A misspent youth? How new technology is shedding light on
To coincide with the new MCS time use diary and accelerometer data release, Centre for Longitudinal Studies Survey Manager, Dr Emily Gilbert discusses how the use of new technology has enabled us to gain new insights into the lives of the millennial generation.
How you spend your adolescent years can have implications for the rest of your life. At the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) we have been able to capture detailed information about the day to day philippines rcs data activities of thousands of UK teenagers who take part in our Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), providing an unparalleled resource for researchers.
The MCS Age 14 Survey was the first large-scale population study in the world to incorporate objective measurement of physical activity using accelerometers alongside self-reported time use for the same period into a social survey. It’s also the first large-scale study to make use of new technologies, including both a specially-developed online diary and bespoke smartphone app, to collect this data. We embraced new technologies both in order to capture this highly detailed data in all its richness, and also to make the tasks more appealing to this age group, and thereby help engage them and improve response rates.
Just over 10,000 study members were asked to wear a wrist-worn GENEActiv accelerometer to measure physical activity for two randomly-selected days – one on a weekday and one day at the weekend. On the same two days, study members were asked to complete a time use diary, available in three different formats: an online diary and a smartphone app as an initial first option, with a traditional paper diary for those who could not or refused to complete the diary in an electronic method.