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This report is the last in a series reflecting on the Young Lives study and tackles research design, considering the merits, challenges and learning involved in designing comparative, longitudinal cohort research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It reflects on some of the most important decisions involved in shaping the Young Lives research agenda over 20 years of implementation. It forms part of a programme of methodological and operational learning, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which seeks to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of longitudinal research in LMICs and contribute to a growing community of practice. The report completes a set of four papers with the others covering research ethics, research leadership, governance and impact, and data governance and management. Together they aim to inform the work of researchers who are planning or already engaged in longitudinal cohort research in LMICs, and also to explore the opportunities and constraints of comparative, mixed-methods longitudinal work. The report centres on the more strategic features of research design and opens by briefly outlining the key features of the Young Lives research model. It then explores the principal considerations arising from this model, focusing on three key design features: longitudinal design, the the multi-disciplinary, mixed methods research framework and cross-national comparisons. The conclusion summarises key learning points from Young Lives experience, reflecting on the opportunities and challenges of longitudinal cohort research in LMICs.

In this Insights Report, Professor Jo Boyden, former Young Lives Director, discusses the challenges of successful leadership and management of the complex longitudinal Young Lives study. Jo reflects on lessons learnt over the last two decades, particularly in relation to delivering research to policy impact in diverse country contexts and during periods of unprecedented change, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. Jo is in conversation with Kath Ford, an international development policy consultant and former Young Lives Programme Manager.

Young Lives has published many technical reports and papers explaining the study’s research design and methodology. This report complements these publications by drawing on the experiences and insights of Young Lives staff, past and present, to reflect on the data challenges and opportunities encountered during the research, the strategies used to address these challenges and the lessons learnt. This report is part of a programme of methodological and operational learning funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that seeks to strengthen capacity and effectiveness in longitudinal research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and contribute to a growing community of practice in this field. The report aims to inform the work of researchers and data and programme managers who are either planning or engaged in longitudinal cohort or panel studies across LMICs. It is the first of four companion pieces, each of which focuses on a critical area of methodological reflection. The three remaining reports, and other outputs, cover: research ethics; research leadership, governance and impact; and research design and methodology.

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Despite impressive advances in human survival and development, child malnutrition remains a grave problem - with high prevalence of underweight and rising levels of overweight and obesity. Young Lives evidence has demonstrated how better nutrition, better services and greater support to vulnerable households can not only protect the youngest children, but may also achieve growth recovery and wider developmental benefits even into early adolescence. Early is best but it's not always too late: Young Lives evidence on nutrition and growth in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam is a Young Lives summative report, synthesising research from the past 15 years across the four study countries.

This summary is based on the Young Lives Responding to children's work: Evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam report, highlighting the context in which this research was conducted, cross-country findings, and key implications for policy and practice.

Responding to children's work: Evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam is a Young Lives summative report, synthesising research from the past 15 years on children's work.

This chapter discusses ethics questions related to researching children’s wellbeing. It explores some conceptual difficulties related to ‘well-being’, explains the background to research ethics, and links the two. It points to some of the ideological roots of research of well-being research, and the correspondent need for critical reflection. It draws on examples from previous research experiences, and from Young Lives, an ongoing longitudinal study of child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

The importance of the environment around the family for children’s development has been long recognized (for example, Bronfenbrenner 1986: 724).

