ESDS International Conference 2009 Young Lives: a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in 4 developing countries Caroline Knowles, Communications Manager, Young Lives Anne Yates, Data and Survey Manager, Young Lives University of Oxford

Introduction to Young Lives

Young Lives partner institutions Ethiopia –Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) India (Andhra Pradesh) –Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad –Sri Padmavathi Mavhila Visvavidalayam (Women’s University), Tirupati Peru –Grupo de Análisis para el Desarollo (GRADE) –Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (IIN) Vietnam –Centre for Analysis and Forecast, Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (CAF-VASS) –General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) UK -Save the Children UK -The Open University -Institute of Education

What we do Quantitative: 4 countries 3000 children in 20 sites 2 cohorts Rounds 1 & 2 Policy analysis (3 sites), policy influencing and communications Qualitative: 4 sites per country 50+ children 2 cohorts Qual 1 & 2 In-country teams and researchers, data management and public archiving

What makes Young Lives different Challenge assumptions and contribute to current thinking in areas such as: –Economic growth and equity –Political economy of poverty –Intra-household dynamics –Intergenerational transmission of poverty –Escaping the poverty trap –Transitions and life courses –Policy monitoring and analysis

Themes of our data Quantitative –Parental background –education –Livelihoods and assets –Household food and non-food consumption and expenditure –Social capitol –Economic changes and recent life history –Socio-economic status –Child activities –Child health –Anthropometry –Caregiver perceptions Qualitative –Well-being –Risk and resilience –Transitions

Our data Quantitative –Five rounds of data collection 2002, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015 –Data collection Household survey, Child survey, Community questionnaire, Self- administered survey (introduced in Round 3) Qualitative –Four rounds of data collection 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2015 –Data Collection Child interviews, Caregiver interviews, Focus group discussions, Teacher interviews, etc.

Challenges Ensuring data can be linked across rounds and methods Lengthy data entry and checking processes Tracking children between rounds Ethical considerations Working across teams and country contexts Widening usage of data Linking to national datasets Communicating complexity

Moving forward…. Implementing PDAs in data collection Explore further data visualisation methods Highlight methodologies through a series of papers Archiving Qualitative data Work with the ESDS on NESSTAR Identifying in-country data archives Data dissemination workshops Completion of our Round 3 data collection and archiving School survey (March 2010) Developing a child module