The Young Lives Longitudinal Study – presentation by Angela Little at the Comparative and International Education Society conference, Washington DC, 13 March 2015.

1. The ‘Young Lives’
Longitudinal Study
Angela W Little
NORRAG Panel on International
Benchmarking and measuring the quality
CIES March 13th 2015, 9.30 -11.00

2. YOUNG LIVES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY
OF CHILDHOOD POVERTY
Interdisciplinary study which aims to:
- improve understanding of the causes & consequences
of childhood poverty
- provide evidence to improve policies & practice
• Combines data collection (quantitative & qualitative),
analysis/research and policy influence
• Following 12,000 children in 4 countries (Ethiopia,
India-Andhra Pradesh, Peru, Vietnam) over 15 years
• Two age cohorts in each country:
- 2,000 children born in 2000-01
- 1,000 children born in 1994-95
• Pro-poor sample: 20 sites in each country selected to
reflect country diversity, rural-urban, livelihoods,
ethnicity etc; roughly equal numbers of boys and girls

3. Advantages of Prospective Longitudinal
Studies
• Repeated measures of same individuals over time aid
understanding of causation, prognosis, stability, change and
development
• Prospective longitudinal studies follow samples into the
future, events can be tracked as they occur and are not
subject to recall bias or errors in historical administrative
records
• Long term effects of family, school, community and child
characteristics on children’s development can be explored
• Because children’s development is measured in their homes,
one can track the development of in school and out of
school children and the impact of school enrolment and
attendance

4. • Young Lives follows two age cohorts longitudinally
simultaneously, separate cohort from age effects
•Short term longitudinal studies can be embedded
within longer term study - explore the influence of a
range of in-school and out-of-school factors that
explain learning progress within a school year.
•Young Lives ALSO enjoys the benefits of dual cohort,
cross sectional, cross country and mixed methods
designs and analysis.

5. Ethiopia India Peru Vietnam
Younger
cohort
(2,000)
Round 1 (2002)
Round 2 (2006)
Round 3 (2009)
1 year old
5 years old
8 years old
Round 4 (2013) 12 years old
8 years old
12 years old
15 years old
19 years old
Round 5 (2016) 15 years old 22 years old
STRUCTURE OF PANEL
Older
cohort
(1,000)

6. HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
Survey data includes:
• Household food and non-food consumption and expenditure
• Economic changes and recent life history
• Parental background
• Livelihoods and assets
• Social capital
• Socio-economic status
• Child activities
• Child health
• Anthropometry
• Education
• Caregiver perceptions
• Cognitive development & vocabulary scores
All survey data are archived with ESDS and publicly available

7. SCHOOL SURVEY
•Classroom pedagogy
•Class characteristics
•Teachers’ knowledge and pedagogy
•Teachers’ characteristics and
behaviours
•School structure and organisation
(private/public, medium of
instruction)
•School availability and characteristics
•School policies and practices

8. School Quality Counts: evidence from
developing countries
Special issue of the Oxford Review of Education, Vol 40
no 1
(eds. Angela W Little and Caine Rolleston)

9. Prediction: Socioeconomic status age 1, opportunities to learn maths
and maths achievement Primary 4 (i.e. 10 years later) Peru
• SES age 1 and Maths test Primary 4
• Opportunities to learn:
– No. of hrs of math classes per year
– Curriculum coverage (no of exercises attempted by students)
– Quality of teachers’ feedback
– Level of cognitive demand of learning tasks (last 3 measured through
analysis of note and workbook exercises)
Association number of exercises attempted and achievement. SES at age
1 predicted not only achievement but also number of exercises
attempted
Highly unequal education system; poor children have fewer opportunities
to learn in school
Policy impact: Ministry of Education Pedagogical Support program for
slower learners from 2013

10. • 3000 G5 students: subsample of YL younger cohort and class peers, tested
at beginning and end of school year
• Examined effects of home background, teacher, peer and school factors on
learning progress. school factor and class peer backgrounds, in the policy
context of ‘minimum standards’.
• Disadvantaged pupils receive reasonably equitable access to ‘fundamental
school quality’ i.e. minimum standards e.g. av. Electricity, separate
classrooms, principal training. BUT are less likely to be in schools which
offer the largest number of teaching hours (in Maths, Vietnamese and in
total), are learning in classrooms more likely to need repairs and less likely
to have computers and books other than textbooks; and are more likely to
have teachers with lower levels of ‘pedagogical content knowledge’
• Policy implication: following success of minimum standards policy
attention should turn to boosting ‘wider opportunities to learn’. Dialogue
with Vice Minister Education: Input to World Bank Vietnam Development
Report
Short term longitudinal study embedded within longer term
Equalising opportunity? School quality and home disadvantage in
Vietnam

11. Methodological imperatives uncover new insights
Changing schools in Andhra Pradesh, India
• Following children to schools; dispersion
• OC 2002 by age of 7-8 5% had moved school at least once; YC
2009 16%
• Flux in system. (ASER also finds transitions within calendar
year grade to grade)
• Challenges education planning techniques assumptions of
cohorts moving through school together with dropout and
repetition being main sources of cohort loss.

12. Longitudinal study evidence and policy change in UK
• www.acss.org.uk/LongitudinalStudies.htm
• 14 examples of longitudinal study evidence having impact on policy
change
• Effective Pre-school, primary and secondary education project (EPPSE),
3000 children 1997-2004. Long term language, educational and social
development influenced by home environment and education. Policy
change all children from age 3 received free part-time early childhood
education; and from age 2 for most deprived 40 percent.
• Working mothers and child development . Effects of mother’s employment
on senior high school achievement, maths and reading scores and socio-
emotional development (aggressive or withdrawn). Minimal or no effect
on scores . Any slightly negative effects weakened as child grew older.
Policy change more flexibility for maternity and paternity leave around
time of child’s birth

13. FINDING OUT MORE…
www.younglives.org.uk
Special issue of Oxford Review of Education Vol 40, (eds Angela
W Little and Caine Rolleston) School Quality Counts: evidence
from developing countries
www.acss.org.uk/LongitudinalStudies.htm