Local perspectives on female child marriage and circumcision in Ethiopia are explored in this paper. Both practices are widespread still, despite international and national efforts to eradicate them, and reflect deep-rooted patriarchal and gerontocratic values regulating transactions between kin groups at marriage and women’s reproduction. Both have been designated as Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) by the Ethiopian government and are proscribed by law, with designated punishments. This is in line with Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for the prohibition of traditional practices that are prejudicial to the health and well-being of children. Apart from the fact that both practices are labelled ‘harmful’ and relate only to girls, the main reason for considering female child marriage and female circumcision together is that the latter tends to be seen as a necessary precursor to former. The paper explores the values that drive these practices and examines whether and in what ways they have been affected by efforts to eradicate them. It points to the complexity of beliefs and practices, highlighting differences associated with ethnicity, religion, generation and gender. It finds that the efforts of government and elite leaders to eradicate them are contributing to the diminution or transformation of female circumcision and female child marriage, although with marked regional variations and considerable contestation and resistance in some places. In mapping these processes of change, the paper identifies trends in premarital sex, clandestine surgeries, and other subterfuges that may demonstrate unexpected consequences and adverse reactions to laws which were intended to protect children. In doing so, it emphasises the challenges confronted by child-protection measures designed to bring about change to long-established customs. The analysis draws on interviews with 25 children and young people from five communities, as well as their peers, caregivers and community representatives, conducted in 2007, 2008 and 2011. The paper uses both statistical and ethnographic evidence to assess the prevalence of the two customs and the cultural and material logic underpinning them. It gives an overview of the external forces militating for change and presents evidence on trends of change. This is followed by analysis of the personal experiences of Young Lives children and the discourses against the practices, as well as a consideration of the resistance to change. Finally, the discussion reflects on wider issues of modernity and rising aspirations for girls.

This paper examines how poverty is involved in a multitude of risks in children’s lives using data gathered from children in Peru between 2002 and 2006. Three main arguments emerge. The first is that risk is not simply a feature of ‘extraordinary’ childhood circumstances. Rather, it is part of everyday life for many children. For example, urban families in the sample experienced slightly more ‘interpersonal’ shocks, with crime and family problems relatively more prevalent in cities than rural areas. In contrast, rural families experienced more ‘structural adversities’ in the form of economic and environmental disasters. This suggests that the location where children grow up is a strong factor in shaping their exposure to certain types of risk. The second argument concerns the social and moral dimensions of risk and how these shape children’s responses to difficult events and circumstances. The study shows that children’s moral and social learning is regarded as key to their integration within family and community in rural Peru, as well as to their transitions to adulthood. Adults in rural communities are not able to shield the young from risks associated with poverty. Instead, they are often of the view that boys and girls can grow morally and socially and acquire crucial life skills by helping alleviate household hardship. It is clear that working to prevent and/or overcome risk is an ongoing process. The third argument makes the case that in situations where there is strong interdependence between family generations children often make significant contributions to the household’s risk management. They are actively a part of helping to reduce risks.

Family background has been considered one of most important factors associated with child development across different settings (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan 1997; Grantham-McGregor et al. 2007). Evidence from industrialized countries supports a strong link between different background factors, such as parental socio-economic status (SES), and parental cognitive and psychosocial skills on the one hand, and children’s cognitive and psychosocial skills on the other; these factors in turn are important determinants of educational achievement, earnings, and other key outcomes in later life (Osborne-Groves 2005a; Cunha et al. 2006; Blanden et al. 2007).

This chapter discusses ethics questions related to researching children’s wellbeing. It explores some conceptual difficulties related to ‘well-being’, explains the background to research ethics, and links the two. It points to some of the ideological roots of research of well-being research, and the correspondent need for critical reflection. It draws on examples from previous research experiences, and from Young Lives, an ongoing longitudinal study of child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

This chapter reports on research carried out with boys and girls, aged 12 to 15, participating in Young Lives in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It focuses on young people’s descriptions, explanations, and experiences of poverty and inequality in two contrasting rural communities and highlights implications for research, policy and practice, and rights. Young people growing up in poor communities are generally alert to inequalities and injustices, and to their own disadvantaged situations (see for example, Chapter 11 by Gillian Mann; Bissell 2009; Camfield 2010; or Witter 2002). The research presented here indicates that children perceive material inequalities as indicative of wider differences in power and position, of which they are very much a part. Children’s concerns, explanations, and experiences of the effects of poverty may differ from those of adults, and children often have distinct roles and responsibilities within their families for managing hardship and risk related to household poverty (for example, caring for siblings, carrying out essential household chores, working for pay, and going to school). There may also be important differences in patterns of children’s awareness and under-standing of inequality, reflecting their varied positioning in the social hierarchy and the range of social expectations they manage (related, for example, to age, gender, class, and ethnicity, or caste).

