GUIDE provides the opportunity to participate in educational seminars

Researchers from GUIDE (Growing Up In Digital Europe: EuroCohort) (https://www.guidecohort.eu/), the forthcoming first comparative European cohort study on the well-being of children and young people, participate in educational seminars featuring leading European experts in longitudinal research. In collaboration with the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (https://www.slls.org.uk/) an online seminar entitled “Including Young Children’s Voices in Large-Scale Surveys: AID:A – The Growing Up in Germany” was held on 29 September 2026. Large-scale studies are increasingly recognising the importance of incorporating children’s own perspectives. When it comes to questions about their everyday lives, children are the best “experts”, as they provide unique data that cannot be obtained indirectly. The seminar explored the methodological considerations underlying the integration of direct surveys of children into the “AID:A – The Growing Up in Germany” project.

Participants were introduced to an interviewer-administered, visually supported CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) survey developed for children aged 5 to 8 and implemented in Germany in 2023. The project team explained the survey development process and shared their key findings. The seminar also explored the development of a web-based self-administered CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing) version of the survey, including findings from a feasibility study assessing its implementation and the quality of the data collected. Importantly, the seminar provided an insight into the ongoing “AID:A – The Growing Up in Germany WebKids” pilot study and its long-term goal of sustainably integrating web-based child self-reports into future stages of the study.

Researchers from the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut) shared their experience from implementing the “AID:A – The Growing Up in Germany” project. The German Youth Institute is one of the largest social science research centres in Europe. For more than 50 years, it has conducted research on the living conditions of children, young people and families, provided advice to the German federal government, federal states and municipalities, and made a significant contribution to the development of professional expertise.

The experience of Anja Linberg, head of the research department Pedagogical Concepts for Childhood, in researching the quality and impact of early childhood learning processes, as well as the living conditions of children and families, is highly relevant to the development of the GUIDE study’s thematic framework and indicators. The expertise of senior researcher Sabine Düval in researching the well-being of children and families and applying quantitative methods is important for the development of GUIDE’s data collection instruments, variables and methodological approaches. Particularly relevant to the GUIDE study is the expertise of Alexandra Langmeyer, head of the research department Life Situations and Living Environments of Children, in childhood and family research. Her work with families in vulnerable situations, family socialisation, child development and well-being, as well as children growing up in digital media environments, provides valuable insights into how various factors influencing children’s development and well-being can be identified and monitored over the long term within a longitudinal study. Her experience in involving children in surveys is also particularly valuable for further developing GUIDE’s approach to systematically incorporating children’s own perspectives into the study. The experience of Mirjam Weis, interim head of the Division Social Monitoring and Methodology, in researching the links between socialisation environments, parenting and developmental outcomes among children and adolescents is important for defining the GUIDE conceptual model and the relationships between the factors under investigation. This expertise helps identify the social and family-context factors that influence children’s development and assess how these factors can be methodologically incorporated into a longitudinal study design.

The knowledge and experience gained from the seminar can be directly applied to the development of the GUIDE study at several levels, including the development of the study’s conceptual framework, the selection of indicators of child and family well-being, planning for the involvement of children as direct respondents, the development of survey instruments, the selection of quantitative methods, and ensuring data quality. The experience of the “AID:A – The Growing Up in Germany” project enables GUIDE to draw not only on theoretical insights but also on methodological approaches that have been tested in practice, while assessing their suitability for the Latvian context.

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".