Children and Families Research Programme
The UCD Research Programme on Children and Families has been created in response to the advent of data from the Growing Up in Ireland survey – the National Longitudinal Study of Children. The GUI is based on two nationally representative samples of children – 8,570 nine year olds and 10,000 nine month olds – who were selected in 2008 and 2009 with a view to tracking their development at intervals throughout their lives. It is the largest, most complex and scientifically richest study in the human sciences ever undertaken in Ireland, and the UCD Children and Families Programme aims to develop its potential to bring the study of children and their families onto a new plane in this country.
UCD College of Human Sciences, along with the Geary Institute and a number of Schools in other UCD Colleges (particularly the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science) has adopted a strategic focus on the GUI in its research planning for the coming years and is seeking to mobilise resources to support a substantial programme of research on the data and of postgraduate and postdoctoral training in the area. This programme will be coordinated under the umbrella of UCD Social Science Research Centre.
Following extensive discussion and consultation within UCD, an initial programme plan has been developed which outlines UCD’s preliminary internal thinking and interests in regard to research and training on the GUI (see draft programme outline). The intention is to use this document as a basis for discussion with other institutions in Ireland, with a view to the eventual emergence of a coordinated national approach to the exploitation of the GUI data and the development of a more detailed programme within UCD which will be consistent with the national approach.
The purposes of the UCD Programme are to promote, coordinate and support research by UCD staff and postgraduate students on the GUI data, both within UCD and in cooperation with researchers in other institutions in Ireland and in international research networks, and to develop research capacity for the field in the future. To help focus and energise the programme, UCD College of Human Sciences allocated resources to SSRC to create a post of Data Manager-Analyst for the programme. This is a three-year post at post-doctoral level.
MSc/PhD in Children and Youth Studies
UCD School of Education