Researchers involved in Young Lives will have obtained data on the nutritional status of children as pre-schoolers. Subsequent rounds of data collection have generated more information on the human capital of these individuals, including school attainments and measures of cognitive ability such as reading scores and tests of vocabulary. A natural research topic is the exploration of the consequences of preschool nutrition on these outcomes; this work would join the numerous cross-sectional studies that document associations between pre-school nutritional status and subsequent attainments such as schooling and cognitive development. However, it is important to recognize that these are associations, not necessarily causal relationships, because pre-school nutritional status and subsequent attainments both reflect household decisions regarding investments in children’s human capital.

Young Lives has been introduced as a longitudinal study that follows two cohorts of children in poor communities in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam as they grow into young adults. In this chapter, after pointing to the importance of longitudinal studies in the social sciences, we use the experience of designing and implementing Young Lives to reflect on some issues surrounding the process of such studies, and on the use of their findings to inform policy.

Longitudinal studies permit us to understand factors influencing an individual’s development by observing the impact of changes over time. This chapter outlines key theoretical perspectives from developmental psychology that can be used to understand and interpret longitudinal data from different cultural and economic contexts.

Reductions in child mortality and illness are often considered the main indicators of social development. As a result, one of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals is reducing child and infant mortality rates by two-thirds. In the Ethiopian context, the target set by the national survival strategy is to reduce the under-five mortality rate from 140 to 85 per 1,000 births and the infant mortality rate from 97 to 45 per 1,000 births by 2015 (MoFED 2006a, 2006b: 117). The nutrition of children is key to reducing these mortality rates since malnutrition is currently the leading cause of disease globally (Ezzati et al. 2002) and has been identified as the underlying factor in about 50 per cent of deaths of children under five years of age in developing countries (Frimpong and Pongou 2006: 3; Black et al. 2003). Ethiopia’s Health Sector Development Program (FMoH, 2005: 39) lists malnutrition as one of the major causes of child mortality, together with pneumonia, neonatal conditions, malaria, diarrhoea, measles, and HIV/AIDS.

Confronting the ‘universal’ with the ‘local’ has become an important theme within development, contesting growth-led development strategies and uniform approaches to policy and programming. From an empirical perspective, however, the local appears multiple and contested, and the universal equally local, given that all ways of thinking are specific to particular times, places, and purposes. This understanding presents a challenge to interventions to reduce child poverty, which are typically underpinned by models of good childhoods drawn from Euro-American contexts and may neglect crucial aspects of children’s experiences. This chapter contributes to this debate from the bottom-up by reporting the diverse opinions of Ethiopian children and their caregivers on what constitutes a good or bad life for children, elicited primarily through group interviews and activities.

El potencial de calidad de la primera infancia y la educación primaria para ayudar a romper los ciclos de pobreza intergeneracionales es ampliamente reconocido. Mi atención se centra en hasta qué punto este potencial se está traduciendo en realidad, mediante la implementación positiva de principios políticas de infancia en la práctica. El documento resume la evidencia de la investigación de Young Lives sobre las transiciones tempranas, basadas tanto en la encuesta como en la investigación cualitativa en profundidad con 6.000 niños de la cohorte más joven de Young Lives en Etiopía, Andhra Pradesh (India) y Perú. La educación primaria todavía se está consolidando en Etiopía, y la educación preescolar es una minoría urbana experiencia, principalmente ofrecida por el sector privado. Perú ofrece una historia muy diferente, con un gobierno bien establecido sistema primario y preescolar pero preocupaciones sobre la calidad y coordinación entre sectores. Andhra Pradesh ofrece el conjunto más complejo de desafíos, con un sistema gubernamental de AEPC de larga data, pero una tendencia creciente hacia el uso de servicios privados, incluso entre las comunidades más pobres. El documento ofrece cinco conclusiones generales, sobre la importancia de: garantizar la calidad y la equidad en la educación temprana; sistemas preescolares y escolares mejor coordinados; dirigidos a los niños más vulnerables y desfavorecidos; reconocer la gama completa de problemas de equidad; y garantizar una gobernanza más efectiva, incluida la gobernanza del sector privado.

