Children of the 90s

Children of the 90s Want to take part? If you aren't sure, get in touch! Children of the 90s are a group of nearly 20,000 young people, born in 1991 and 1992 in and around Bristol.

If you were born around Bristol between April 1991 and December 1992 - you might be in the Children of the 90s research project and eligible to get involved! Scientists have studied these young people to aim to help discover the causes of the most important health and social problems facing the world today so that we can help prevent those problems. Taking part is voluntary and 100% confidential. It includes attending our research centre, filling out questionnaires and in the future giving us permission to use the routine information that's collected on all of us by health, social and other services and official organisations. If you were born in 1991 or 1992 in Bristol or Weston send us a message and we'll let you know how you can take part. Discoveries made by scientists working on Children of the 90s are making a difference to lives around the world.

Your Life in Science 📖🔬🧬Our annual newsletter is now available for you to read online in both flipbook and PDF format – ...
15/12/2025

Your Life in Science 📖🔬🧬

Our annual newsletter is now available for you to read online in both flipbook and PDF format – learn about some of the exciting work and research which happened in 2025, thanks to you!

Visit: childrenofthe90s.ac.uk/newsletters-leaflets 💫

12/12/2025

You may have seen Children of the 90s feature on BBC Panorama recently - looking at hidden chemicals in the home.

Here is a clip of our founder, Professor Jean Golding, discussing this very topic back in 1994 for BBC Close Up 📺

03/12/2025

📺 Did you see us feature on this week?

In The Truth About Forever Chemicals, reporter Catrin Nye BBC reveals how can affect health and contaminate the environment, and she asks if the UK government is doing enough to keep us safe.

Professor Kate Northstone talks to Catrin about the findings of a research paper in this area.

Professor Northstone is Executive Director (Data) for Children of the 90s.

Watch full programme:

https://youtu.be/KUBNSTmjeHE?si=uCwpQlL28BOpyckD

Read BBC News item:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8z8pv1e0ko

BBC

📺 We will feature on BBC Panorama on Monday night at 8pm: The Truth About Forever Chemicals.Reporter Catrin Nye BBC reve...
28/11/2025

📺 We will feature on BBC Panorama on Monday night at 8pm: The Truth About Forever Chemicals.

Reporter Catrin Nye BBC reveals how PFAS can affect health and contaminate the environment, and she asks if the UK government is doing enough to keep us safe.

Professor Kate Northstone was interviewed as part of the programme on her contribution to a research paper in this area.

Professor Northstone is Executive Director (Data) for Children of the 90s.

25/11/2025

Doesn’t time fly? 💖

It seems like yesterday when we first met Benson at just a few weeks old 👶

Like all COCOs, we’ve followed Benson from birth through to his 12 month visit. We even followed mum Naomi through pregnancy and birth - when Naomi donated her placenta to our study.

During your child’s first 12 months you’ll receive the following:

🔸2 weeks: Congratulations card and baby bib
🔸6-8 weeks: Postnatal and partner questionnaires
🔸6 months: Invitation to clinic (with a teddy gift 🧸) and 6 month questionnaire
🔸12 months: Invitation to clinic (with a Coco the puppy teddy gift 🐶) and 12 month questionnaire

You can also take part during your pregnancy with a pregnancy visit and questionnaire (and partner antenatal visit and antenatal questionnaire) 🤰

We love seeing how our COCOs have grown in between visits 🧑‍🧒

We look forward to seeing Benson in clinic at age 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 years ✨

You can watch an interview with Naomi on the placenta study for BBC Points West:

https://youtu.be/RM1xD7-4LfE?si=7q69wbRF2pBXyHfP

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgk1761edro

We love hearing how much our participants enjoy taking part in the study ❤️It's lovely to hear so many of you (like Jaco...
25/11/2025

We love hearing how much our participants enjoy taking part in the study ❤️

It's lovely to hear so many of you (like Jacob) plan to help grow our study with the third generation👶

"I’ve seen, learned and been told so many interesting things about my own body - it's something I want to carry on with for the rest of my life!" - Jacob

At Children of the 90s, we look at how lifestyle and socioeconomic factors can impact health and wellbeing ❤️‍🩹🫁 Using o...
20/11/2025

At Children of the 90s, we look at how lifestyle and socioeconomic factors can impact health and wellbeing ❤️‍🩹🫁

Using our data, researchers found that childhood adversity was linked with cancer risk behaviours, like smoking.

This means that if a child struggles with something like neglect, they are more likely to engage in behaviours like smoking - which could cause cancer down the line. 🚬

It's estimated that up to 40% of cancer cases could be prevented. The more we know about why people engage in cancer causing behaviours, the better we can prevent future cases and improve our future health.

Source: Exploring the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent cancer risk behaviours in the ALSPAC cohort (Okediji and others, 2024).

It's been 30+ years of sending birthday cards to our participants! Throwback to the card we sent when our original 90s c...
21/10/2025

It's been 30+ years of sending birthday cards to our participants! Throwback to the card we sent when our original 90s children turned 18 🔞⬇️

16/10/2025

Social media use at night is linked with worse mental wellbeing 🤳

Watch Dan Joinson discussing his latest research on BBC News Points West 🎬

His study suggests that when it comes to screen time it’s not how long we scroll for that matters, it’s what we do and when we do it 🕟

The research, from University of Bristol, has found that people who post on social media between 11pm and 5am tend to report 'worse mental wellbeing' than those active during the day 😴

The effect of late-night posting on Twitter (now X) was as strong as binge drinking in previous studies — suggesting that nighttime social media use could harm sleep and mood.

“Research like ours could help inform interventions or legislation that aim to deter harmful social media use... This is made possible by having access to actual social media data, which is essential if we are to build a deeper understanding of the relationship between social media and mental health.” - Dan Joinson.

View a recent in article in The Conversation UK:

https://theconversation.com/its-not-screen-time-that-matters-its-what-you-do-and-when-you-do-it-new-study-266845

Today we're celebrating women in STEM as part of Ada Lovelace Day 🔬Our founder, Professor Jean Golding, has been a found...
14/10/2025

Today we're celebrating women in STEM as part of Ada Lovelace Day 🔬

Our founder, Professor Jean Golding, has been a foundational figure in how we understand long-term health trajectories from childhood, birth environments, and inherited/genetic influences. Her work has enabled multi generational research data that is used throughout the world 🌎

Professor Jean Golding was appointed an OBE in 2012 for services to medical science and, in 2016, the Jean Golding Institute was established in her honour at the University of Bristol 🎖️

Thank you Jean.

University of Bristol

Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated annually on the second Tuesday of October to honor the contributions of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 👩🏻‍🔬

Ada Lovelace was the world’s first computer programmer - 100 years before computers were invented! 💻

Images: Jean is pictured here with some of the original Children of the 90s and study leaders Professor George Davey Smith and Professor Nic Timpson.

Screen time is often thought to be associated with mental health outcomes - but it might not be as simple as that.📱A new...
13/10/2025

Screen time is often thought to be associated with mental health outcomes - but it might not be as simple as that.📱

A new study using Children of the 90s data shows an association between scrolling and posting on X/Twitter at night and poor mental wellbeing.

The study suggested this behaviour could explain almost 2% of variation in mental wellbeing, which is comparable to activities like binge drinking and exercise.

This is one of the first times ever that social media data (from Twitter, in this case) has been linked with longitudinal mental health data, giving a rich and insightful view into this relationship.

Thank you to our participants who were involved in this research - you're making a real difference to helping us understand the impact of social media.

Read the full article in The Conversation UK - link in comments.

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