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Engagement with Children and Young People in Studying Well-Being: Results from the European Cohort Development Project (ECDP)

The European Cohort Development Project (ECDP) is a Design Study aims that aims to specify a business case for a European Research Infrastructure that will provide comparative longitudinal survey data on child and young people’s well-being from birth until the age of 25 across Europe. This is of high importance for policy makers as it will provide solid evidence on which to base their decisions. ECDP has a strong focus on engaging children and young people, as their input is essential for the successful development and implementation of the survey. Using a child-centered approach, the project stresses that survey instruments’ content, format and ways of implementation and interpretation should be developmentally valid and appropriate for child and youth as survey participants. Hence, the project set up the Children and Young Person’s Advisory Groups in two countries (UK and Croatia), which captured their views and expectations on well-being and discussed important ethical issues (e.g. child consent, data protection, confidentiality). In this paper, we present the results of the workshops (i.e. focus groups) conducted in UK and Croatia with children aged 10 to 15 years. The results of this qualitative research show how children experience different aspects of well-being and what they consider to be the most important factors influencing their well-being. Moreover, this paper presents children and young people’s views on ethical issues affecting longitudinal survey design and their recommendations on how to improve consent forms. We will discuss our findings and their implications for practice and future studies, and particularly for the development of EuroCohort.

children, participation, well-being, European Cohort Development Project

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