Socioeconomic topics

Mental health difficulties rarely occur in isolation; instead, they intersect with many other areas of life, including socioeconomic circumstances. Research that considers multiple life domains can offer a richer and more comprehensive understanding of how mental health conditions emerge and develop over time. Socioeconomic circumstances are regarded as key determinants of health, with differences in these circumstances contributing to health inequalities arising.

To represent measures of socioeconomic circumstances, the Catalogue has developed a framework of socioeconomic topics. This framework was developed based on common indicators of socioeconomic inequality used in health research.

Using this framework, each study page now includes a designated table of the socioeconomic topics assessed at the study’s baseline sweep. The table appears below the Mental health measures timeline, in the “Other measures” section. It includes information about each item in a wide range of topics asked to cohort members about aspects of their social and economic circumstances. A summary of the socioeconomic topics assessed also appears within the Mental health measures timeline, indicated by the house symbol ( ), from where users can navigate to the full item-level table with item-level information by clicking “Jump to socioeconomic measures.”

Below is the complete list of socioeconomic topics and within each tab, the specific aspects of social and economic circumstances included under each topic category.

  • Childhood language, for example language usually spoken at home during childhood

  • Demographics, for example place of birth, time living in the UK

  • Ethnicity and national identity

  • Immigration, for example country of origin, country moved to

  • Language, for example any languages spoken, first language spoken, language spoken in the household

  • Age left school

  • Education, for example current education, past education, years spent in school

  • Educational achievement, for example the highest qualification achieved, any qualifications achieved

  • Educational aspirations, for example intention to attend further/higher education

  • Employment history, for example details of former employment, number of jobs the participant has had

  • Employment status, for example whether the respondent currently has a job, working hours

  • Job prospects, for example searching for work, intention to return to work after absence

  • Non-employment, for example periods out of work, job loss

  • Occupation, for example current occupation, past occupations, job security, other paid work outside of main occupation(s)

  • Self-employment, for example details of self-owned companies, number of employees managed

  • Family factors, for example number of family members, new family members, absence of family members

  • Family networks, for example social contact with non-resident family members, caring responsibilities

  • Marital status, for example whether the respondent is married, divorced, widowed etc.

  • Parental imprisonment, for example any periods where a parent was in prison

  • Parenthood, for example number of children, non-resident children, time spent with children

  • Child maintenance, for example payments made by non-resident parents

  • Financial dependents, for example number of non-resident individuals financially supported

  • Financial loss, for example incidents of losing money

  • Food insecurity, for example number of meals eaten, food availability, five-a-day fruit and vegetable consumption, free school meals

  • Healthcare expenditure, for example use of private healthcare services, amount paid for private healthcare services

  • Household finances, for example any household expenses, rental payments

  • Income, for example total household income, annual income, income from pensions

  • Non-governmental financial support and services, for example financial support from family, pay on sick leave, employer benefits

  • Remittances, for example payments sent to family overseas

  • Retirement planning, for example contributions to work pensions, contributions to personal pensions, age of expected retirement

  • Student loans, for example maintenance loan payments received

  • Unearned income and state benefits, for example state allowances received, state benefits received, amounts received

  • Fuel poverty, for example late payment of fuel bills

  • Home crowdedness, for example inadequate indoor space, shared bedrooms

  • Homelessness, for example any periods with no permanent address

  • Household structure, for example number of people living in the household, relationship of people living in the household

  • House ownership, for example outright ownership, ownership with a mortgage/loan

  • Housing, for example type of accommodation, number of rooms in the household, age first left home, any periods living away from parents

  • Quality of house, for example issues with heating, mould, interior features, exterior features

  • Device use and online activity, for example digital devices used, time spent using digital devices

  • Internet access, for example access in the home, type of internet connection

  • Leisure activities, for example activities taken part in, lack of access to activities

  • Lifestyle deprivation, for example Indexes of Deprivation

  • Social comparison, for example comparison of standard of living, comparison to past circumstances

  • Travelling, for example any holidays attended, holidays abroad

  • Green space, for example access to garden, access to local parks, satisfaction with available spaces

  • Neighbourhood, for example the respondent’s home address, safety of the area, perception of the area

  • Pollution, for example issues with litter, issues with vandalism, issues with fumes

  • Transportation, for example safety of roads, access to public transport, methods of transport used

  • Material possessions, for example possessions in the household, car ownership

  • Parental wealth, for example parent-owned assets

  • Subjective wealth, for example how respondent is managing financially

  • Wealth, assets and debt, for example amount in savings accounts, property ownership outside the household, investments made

To find out more about the rationale and benefits of adding socioeconomic measures on the Catalogue, check out our 2026 master’s placement students Daniela Varela Pose and Saachi Virani’s blog, hosted on the Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets.

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