Its aim is to create a multi-purpose data-set that describes the diversity of backgrounds into which children are born in the beginning of the 21st century.
The information collected includes topics such as child development, social stratification and family life in order to identify possible advantages and disadvantages that the children are facing.
[1] The survey is conducted in different sweeps with the first one concentrating on the circumstances of the pregnancy and birth as well as the first few months of life.
[2] The second sweep took place when the children were about 3 years of age[3] and the main focus was on continuity and change in the family as well as the parenting environment to extract information about the child’s development.
[9] The sample is structured by geographical clusters, allowing certain areas with significant ethnic minorities (in England), high levels of child poverty, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be overrepresented.