Children of the 2020s study: What does the study involve?
Children of the 2020s is a study that follows a group of children born in the 2020s.
We will first contact you when your child is around 9 months old. You will later be invited to take part in interviews when your child is 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old.
Current stage: Age 9 months Survey
The first time we would like you to take part is when your child is around 9 months old. This will allow us to gather information on your child’s early development and their home learning environment, as well as some information about you and your family.
Who would we like to speak to?
We are keen to hear from all parents involved in raising your child. At this stage, you will either be asked to take part in an interview with one of our trained interviewers or an online survey. The parent who is asked to take part in an interview will be the person who spends most time caring for your child overall.
We will also ask all parents about adding information from government administrative records to your survey responses. This information will only be used for the purposes of understanding child and family development better, as part of our research study. More information about adding this information can be found here.
If you have more than one child who is around 9 months old (such as twins or triplets), we would still like you to take part and hear about all your children of this age.
You will be asked questions about:
- Who lives in your house
- Your employment situation
- Your child’s personality and sleeping habits
- The support you receive from people in your life
- Your wellbeing
- Your childcare arrangements
- Your child’s measurements
BabySteps App
We will also be asking all parents if they would like to take part in a free smartphone app called ‘BabySteps’. This app has been designed by academics to help parents track their child’s learning and development and keep precious memories of them growing up. The version that is used for Children of the 2020s has been specifically tailored for the purposes of this study.
BabySteps is like a baby diary, but it also allows the research team to better understand how children develop. You will be able to keep all the information you enter into BabySteps, like diary entries, photos and videos, and share them with your friends and family if you wish. Over time, you will also receive information about how other families in the study have responded, as well as updates directly from the study team.
For common questions about the app please visit our BabySteps app FAQs.
Future stages
We would like to ask you to take part again around the time your child turns 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old so we can see how your child is growing up. We will get back in touch with you when it is time to take part again. Please get in touch with us if your contact details change.