National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland

The National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland, also known as Growing up in Ireland,‘Growing Up in Ireland’ is a Government-funded initiative. The aim of the study is ‘to examine the factors, that contribute to or undermine the well-being of children in contemporary Irish families, and, through this, contribute to the setting of effective and responsive policies relating to children and to the design of services for children and their families’.

The study is monitoring the development of more than 18,000 children – an infant cohort of 10,000 and a nine-year-old cohort of over 8,500 children - yielding important information about each significant transition throughout their young lives.

The specific objectives of the study can be summarised as follows:

• to describe the lives of children in Ireland,in order to establish what is typical and normal as well as what is atypical and problematic;
• to chart the development of children over time, in order to examine the progress and wellbeing of children at critical periods from birth to adulthood;
• to identify the key factors that, independently of others, most help or hinder children’s development;
• to establish the effects of early childhood experiences on later life;
• to map dimensions of variation in children’s lives;
• to identify the persistent adverse effects that lead to social disadvantage and exclusion, educational difficulties, ill health and deprivation;
• to obtain children’s views and opinions on their lives;
• to provide a bank of data on the whole child; and
• to provide evidence for the creation of effective and responsive policies and services for children and families.

This longitudinal study has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Children through the Office of the Minister for Children in association with the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Central Statistics Office.

A consortium of researchers led by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has been commissioned to carry out the study.

The first round of data collection for the nine-year cohort was completed in May 2008. The first round of data collection for the infant cohort, which is currently underway, is expected to be completed by April 2009.