State to monitor 18,000 children in research project

The lives of 18,000 Irish children will be put under the spotlight in the largest ever research project ever undertaken in the State, it was announced today.

Growing Up in Ireland will follow the progress of 8,000 nine-year-olds and 10,000 nine-month-olds over a seven-year period.

The €24m scheme will formulate child policy and services for the future.

Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan said the longitudinal study is the first and most significant piece of research of its kind ever to be carried out in this country and will get under way in the coming weeks.

The nine-year-olds, who will be randomly selected from national schools, will be surveyed and revisited when they are 13, while information on 10,000 babies will be gathered and visited again when they are three years old.

Parents, guardians, teachers and school principals will also be quizzed.

The confidential study will paint a full picture of children in Ireland today and help the State understand what factors affect their development and well-being.

The results will provide important information and evidence to support the development and provision of government policy and services in areas including education, healthcare, social welfare, child support and family support.

“I would urge all selected schools and families to participate in the study,” said Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan.

“I hope that they take pride in knowing that they are contributing to a ground-breaking study, which will benefit present and future generations of Irish children.

“I look forward to seeing the first study results in 2008 and how the results will impact on children’s lives and children’s policies in the years to come.”

A consortium of researchers led by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin will begin working on the project within weeks.

Research Professor James Williams, ESRI and Principal Investigator and Co-Director, Growing Up in Ireland, said the study would be the most significant and exciting of its kind ever to be undertaken in this country.

“This study has the potential to shape the lives of children for years to come and most importantly will allow us to establish what is typical and normal in the world of a child as well as what is atypical and problematic,” he said.

“We are now ready to roll-out the first round of data collection with the nine-year-old cohort and in the coming weeks we will be inviting 750 schools as well as 8,000 nine-year-old children and their parents to join in the study and to be a part of history.”

The newly formed Children’s Advisory Forum, a children’s committee, will represent the voice of children within the study.

The CAF is made up of children’s committees in 12 schools across Ireland, seven boys and girls aged between eight and ten years sit on each committee and have a key role to play in advising the Study Team on a range of issues related to the development and roll-out of the study.

Youth Work Ireland, which represents 22 local voluntary youth services throughout the country, called for the results to be used as soon as they become available to benefit the most marginalised young people around the country.

“Clearly the gathering of data on young people over a long period of time will be of immense benefit in providing services to them and in alleviating the problems they face in society today and in the future,” said Michael Mc Loughlin of Youth Work Ireland.

“Statistics in the past have not been gathered specifically in relation to young people’s lives and this is an important project in this regard.”