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The impact of attrition and non-response in birth cohort studies: a need to incorporate missingness strategies

Mostafa, T; Wiggins, RD; (2015) The impact of attrition and non-response in birth cohort studies: a need to incorporate missingness strategies. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies , 6 (2) pp. 131-146. 10.14301/llcs.v6i2.312. Green open access

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Abstract

This paper reveals the extent of attrition in the British Cohort Study begun in 1970 (BCS70) and how it affects sample composition over time. We examine the determinants of response and then construct inverse probability weights (IPWs) to adjust for sample loss. Secondly, we create a hypothetical substantive data set from BCS70 across data collection waves 3 and 4 to illustrate the effectiveness of the use of weights and multiple imputations (MI) in handling the impact of unit non-response and item missingness respectively. Our findings show that when the predictive power of the response models is weak, the efficacy of non- response weights is undermined. Further, multiple imputations are effective in reducing the bias resulting from item missingness when the magnitude of the bias is high and the imputation models are well specified.

Type: Article
Title: The impact of attrition and non-response in birth cohort studies: a need to incorporate missingness strategies
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.14301/llcs.v6i2.312
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.14301/llcs.v6i2.312
Language: English
Additional information: This is the published version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: BCS70, attrition, unit non-response, item non-response, weights, imputation.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1500893
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