A key aim was to enhance the value of the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study as a research resource by conducting qualitative interviews with a sub-sample of cohort members that could then be analysed alongside quantitative longitudinal data. It was therefore funded by the Research Resources Board (now the Methodology and Infrastructure Committee). The project has been very successful in not only carrying out interviews in England and Scotland as planned (170 in total), but also carrying out an additional 50 interviews in Wales. These were conducted in collaboration with WISERD and funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. The project has had an impact on the development of new projects that combine qualitative interview material with quantitative longitudinal data. For example, it helped shape the design of a work package on biography and healthy ageing, which forms part of the Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course program (HALCYon) led by Prof Kuh. Our template of mixing panel data and qualitative components has also informed a joint project with James Nazroo and Vanessa Mae (who were using ELSA data) in CRESC. The research design is also influencing new projects, including EPSRC project ‘STEPCHANGE’ - conducting qualitative longitudinal research over 4 years. The project helped inform the methodology for a component of the programme of work led by Prof Ian Deary,- ‘Lifelong health and wellbeing of the Scotland in Miniature study’ that is scheduled to start on 1st October 2011. The project has also generated some substantive research outputs (outlined below).

A working paper that describes our methodology, and provides analysis of response to the interviews, has been published on the CLS website: Elliott, J., Miles, A., Parsons, S. and Savage, M. (2010) The design and content of the ‘Social participation’ study: A qualitative sub-study conducted as part of the age 50 (2008) sweep of the National Child Development Study. CLS Working Paper 2010/3. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Another CLS working paper, by Parsons, provides an analysis of cohort members’ experiences of being in the longitudinal study. Key substantive outputs: 1) Miles, A. Savage, M., Bühlmann , F. (2011 forthcoming), ‘Telling a Modest Story. Accounts of Men’s Upward Mobility from the National Child Development Study’, British Journal of Sociology. - also to be presented as a keynote lecture by Savage at Freiburg October 2012 (international conference on Bourdieu). 2) Elliott J. ‘Talkin’ ‘bout my generation: individual perceptions of the significance of being part of the 1958 cohort’ submitted to the British Journal of Sociology -presented at the Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, University of Cambridge, September 2010. An important output of the project is the set of 220 interview transcripts available for secondary data analysis alongside data from the 1958 cohort. These have been deposited at the UK data archive, together with a user guide and a selection of longitudinally matched quantitative data. The interview transcripts are being anonymised by the staff at Qualidata and will be available to researchers under a standard End User license.

In addition to the three methodological workshops planned at the outset of the project, in the last twelve months the researchers on the project have also contributed to two workshops overseas. These have allowed for the dissemination of methodological lessons from the study and publicised availability of the data resources. First, Miles and Savage, M provided a workshop on ‘Mixed Methods Research’, at SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen, 28 September 2010. Second, Elliott presented at a workshop on combining qualitative evidence with quantitative longitudinal studies in Berlin, 6 October 2010. Conference papers have also been given based on substantive findings: Elliott J. ‘Talkin’ ‘bout my generation: individual perceptions of the significance of being part of the 1958 cohort’ presented at the inaugural Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies conference , University of Cambridge, September 2010. Miles, A. and Savage, M.,‘The Strange Survival Story of the English Gentleman, 1945-2010, paper to The Sociology/Social History of Class in Britain: Conversations with Anthropology, CRESC workshop, Manchester, 26 May 2011, also forthcoming (2012) as a journal paper in Cultural and Social History Miles, A., ‘Mike Savage and the Missing Generation’, paper to Identity, Power and Socio-cultural Change conference, Manchester, 14 December 2010 Miles, A. ‘Accounting for Cultural Participation. Missing Cases, Hidden Values’, paper to The Social Life of Methods, CRESC Annual Conference, Oxford, August 2010 Miles, A. and Savage, M , ‘The 1958 Birth Cohort: The Missing Generation?’, paper to CRESC Ageing and Generation Conference, 1 June, 2010.

Methodological insights from the project and the key elements of the research design have been primarily shared with other researchers who have responsibility for running longitudinal studies (e.g. Nazroo, Kuh and Deary in the United Kingdom) and those working on the German Social and Economic Panel in Berlin and on the Danish Cohorts in Copenhagen. In addition a number of researchers have already made use of a sub-sample of anonymised transcripts from the interviews to help inform their own substantive work. For example: John Jacobs, Professor of Psychology; City University of New York; Prof Ingrid Schoon and Dr. Julie Ashby (working on a project focussing on teenage aspirations, occupational identity and wellbeing in adulthood); JD Carpentieri (PhD student focussing on physical exercise and well-being through the life course); Roona Simpson (focusing on narratives of infertility using quantitative and qualitative data). The range of substantive interests of these researchers highlights the broad value of the interview transcripts for secondary analysis. A wide range of academics have been represented at conferences and workshops where findings from the study have been reported. For example, the CRESC 2010 annual conference attracted academic researchers from a number of disciplines and from across the world, including the Czech Republic, Australia, the United States, France and Denmark.

