MCAR, MAR and MNAR), using three missing data methods - complete case, multiple imputation and Heckman selection. This session takes the student through the STATA syntax used when applying these missing data methods.
Gopalakrishnan Netuveli and Morten Wahrendorf (ICLS and Imperial College): The lifegrid data structure for ELSA and the Survey for Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) will be described, highlighting similarities and differences. This will be followed by a practical demonstration of handling lifegrid data based on ELSA data using STATA.
The workshop is free for participants to attend but registration is essential. Workshop attendees may claim some travel expenses. Please email veronica.smith@manchester.ac.uk for further details.

National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study: Introductory workshop

Location: Institute of Education, University of London
Date: Thursday 10 May 2012

Bookings are now open for the above workshop which will introduce the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), focusing on the newly available data from the surveys carried out in 2008 when the study members were aged 50 and 38 years respectively.

This event is designed for new and intending users of data from the studies and is jointly organised by the ESDS and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the Institute of Education.

The taught component of the workshop includes presentations on:

• survey design
• data coverage and methodology
• patterns of attrition
• using the data dictionaries
• accessing the data

The hands-on component will provide participants with the opportunity to carry out SPSS or Stata analyses using sub-sets of NCDS/BCS70 data, with support from members of the CLS cohort studies team.

For further details and to book a place, please visit: http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3170

Methodological challenges associated with Non-Response and Missing Data in ageing populations

3rd February 2012 11:00-16:30
Institute for Social & Economic Research (ISER), Social Science Research Centre, room 2N2.4.16, University of Essex

The workshop brings together researchers and experts from different cohort and longitudinal studies with a common interest in dealing with the complexities of non-response and missing data. The workshop includes demonstrations using new software (Stata 12), as well as presentations from major ageing cohort studies. 

Topics and speakers include (the speaker list may change on the day):

11:00-11:45 Shaun Scoles, Centre for Applied Health Research, UCL Practical issues related to non-response, weighting and imputation in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

11:45-12:30 Jonathan Bartlett, Department of Medical Statistics, LSHTM A demonstration of multiple imputation approaches and methods using Stata 12

12:30-13:15 Rebecca Landy, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, UCL A simulation of 1946 birth cohort data using three different missing data mechanisms- complete case, multiple imputation and Heckman selection.

13:15-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:45 Paul Clarke, CMPO, University of Bristol Adjusting for non-ignorable non-response in a longitudinal analysis of residential mobility

14:45-15:30 Jenny Head, Whitehall II study, UCL  Joint modelling approaches to analysing health decline in studies with informative drop-out

15:30-15:45 Tea and coffee break

15:45-16:30 Peter Lynn, ISER, University of Essex Influences on response rates amongst older respondents in household panel surveys

The workshop is free for participants to attend but registration is essential. Workshop attendees can claim travel expenses. Please book a place using the booking form below:

http://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk/ageingcohort/seminar-3/booking.shtml

Data Training Workshops supporting the Secondary Data Analysis Initiative

Introduction to the Millennium Cohort Study
7 December 2011, London
Full day, hands-on Booking open

Data, policy and practice: the potential of secondary data analysis
11 January 2012, Belfast
Half day Booking open

Introduction to the cohort studies theme, TBA
Date TBA, London or Scotland
Full day

Understanding Wales: Opportunities for Secondary Data Analysis
16 January 2012, Cardiff Booking open

Growing up In Scotland(GUS) Data workshop
17 January 2012, Stirling
Full day, hands-on Booking open

Introduction to Understanding Society
24 January 2012, London
Half day Bookings closed - may reopen if spaces become available

Webinar: Introducing ESDS data
TBC January 2012
Webinar, One hour

Introducing the European Social Survey and the International Social Survey Programme: Key resources for comparative research
TBA February 2012, London
Full day

Introduction to business microdata: Using the Secure Data Service
21 February 2012, Colchester
Half day Booking open

Introduction to business microdata: Using the Secure Data Service
28 February 2012, Scotland
Half day

Secondary analysis of qualitative data: Opportunities
TBA February or March 2012, Leeds or London
Half day

National Child Development Study (NCDS): Using mixed methods data
6 March 2012, London
Half day

Introducing the International Time Series databanks
14 March 2012, Manchester
Half day Booking open

Introduction to ESDS - opportunities for researching the labour market
21 March 2012, Sheffield
Full day Booking open

Introducing ESDS data: Researching Housing and the Local Environment
26 March 2012, London
Full day

Millenium Cohort Survey 6 Consultation - Age 14 Sweep

7th October 2011, 10 am – 5 pm
Woburn House Conference Centre, 20 Tavistock Square. London, WC1H 9HQ

In 2015 the sixth wave of the Millenium Cohort Study will be carried out. The CLS would like to get your views on the priorities and possibilities for what data should be collected from and about the Study children at that point, when they will be aged around 14 years.

For more information on the consultation and why CLS think this is a particularly important point to collect as wide a range of views as possible, not only on what should be collected, but also where (e.g. at home or elsewhere), how (e.g. by personal interview, direct measures and assessments, web self-completion), and who from (e.g. Study members, their parents, others) please see the note on the CLS website http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/events.asp?section=000100010004&item=1129

Input from participants will be preceded by expert overviews from speakers including Paul Gregg, Jane Elliott and Mark Peters.

Whether or not you have actively used the Millennium Cohort Study previously, the study team would value your input.

Registration is free: Please contact Richard Bull (R.Bull@ioe.ac.uk), stating your first and second preference from the themes listed below.

• Education and aspirations
• Attitudes and activities
• Well-being: health and happiness
• Friends and networks
• Risk-taking and victimisation
• Biomeasures

Showcasing ALSPAC as a Resource for Social and Health Researchers

2-5pm, 4 April 2011
Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX, UK.

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents & Children (ALSPAC) has been running since 1991 and has resulted in a rich data set of biomedical and social measurements on children and their carers. While there has already been much high profile research based on ALSPAC, efforts have recently been made to increase awareness of these data among the wider research community.

The aim of this meeting is to showcase the ALSPAC data and its potential for answering research questions concerning health and social factors. The four presentations will cover the following issues: the ALSPAC data and its linkage to important administrative data sources; factors affecting the relationship between gestational weight gain and the health of mothers and their offspring in later life; a comparison of the socio-economic differences in children's behavioural and educational development found in ALSPAC and a US cohort; and the use of genetic data to establish the causal relationship between physical characteristics with a genetic basis, like obesity, and important outcomes, like educational attainment.

Speakers: Andy Boyd, Debbie Lawlor, Liz Washbrook (all University of Bristol) and Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholde (Imperial College Business School, London)

Further details (including abstracts) can be found at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac-social-sciences/workshops

There is no charge for this event but pre-registration is recommended. Please email meetings@rss.org.uk or telephone 020 7273 8010 to register.