GUIDE addresses emerging challenges

When developing the first comparative European cohort study on the well-being of children and young people, researchers involved in GUIDE (Growing Up In Digital Europe: EuroCohort) (https://www.guidecohort.eu/) study must take into account the social changes and challenges shaping young people’s lives today. This was highlighted at the GUIDE consortium meeting, held on 30 June 2026 in Brussels, Belgium. The event brought together researchers, policymakers, NGO representatives, and other stakeholders from across Europe. The meeting was opened by Seaneen Sloan of University College Dublin (Ireland), who emphasized GUIDE’s role in generating evidence to support child and youth policymaking across the European Union. She also noted that GUIDE is a collaborative initiative involving more than 100 researchers from countries across Europe.

Social science research has traditionally examined children’s development within three main environments: the family, school, and peer groups. However, when designing a longitudinal study on the well-being of children and young people, GUIDE researchers recognised the growing influence of the digital environment on children’s lives. This is reflected in the study's title: Growing Up In Digital Europe. Matthias Schubert, a researcher at the German Demographic Institute, discussed the societal challenges associated with children’s increasing exposure to digital media and its impact on their development. GUIDE will generate data that will help assess how digital technologies, including smartphone use, shape children’s well-being and social interactions. The findings will provide valuable evidence for policymakers and support parents in addressing the everyday challenges associated with children’s smartphone use.

As preparations for the GUIDE study continue, the consortium is also taking into account the accelerating effects of climate change. Gabriela Martinez Sainz of University College Dublin (Ireland) explained that children born after 2020, the so-called "climate generation", are growing up in conditions increasingly shaped by climate-related challenges. More frequent heatwaves, floods, and other extreme weather events are affecting children’s well-being, disrupting their daily lives and education in ways comparable to the interruptions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognising these emerging realities, GUIDE has integrated climate-related issues into its research framework. The study’s tools are being adapted to collect data on how climate change influences children’s lives, ensuring that future policies can be informed by robust evidence.

Referring to UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children Appeal 2026 (https://www.unicef.org/media/177341/file/UNICEF-2026-HAC-Overview.pdf) and research conducted in Norway, Vera Skalicka (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) highlighted the impact of social inequality on children’s mental health. She emphasized the need for harmonized cross-national longitudinal data to track how families’ socio-economic status influences children’s mental and physical health over time. Such data would help identify the age at which mental health problems begin to emerge and assess the extent to which they are associated with family income. The finding that poverty affects children’s mental health even in Nordic countries, despite their relatively low levels of inequality, underscores the importance and relevance of the GUIDE study.

The GUIDE consortium meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the research design process, including technical aspects, inclusiveness, and data harmonisation. The surveys administered to children and parents will be supplemented with questions assessing digital skills, while the cognitive assessment of children will be streamlined to a smaller set of questions. The researchers also discussed the importance of including country-specific aspects of child and youth well-being in the survey to ensure that issues of national relevance are adequately captured.

At the GUIDE consortium meeting, researchers discussed the new data management plan, focusing on the need to adapt it to national requirements. The consortium places particular emphasis on metadata and data structure to ensure data comparability across participating countries. The participants also proposed establishing different levels of data access, including centralized metadata management alongside decentralized access to the underlying data.

Anita Stašulāne, Daugavpils University

This initiative is implemented within the framework of ERDF project No 1.1.1.5/3/24/I/003 "Support for the Participation of Daugavpils University in the Horizon Europe programme".