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Abstract
Survey data from cross-sectional snapshots give an incomplete picture of the social fabric. Without longitudinal information, planners, practitioners, social scientists and policy makers would be in the dark about dynamics, durations and pathways of human development. Longitudinal data collected in birth cohort studies give a better guide to long-term processes and outcomes and are more informative about the causal relations that are the drivers of disadvantage or success. The content and structure of Britain's Birth Cohort Studies are described to illustrate the challenges of creating and studying longitudinal evidence. Examples of findings and policies based on these prospective longitudinal studies are given, along with a discussion of the practical decisions that have to be confronted in undertaking them.
Acknowledgements
The birth cohort studies described here are a monument to the energy and dedication of the numerous people who have worked on them from the original visionaries who founded them to those who do the vital work of keeping addresses up to date and tracing the present whereabouts of those who would otherwise be lost to the studies. The list of names extends endlessly. However, more than any other acknowledgment, gratitude is owed for the commitment of the cohort members themselves and their families, whose willingness to tell us about their lives, in the case of the oldest study, now extends to over 60 years. Those who have been helped by policies shaped by the findings from the studies and the countless social and developmental scientists in Britain and in many other parts of the world, who have used them for research, will remain for ever in their debt.