The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is one of the most important sources of information anywhere in the world on what factors can influence our chances in life.
Government, doctors, teachers, charities and others have used the findings from NCDS to develop services and policies that help improve people’s education, development and wellbeing. These pages describe just a few of the things we’ve learned and how you’ve helped make a difference.
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives have been wide-ranging. While some have been immediate and visible, others are emerging more gradually. Your contribution to our COVID-19 surveys has helped us understand how the crisis has impacted people and what might make some more vulnerable than others to its effects.
NCDS is credited with uncovering the wide-reaching negative effects of mothers’ smoking during pregnancy. These findings have been some of the most influential discoveries the study has ever made.
Learning is a lifelong process. But what do our years of education get us? NCDS is one of the leading sources of information on how the educational path we choose affects our wages, jobs, relationships, and even our health.
Some people reach adulthood with a poor grasp of literacy and numeracy. NCDS has been a key source of evidence on who is most likely to have low basic skills, and the wide ranging benefits of learning as an adult.
Successive governments have attempted to tackle Britain’s supposed ‘mobility problem’, and NCDS has been the leading source of evidence informing the debate.
NCDS has been part of the largest ever investigation into the genetic underpinnings of common medical conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease.
