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About Young Lives

Mother with baby and toddler: Vietnam Photographer Nguyen Van Thanh


Young Lives is an international study of childhood poverty tracking the changing lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the state of Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam over a 15-year period. This is the timeframe set by the UN to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Through interviews, group work and case studies with the children, their parents, teachers, community representatives and others, we are collecting a wealth of information not only about their material and social circumstances, but also their perspectives on their lives and aspirations for the futures, set against the environmental and social realities of their communities.

We are following two groups of children in each country:

  • 2000 children who were born in 2001-02

  • 1000 children who were born in 1994-95.

These groups provide insights into every phase of childhood. The younger children are being tracked from infancy to their mid-teens and the older children through into adulthood, when some will become parents themselves. When this is matched with information gathered about their parents, we will be able to reveal much about the intergenerational transmission of poverty, how families on the margins move in and out of poverty, and the policies that can make a real difference to their lives.

The first round of data collection took place in 2002 and the second round in 2006, with a third round scheduled for mid-2009. These will be followed by further rounds in 2012 and 2015, making Young Lives a unique cross-country longitudinal dataset.

Our study countries

Our research focuses on 4 countries – Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam. These were chosen to reflect a wide range of cultural, economic, geographical, political and social contexts. They face some of the common issues experienced by developing countries, such as high debt burden, post-conflict reconstruction, and adverse environmental conditions such as drought and flood.

Nevertheless, despite an initial emphasis on diversity, Peru and Vietnam (and to a large extent India) have experienced consistent economic growth since Young Lives started in 2001. But economic growth does not necessarily mean that the challenges of poverty are overcome – and high levels of social and economic inequality persist. Thus, we are now studying poverty in the context of national economic change, at the same time recognising that inequality may become increasingly entrenched with growth and that rising food and oil prices and other global forces may in any case begin to undermine growth in the coming years.

Why focus on children?

UNICEF estimates that one billion children worldwide live in poverty. Poor children are vulnerable to exploitation, violence, discrimination and stigmatisation. Often, they do not have the resources needed to survive and thrive or to develop to their full potential. They often do poorly at school, and as they grow up they are likely to transfer poverty to their own children, perpetuating the cycle of chronic poverty. In both human and economic terms, therefore, childhood poverty is unacceptable. There is a high cost – not just economically, but also in terms of equity, individual well-being, and social and economic justice.

Our research

Young Lives is combining different research approaches to generate in-depth analysis of poor children’s lives and the coping strategies they and their families adopt. This includes a detailed and comprehensive survey of all 12,000 children and their households every 3 years, combined with individual discussions and group activities with a smaller number of children to understand their opinions and perceptions. This information is supplemented by policy analysis and budget monitoring to review how national government policies are implemented at the local level and their impact on children’s lives. More information is available in the Methods section of our website.

Tracking children in this way means we are building a rich and detailed picture of how their lives and livelihoods change over time, the key events they face, and the social and environmental factors that shape their choices and opportunities. Added together this will help us to answer key questions about:

  • How poverty affects children’s life-skills and education, their role in the family, whether they work, and the opportunities and expectations they have for future

  • The consequences of poverty for children’s physical health and nutrition, cognitive abilities and educational progress, and their emotional and social well-being

  • How factors such as gender, birth-order, ethnicity and other social markers affect the life-courses of children and young people

  • The factors that perpetuate the intergenerational transfer of poverty, and how the cycle of chronic poverty can be broken

  • How far basic services such as health and education are accessible to poor families, and how delivery of these services can be improved

  • The impact of economic or environmental shocks or other major events on children’s lives.

Such findings over time enable us to create a nuanced analysis of the factors and policies that can make a difference. In this way, our research provides credible, authoritative evidence to help policy-makers analyse and address the very real challenges they face in alleviating childhood poverty.

What makes Young Lives different

While there have been many cross-sectional studies and monitoring of children, no longitudinal research of this size, scope and complexity has ever been undertaken in the developing world. Young Lives is unique in many aspects and we see our strengths in our ability to challenge assumptions and contribute to current thinking in areas such as:

  • Economic growth and equity: current economic orthodoxy promotes growth in order to achieve poverty reduction. However, chronic poverty, unequal distribution of wealth and inequity persist, despite in our study countries despite current unprecedented levels of growth in India and Vietnam and sustained growth in Peru since the 1990s

  • The political economy of poverty: by examining the social characteristics of our study children – gender, ethnicity, caste, religion, etc. – we can learn about the broader political economy of poverty. This enables us to see the structural forces (as opposed to the intra- or interpersonal factors) that render some groups poor.

  • Intra-household dynamics: most research on poverty focuses on households, but in tracking children within households and by specifying their individual characteristics and position in the family, we can say much about intra-household dynamics which are crucial in terms of children’s experiences and the consequences of poverty.

  • Escaping the poverty trap: by having a pro-poor, but not exclusively poor, sample we can examine the micro-processes by which families and children move in and out of poverty.

  • Transitions and life-courses: we know there are critical periods and transitions in childhood during which susceptibility to poverty may be especially grave, with lifelong and intergenerational consequences. Longitudinal research is essential for highlighting and explaining these issues.

  • Policy monitoring and analysis: by undertaking policy and budget monitoring at site level together with analysis of children’s and families’ perceptions of services, we are generating important information about access, equity and quality of basic services such as health and education.

Our Conceptual Framework Overview gives more information about our research questions and approaches. [PDF file 121KB]

The Young Lives team

In each country we work with leading national research institutes, government statistics departments, and the international NGO Save the Children. The work of the national teams is supported by partners within UK universities including the Open University, the Institute of Education (London) and the University of Reading. The project directorate is based with the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development, under the leadership of Dr Jo Boyden. Other senior staff include Professor Stefan Dercon (Oxford) and Professor Martin Woodhead (Open University).

Click the relevant link for more information about our partners, our funders and or about the people in our Young Lives team.

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