Growing up across the globe – CLS hosts event to share learning from international cohort studies on surveying children

The Centre for Longitudinal Studies last week (July 24-25) hosted a meeting of leading international cohort study teams to share their experiences of surveying children and young people.

The two day invited workshop brought together researchers and survey practitioners from cohort studies that started around or since the turn of the millennium.

The studies represented at the workshop were the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), Growing Up in Australia, Growing Up in New Zealand, Growing Up in Scotland, Growing Up in Ireland, Fragile Families (USA), Generation R (Rotterdam, Netherlands), The French National Birth Cohort (ELFE), the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children.

The major themes covered were participant engagement and retention, questionnaire design and data collection and ethics.

Lisa Calderwood, CLS Senior Survey Manager and Director of Next Steps, said: “Although the studies have all faced their own set of unique challenges and circumstances, there were many similarities in the approaches taken in these areas reflecting the common focus on children and young people.

“The studies have been at the forefront of innovation and development of best practice in surveying children and young people, and this learning will be very valuable for future studies of this age group.”

The workshop was organised by Emla Fitzsimons, Director of MCS, and Lisa Calderwood, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.