Abstract
In the UK new sources of administrative social science data are unfolding rapidly but the quality of these new forms of data for sociological research is yet to be established. We investigate the quality and consistency of the parental occupational information that is officially recorded on administrative birth records by undertaking a comparison with information collected from the same parents in the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). We detect a large amount of missing information in the birth records and a range of inconsistencies. We present an empirical analysis of MCS data using parental social class measures derived both from the birth records and the survey to assess the effects of these discrepancies. We conclude that parental occupational information from administrative birth records should not be assumed, a priori, to be suitable for sociological analyses and that further research should be undertaken into their consistency and accuracy.
Highlights
The explosion in the availability of new sources of data in the early part of the 21st century is set to revolutionize research possibilities within sociology
We investigate the quality and consistency of the parental occupational information that is officially recorded on administrative birth records by undertaking a comparison with information collected from the same parents in the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
The empirical work undertaken in this article is original because it assesses the consistency of administrative birth records data using survey data collected from the same individuals
Summary
The explosion in the availability of new sources of data in the early part of the 21st century is set to revolutionize research possibilities within sociology. It is important to note that administrative data resources can take many forms In this case, the data collected in birth records are based on the information provided by an individual, in much the same way as they would provide information in a social survey interview. We consider the comparison of parental occupations on birth records with available social survey data to be a valid and meaningful assessment of the quality of this administrative data resource. In this article we consider the consistency of occupations based on the four-digit SOC2000 codes available in the social survey and the birth records. In 29 per cent of cases, a valid occupation was reported for the mother in the survey when they had missing occupational information on the birth record; this only occurred in 4 per cent of cases for father’s.
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