Thousands of babies will participate in an early childhood study as part of a study on youngsters in the 2020s.
The Department of Education commissioned the study, which will track about 8,500 children for at least the first five years of their lives and will be overseen by experts from University College London.
The study’s researchers expect that it will help them make better judgments about early childhood and childcare services by looking at how the epidemic and the cost-of-living crises have affected children.
Beginning next week, parents of nine-month-old babies will be randomly selected and interviewed by a study team of experts about their child’s growth and family circumstances.
Researchers will also ask questions about their own lives.
The research, which is the first birth cohort study to be launched since the millennium, will be conducted in partnership with Ipsos, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and Birkbeck, University of London.
Research director Professor Pasco Fearon said he was ‘extremely excited’ to start meeting families and their children, who are currently nine months’ old.
The first birth cohort study was established in 1946, with subsequent ones following in 1958, 1970, 1991 and 2000. The project is known as the National Survey of Health and Development.
In what marks one of the biggest ongoing scientific experiments in British history, experts have learnt from the past studies key facts that now form the bedrock of medical knowledge about children’s early years.
Among them is the knowledge that smoking while pregnant can harm babies for their entire lives and that the lungs of youngsters can never recover if they grow up in polluted areas.
Experts also know that babies are less likely to suffer cot-death if they sleep on their backs and that the collapse of marriages often does terrible harm to children.
Professor Fearon said of the latest study: ‘More than 75 years ago, the first British birth cohort study, which is housed at UCL, was launched to track the lives of babies born just after the war.
‘And now, Children Of The 2020s will provide vital evidence about the early years as families navigate their way out of the Covid-19 pandemic and through the cost-of-living crisis.’
Parents will be asked about their child’s development, their neighbourhood, their family, their mental health and the home learning environment.
They will also be asked about childcare arrangements for their children and preschool education.
Between the surveys, they will be invited to use a smartphone app to log their baby’s language and development, as well as receiving news and tips from the team of experts.
Professor Fearon added: ‘Our first five years are a crucial developmental period in our lives, every new experience can play a pivotal role in how we fare later on.
‘This new study will investigate how children develop and the circumstances and early years services that can make a difference.
‘By understanding how these factors impact their development, we can learn how to support them, so they are able to make the best start at school and flourish as they are growing up.’
The 1946 study assessed an entire cohort of babies who had been born in a single week in March of that year.
Its origins went back to the 1930s, when politicians were keen to understand the reasons behind falling birth rates.
In total, 5,362 babies were recruited into the study in 1946.
As of last year, 49 per cent of them are still part of the study, whilst 23 per cent have passed away.
Of the remaining members from the 1946 study, 52 per cent are female and 48 per cent are male.
Nearly all of them still live in the UK, with only five per cent living abroad.
Researchers have lost contact with a further 16 per cent, whilst the remaining 12 per cent have withdrawn from the study.
The key figure behind the study was Doctor James Douglas, who hoped that arming the government with the facts of daily life in Britain would help them to improve people’s lives.
For nearly eight decades, scientists have continued to follow the 1946 babies. It makes them the most studied and best understood generation in history.
According to a newsletter released last year
Of the original cohort, 49 per cent are still active
In her 2016 book The Life Project, author Helen Pearson laid bare the findings of the 1946 study, as well as the subsequent studies.
Overall, more than 70,000 people across five generations have been enrolled in ‘birth cohort’ studies by their parents.
The studies led to a major adult education push by the New Labour government in the early 2000s. It included free courses for those without the equivalent of a satisfactory grade in GCSE English or maths.
Studies of the children born in the year 2000 found that 23 per cent of them were either overweight or obese by the age of just three.
Babies undergo a range of tests and are weighed and measured when they are born. But as they get older, their psychological states and mental development is not routinely assessed.
This is what the new study aims to address.
The study was commissioned by the Department for Education. Researchers are trying to understand how children’s language and emotional capacity develops as they get older and also want to understand the nature of family life for children growing up today.
Professor Fearon added to the BBC that ‘so much has changed’ since the last cohort study in the year 2000.
Developments include the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic, along with the hardship imposed by the 2008 financial crisis.
There have also been ‘huge changes’ in the structure of society and the nature of employment, Professor Fearon said.
He said that today’s babies are growing up ‘in the shadow of the pandemic’ and researchers do not yet know what the impact of that will be.
‘We are looking at the cost of living crisis which could have quite a major impact on families too,’ he said.
Children and Families Minister, Will Quince, said of the new study: ‘This is an important study that will provide an insight into the crucial early years of a child’s life and a wealth of evidence about their development and educational outcomes.
‘We know the pandemic has created unique challenges for families and I’d like to thank the thousands who will be participating in this study over the next five years.
‘We are committed to supporting families, including through a multi-million-pound package to transform services, which will create family hubs in half of all local authorities and provide important advice to parents and carers through the Start-for-Life offer.’
Speaking ahead of a visit to UCL last year to learn about the new study, Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge said: ‘Our early childhoods shape our adult lives and knowing more about what impacts this critical time is fundamental to understanding what we as a society can do to improve our future health and happiness.
‘The landmark Children Of The 2020s study will illustrate the importance of the first five years and provide insights into the most critical aspects of early childhood, as well as the factors which support or hinder positive lifelong outcomes.’