An estimated 220 million pre-school-age children in the developing world fail to reach their development potential because of four major factors: stunting, iron deficiency, iodine deficiency and lack of cognitive and social-emotional stimulation (Grantham-McGregor et al. 2007). This undoubtedly has a large human cost. But possibly, in addition, it has a large productivity cost, which is the focus of this chapter. The question is: what are the potential productivity gains from increased investments in early childhood development (ECD) in the developing world?

Poverty is one of the most significant adversities confronted by children around the world today. Young Lives aims to improve understanding of the dynamics, causes and consequences of childhood poverty and provide evidence to support the development of effective policies for reducing it and breaking enduring poverty cycles. The study of risk and protection in the context of poverty is central to this endeavour and the focus of this chapter.

Economists often claim that economic growth in developing countries leads to a better quality of life for virtually everyone in those countries. Presumably this claim includes children as well as adults. The extent to which economic growth improves children’s welfare may depend on the nature of that growth. This has led some economists to investigate ‘pro-poor growth’, that is, economic growth that is particularly favourable to the well-being of poor people, including children.

Childhood, and the extent and consequences of childhood poverty, have a central place in the study of development. In many economies of Asia and Latin America, where growth has picked up considerably in recent years, the patterns of growth and the extent and nature of inclusion of poor people are crucially important for the type of society that will be produced for the next generation. More specifically, the educational and health opportunities for children who are currently poor, as well as the nature of their social inclusion and their general well-being, will determine their chances of partaking fully in this future society. In several sub-Saharan African countries, despite recent growth successes, sustained growth is still largely elusive, and current child poverty, with its cumulative effects on destitution, may undermine the possibility of economic growth in the future. Recent research has highlighted the cumulative consequences of childhood poverty and deprivation. For example, a meta-analysis of the effects of early childhood nutritional deficiency and poverty has highlighted its serious consequences for a variety of outcomes, including school achievement and earning potential in later life (Grantham-McGregor et al. 2007).

In Ethiopia, most children work and attend school. The most recent Child Labour Force Survey (2001) showed that 52 per cent of children of primary school age in rural areas combined paid or subsistence work with schooling (Guarcello and Rosati 2007: 5).2 For policies to cater for these children, it is important to understand when children’s work competes with education and when it complements it (cf. Boyden et al. 1998: 251). If work and school are complementary, children can participate in each activity at different times of day. At best, engaging in work makes it more possible to engage in school, or vice versa. In contrast, activities can compete with each other: working may make it impossible or more difficult for children to attend school or prevent them from benefiting fully from it.

Research ethics exist to ensure that the principles of justice, respect, and the avoidance of harm are upheld, by using agreed standards. These principles are universal, though there many subtleties and diversities, and how principles are understood, interpreted, and practised can vary from place to place (Ulrich 2003). Following controversies involving deception and political involvement by researchers in the social sciences, ethical codes building on these principles were developed. These codes built on earlier ones developed for medical research on humans in the Nuremburg Code (1947, following the war crimes trials) and the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). The governance of research has expanded and now includes ethical practices in social research in general (ESRC 2005, 2010) and with children in particular (Alderson and Morrow 2011; Schenk and Williamson 2005). A burgeoning literature describes the processes, practices, and difficulties that occur in social research (see, for example, Armbruster and Laerke 2008; Iphofen 2009; Mertens and Ginsberg 2009; van den Hoonard 2002).

Young Lives has been introduced as a longitudinal study that follows two cohorts of children in poor communities in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam as they grow into young adults. In this chapter, after pointing to the importance of longitudinal studies in the social sciences, we use the experience of designing and implementing Young Lives to reflect on some issues surrounding the process of such studies, and on the use of their findings to inform policy.