GUIDE: internationally comparable, nationally representative longitudinal study of children and young people in Europe

GUIDE (Growing Up In Digital Europe: EuroCohort) The consortium is preparing the first internationally comparable, nationally representative longitudinal study of children and young people in Europe. The study aims to track children’s personal well-being and psycho-social development, in combination with key indicators of children’s homes, neighbourhoods, and schools, across Europe. As a recognised European Research Infrastructure, GUIDE will be an important source of empirical data in developing social policies for children, young people, and families across Europe for many years to come.

The GUIDE consortium team comprises experts in survey methodology, child and youth development and well-being, demographic science, economics, psychology, and sociology. GUIDE has developed over many years through a series of projects funded by the European Commission, including Measuring Youth Well-Being (MYWEB, GA 613368), the European Cohort Development Project (ECDP, GA 777449), the Cohort Community Research and Development Infrastructure Network (COORDINATE, GA 101008589), and Growing Up in Digital Europe Preparatory Phase (GUIDE PREP, GA 101078945). As the Daugavpils University research group has been working in an international team for a long time, it leads the GUIDE national node in Latvia.

A survey has never been conducted in Europe that provides harmonised, longitudinal data on child well-being across the continent. This poses several challenges, both in terms of scientific aspects and sustainability. For the data to be truly comparable, questionnaire translation, sampling strategies, and data collection fieldwork processes need advanced planning, clear processes, and involvement of all national scientific teams. Sustainability requires ongoing and significant engagement with funding bodies at both national and international levels. While there has never been a comparative longitudinal birth cohort survey to date, there are two important cross-national longitudinal surveys that provide valuable experience on how GUIDE can proceed in relation to these challenges: The Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), European Social Survey (ESS) and The Generations and Gender Program (GGP)

GUIDE is recognised by the EU as an important developing research infrastructure through its inclusion on the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap. Within the ESFRI system, GUIDE joins already established survey research infrastructures: SHARE, ESS and GGP. Together, these surveys represent an observatory of social life across Europe. The data each survey provides is complementary and represents the full life course, from birth, through family and working life, to retirement and, ultimately, death. It is an aspiration for Europe to support GUIDE as the initial phase of a European life course observatory – mapping out how children and young people's well-being exists. Only in this way can the situation in different regions be determined and policy action initiated.

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".