Family and households

Family life in the UK is changing. One in four children under 15 no longer live with both biological parents, cohabitation is growing and children are leaving the parental home later. Families also contribute to the growing number of informal carers in the UK and there is increasing evidence of a ‘sandwich generation’ looking after both their children and their parents.

What data do Understanding Society collect?

Understanding Society is a study based on households. We interview all members of the household over the age of ten, and we ask parents a variety of questions for younger children. The Study is longitudinal, so follows the same people over time. In this way we create a holistic, dynamic picture of family life in the 21st century; how families are changing, how different family members interact with each other and how things that one family member does affects the rest of the family.

We also ask about how families interact with their wider family outside the household whether that is with grandparents caring for children or separated families taking care of their children together. The longitudinal design of the surveys allows research on family circumstances, relations, transitions and changes over time both within households and as people move out, for all kinds of reasons, and form households of their own. Further, a sub-set of the Understanding Society sample can be traced back to 1991 using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).

Pregnancy and early childhood data (PEACH)

The Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) data file is a single cross-wave file that brings together the key data reported by parents for all children aged under 10 years, plus information on pregnancy and parenting styles, from all waves of the main survey. The information is provided at the child level using the child’s identifier to ensure each row is uniquely identifiable. In addition, the pidp identifier of the parent or carer providing information at different waves is included to make it easy to link to family circumstances.

The PEACH dataset is designed to be linked to the main Understanding Society datasets SN 6614 (EUL), SN 6931 (Special Licence) and SN 6676 (Secure Access), so that the child’s development can be related to their broader family circumstances.

Tips for analysts

Index terms

To find variables in the Study relating to families and households, use the index terms. You can search for variables on topics such as family life, children, caring, and parenting styles.

Use the code creator

Create your own Stata or R code to extract the data you need from the EUL main survey. Save your variables, then use the code creator to generate your code. The code will allow you to create your own data file containing your variable selection, plus a handy set of commonly used sociodemographic variables and cross-sectional and longitudinal weights.