EuroCohort symposium at ESRA 2019 conference

EuroCohort symposium titled "A Comparative Longitudinal Survey of Child Well-Being in Europe: Challenges and Solutions" was held in the frames of the 8th conference of European Survey Research Association (ESRA).

The organizers of the symposium see the need for high quality data upon which to base the intervention to address the significant child well-being inequalities and provide better support for the children as they grow up. Longitudinal survey data, collected from birth, allows one to see how individuals change over time and the extent to which experiences early in life are associated with outcomes later in life. A comparative longitudinal survey like the one developed in the frames of ECDP project is ideal for observeing processes and policy interventions in different national contexts. The session "A Comparative Longitudinal Survey of Child Well-Being in Europe: Challenges and Solutions" seeked to explore the challenges in developing such a survey: brought out the most important methodological developments related to developing a European cohort survey and highlighted the questions and challenges as well as proposed solutions in creating such a complex survey design.

The session included four presentations. In her presentation "Child and Youth Well-Being – The Interplay of Policies and Measurements" Dr Britta Busse (University of Bremen) focussed on the interplay between policies, well-being concepts and measurement approaches. Dr Maja Tadić Vujčić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences) talked about engagement with children and young people in studying well-being. The presentation by Dr Toni Babarović (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences) discussed the approaches, challenges and solutions of piloting large-scale longitudinal survey of child well-being in Europe. Lastly, in his presentation "Making the Business/Funding Case: Challenges and Opportunities in the Assessment of the Policy Impact of Longitudinal Surveys" Dr Chris O'Leary (Manchester Metropolitan University) set out the method by which the EuroCohort team can demonstrate the potential policy impact of EuroCohort.

The 8th Conference of European Survey Research Association was held in Zagreb, Croatia, from 15th to 19th July 2019. The conference was hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Zagreb.