Given the nature of the project i.e. that it was primarily focussed on producing research resources, it is not unexpected that, to date, its main impacts have been scientific/methodological rather than economic or societal. However, there are a number of societal impacts that are summarised below. First, the collection of qualitative interview material from a sub-sample of cohort members has provided an opportunity to engage with the media – further details of this are provided below. Furthermore the additional interviews with cohort members in Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, led to the production of a preliminary report focussing specifically on Wales. This work has in turn led to further discussions with senior staff at WISERD about how we can collaborate over the next 12-24 months to produce further reports and journal articles that will be of specific relevance to policy interests in Wales. For example further analysis of the interviews is planned, focussing on two main topics - first national identity in Wales and second support for older relatives within families. Material from the study was also used to help inform a report for the Department Of Culture, Media and Sport, written by Andy Miles (in conjunction with Alice Sullivan) as one of his outputs from his secondment to the Department. The focus was on the meanings attached to participation and how cultural engagement is negotiated in the context of everyday lives.

A BBC Radio 4 documentary series When I Grow Up (5 x 15 minutes February - March 2010), which was narrated by John Waite, was based on a group of ten cohort members who were part of the qualitative study. This has had a very positive impact on raising the profile of the study and resulted in many more ‘hits’ on the CLS website. These programmes have also been made available via the CLS 1958 cohort members’ website. A report specifically on preliminary analysis of the interviews in Wales has been produced by Andy Miles: Miles. A. (2011), ‘The Social Participation and Identity Project in Wales’, report to the Welsh Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods/The Welsh Assembly. Miles, A. and Sullivan, A. (2010), ‘Understanding the relationship between taste and value in culture and sport’, Department of Culture, Media and Sport http://www.culture.gov.uk/publications/7542.aspx The report by Miles for DCSF discussed above is: Miles, A. ‘Meanings and politics within participation’, Keynote paper to inaugural workshop of the Knowledge exchange programme in participation and engagement in cultural activities, Leeds, 23 September, 2010

Staff in CLS worked closely with both John Waite and the producer Sue Mitchell to compile the BBC Radio 4 documentaries. This resulted in considerable additional workload as it involved making application to the relevant ethics committee to get permission to contact cohort members and ask whether they were interested in being interviewed for the documentaries. It also involved staff within CLS being interviewed by John Waite and Sue Mitchell and preparing factual information for the documentaries as well as checking the final version of each documentary before it was broadcast to ensure that the anonymity of cohort members was not compromised. It is noteworthy that Sue Mitchell first got in touch with CLS about the possibility of producing a series of short documentaries about the cohort because she had read an article about research on the Children’s essays published in the Guardian as a result of previous research by Elliott. Andy Miles had a secondment to DCSF during 2009, funded by ESRC, which helped facilitate the consultancy report referenced above.

The series of BBC Radio 4 documentaries had a primary impact on BBC Radio Four listeners, who would be expected to include ‘lay’ members of the public, but also politicians, government researchers, policy makers and those working in the third sector. All of these groups will therefore have had their awareness of the nature and value of longitudinal studies increased. As a result of the BBC Radio 4 documentaries there was also considerable interest from the wider media so that there was an article in the Radio Time and in several national newspapers. Together these will have reached a wide audience among the general public. It is hoped that future work planned with WISERD will be of direct relevance to those working within and for the Welsh Assembly Government.

The project is likely to have considerable future impact as further researchers conduct secondary analysis using both the qualitative interview transcripts and the detailed quantitative longitudinal data available on cohort members. A detailed above there are firm plans for the project to have further impact in Wales as more detailed analysis is carried out in collaboration with researchers at WISERD on topics that have been identified as having specific policy relevance. This collaborative working will also help build capacity in mixed methods research using longitudinal data in Wales. The original team of collaborators on the project also intend to continue to use this rich research resource as the empirical basis for future work.

The collaborative work with WISERD for the Welsh Assembly Government was not expected at the outset of the project. This additional component of the work was prompted by Mike Savage’s existing academic links with senior staff at the University of Cardiff. This is a good example of how co-funding can be raised from a devolved administration when there has already been a substantial investment in research resources by the ESRC. The long-term funding provided by ESRC for the 1958 cohort study meant that for a relatively small additional investment the Welsh Assembly Government could fund the production of a very rich data resource of specific relevance in Wales.

As stated above, the nature of the project i.e. that it was primarily focussed on producing research resources means that, to date, its main impacts have been scientific/methodological rather than economic or societal. It is expected that as the interview transcripts are further analysed both by members of the original team of investigators and by other researchers the impact will continue to grow.