The NatCen Blog

Here we’ll be talking about our research in the context of the latest news, opinion and
analysis through comments from our team of experts. We’d love to hear from you, so post comments or get in touch with us.

To keep up-to-date with our latest blog posts and reports, subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Posted on 05 June 2021 by Emma Forsyth, Researcher

Engaging children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with the natural environment

As we celebrate World Environment Day this Saturday 5th June, it’s important to consider that access to nature and time spent outdoors is not equally enjoyed by all. This is especially the case among children and young people, for whom time spent in the outdoors without adults has been in decline in recent decades.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: World Environment Day, disadvantage, environment, nature
Posted on 14 May 2021 by Gianfranco Addario, Researcher

Mental Health Awareness Week: Three risk factors for depression in older people

This week it’s Mental Health Awareness Week. As we think about mental health in society today, one key group is people in their later years. How common are mental health conditions in older people, and what factors mean older people are more at risk of suffering with them?
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Depression, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Mental Health Awareness, Society Watch, ageing, mental health
Posted on 22 April 2021 by Simon Holroyd, Director of Delivery & Change

NatCen celebrates becoming carbon neutral

We’re actively reducing the resources we consume in the course of our work and using offsetting for any residual emissions.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Earth Day, environment, social responsibility
Posted on 14 April 2021 by Arjun Liddar, Researcher

Assessing the feasibility of conducting research with children on child abuse

Evidence about the prevalence of child abuse in the UK is limited. Currently, there is no single source reporting child abuse data, robust measurements are lacking and official statistics in the UK are limited in their coverage of child abuse.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: ONS, child abuse
Posted on 19 March 2021 by Dhriti Mandalia, Senior Researcher

Sweet dreams aren’t made of these: the pandemic, mental health and sleep problems in children and young people

Many parents experience the daily struggles of children’s bedtime routines, especially when they concern younger children. If you’re a parent, you will know how frustrating this can be. The COVID-19 pandemic, together with nation-wide lockdowns and school closures, have not made it any easier on family dynamics.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Mental Health of Children and Young People, health, mental health, sleep
Posted on 01 March 2021 by Jonah Bury, Senior Researcher

Education catch-up: is online tuition the future?

Last year the Online Tuition Pilot aimed to support disadvantaged pupils at primary and secondary schools across England through fully subsidised online tuition. The pilot saw established tutoring providers deliver online lessons to over 1400 learners throughout the summer of 2020.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: education, evaluations, pilot
Posted on 02 February 2021 by Maria David, Researcher

Future of Britain: facilitating dialogue on post-Brexit policy during the pandemic

As part of our ongoing research about public attitudes towards post-Brexit policy, NatCen ran a large scale Deliberative Poll in October 2020, bringing together over 200 members of the British public online.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Future of Britain, deliberative polling, deliberative research, online methods
Posted on 28 January 2021 by Joshua Vey, Researcher

Future of Britain: bringing participants and moderators online during the pandemic

As part of our ongoing research about public attitudes towards post-Brexit policy, we ran a large-scale Deliberative Polling event in October 2020, bringing together over 200 members of the British public online.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Future of Britain, deliberative polling, deliberative research, online methods
Posted on 15 January 2021 by Natasha Phillips, Researcher

Conducting remote cognitive interviews: telephone or video conferencing?

NatCen’s Methodology & Innovation Hub includes a team of experts who specialise in developing and testing survey questions to ensure measures elicit high quality data. Our day-to-day work often involves conducting interviews with members of the public to assess whether they understand survey questions as intended and can provide valid and reliable answers.
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: COVID-19, cognitive interviewing, fieldwork, methodology, telephone interviews, video interviews
Posted on 16 December 2020 by Sir John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow

Has COVID-19 shifted public attitudes?

Now that the prospect of an end to the pandemic is in sight, the question of what post-pandemic Britain should look like will soon become a pressing one. Should everyday life and public policy return to ‘normal’ – or does COVID-19 represent an opportunity to reshape the country’s social and economic life and the role that government plays in facilitating it?
Read the rest of this entry

Tags: British Social Attitudes, COVID-19, income and welfare, social and political attitudes