YOUNG LIVES LONGITUDINAL DESIGN

1. Reconciling numbers and qualitative data in Young Lives, a 15-year study of children growing up in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh India, Peru & Vietnam Virginia Morrow ESRC Research Methods Festival Mixed Methods Panel St Catherine’s College, Oxford 10th July 2014

2. YOUNG LIVES LONGITUDINAL DESIGN • 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru, Vietnam • 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, gender • 4 major household survey rounds completed so far: in 2002; 2006/7; 2009; 2013 – final round 2017. • Qualitative research • School study • Comprehensive focus – nutrition, development, cognitive and psycho-social, education, social protection • Partnership of government and independent research institutes • Commissioned by UK Dept for International Development

3. Survey data include: • Household food and non-food consumption and expenditure • Economic changes and recent life history • Parental background • Livelihoods and assets • Socio-economic status • Children’s time use • Child health and well-being • Anthropometry • Education experiences • Caregiver perceptions • Cognitive development & vocabulary scores • (Survey data are available at UK Data Archive)

4. Qualitative research: • Longitudinal qualitative data are being collected from a sub-sample of both cohorts – 50 children in each country • 3 rounds of data have been collected (2007, 2008, 2011) with a further round ongoing 2014. • Methods include: child interviews, caregiver interviews, group discussions, group activities, data gathered using creative methods, teacher interviews, etc. • Focus on children’s daily lives – time-use, school, work, transitions, aspirations, experiences, well-being.

5. What kinds of childhood are imagined and created through the research? • A range of disciplines, so a range of understandings of childhood? • Economics: children as future human capital, childhood separate from adulthood • Sociology: children as (constrained) social actors, lived realities of children, relational understanding • Limitations: futurity, profitability, instrumental view of children vs. Small scale of ethnographic work – numbers matter.

6. Binary division between qual/quant Quantitative • Magnitude • Distribution • Prevalence • Proportion • Objective ‘facts’ • Conclusive • Generalisable • Outliers – ignore! • Value-base – implicit • Lack of conceptualisation • Human capital - future • Focus on individual • Simple policy solutions – • abolitionist approaches Qualitative • Socio-economic context • Institutional/political processes • Practices behind decision-making • Quality • Subjective experiences • Exploratory • Particular • Outliers – interesting – follow up! • Values - explicit • Conceptualisation the starting point • Daily life, here and now • Focus on collective experiences • Policy suggestions complex, unintended consequences

7. Towards an integrated approach • Enables political economic analysis linking context to magnitude of phenomena • Reveals practices and process behind trends • How and why households respond • Enhanced understanding of factors behind statistics • Balanced explanations of people’s actions – interdependency of family members • A more nuanced view • Illustrative • QLR – understanding change over time in depth • Clarification of how questions are understood in context • Grounded, realistic (?) policy suggestions.

8. Example 1: child labour • Economics: child labour prevents human capital formation (via schooling); poverty/poor parents force children to work • Sociology: children’s responsibilities, interdependency, reciprocity • Quality of school • What is lost when children withdrawn from work? • survival, earning money, enhancing marriage prospects, having something to do, a source of pride, having fun with friends, and a way of learning skills for the future.

9. Integration: • Economists emphasis on ‘non-cognitive’ skills (....self-discipline, perseverance, dependability, motivation, sociability, ability to work with others, ability to focus on tasks, self-regulation, self-esteem, time preference, health, mental health... ‘character’) cf: • Cultural psychology/social anthropology – all these characteristics are valued very differently across cultures, genders, social groups etc...... (eg. Pride, shyness, etc) • Start with the topic and question, not the discipline... (social policy approach)

10. Example 2: injuries among young people • From qualitative research, extent and effects of injuries • Prevalence in survey of injuries • Lack of evidence/data (epidemiological – hospital admissions) • Primary focus on sexual and reproductive health • Explore patterns, socio-demographic risk factors, and consequences of injuries • Mixed methods paper

11. Approach: integration • Iterative – initial analysis of both data sets separately • Key areas identified where young people reported injury (work/doing chores, recreation and sports, transport) • 2-way process where survey and qualitative analysis informed each other To acquire understanding of socio-demographic risk factors and potential long-term health consequences

12. Findings • Survey: Work injuries: slightly more frequent in Ethiopia and AP India than Peru and Vietnam • Cuts, ‘falls’, animal-related, transport-related • In Ethiopia and AP India, gender – boys higher odds of work injuries than girls. • Poverty/rurality – in Ethiopia, Peru and Vietnam • Qualitative: consequences of injuries – social and economic, for individual and entire family. • Eg Ethiopia, Habtamu age 13 in 2009: cut his leg with an axe, chopping wood.

13. Habtamu • ‘First, my parents put chilli and alcohol on the sore... I was treated in this way for one month. However, I was seriously sick, and I was taken to the modern health centre. I had one medicine by injection and another medicine which was take in the form of fluid.... Then I was able to recover from the injury’. • Habtamu’s brother took on his work, • Habtamu’father paid for hospital treatment. • Implications: financial burden, and his brother’s time at school

14. Other examples & implications: • Recreation and sports injuries – lack of safe spaces, risky activities, playing football on roads, kite flying on roofs. • Transport injuries - motorbikes, bicycles – overcrowding, poor road quality, fear of falling, public transport. • Explaining injuries: the importance of spiritual forces • (Limitations, and further research needed) • Health care inaccessible, lay remedies • Adapt injury prevention approaches to differing environments/understandings

15. Conclusions…. • Combining methods and models of childhood will enable deeper understanding • Binary division too simplistic • Many examples of integrated approaches, and of combining or mixing methods • Need transparency about process of integration • Barriers: paradigm wars, publishing conventions • Workshops on combining qual/quant • Impact agenda?

16. REFERENCES Boyden J and M Bourdillon (eds) (2012) Childhood poverty, multidisciplinary approaches. Palgrave/Macmillan, London. Boyden, J and M Bourdillon (eds) (2014) Growing up in Poverty: Findings from Young Lives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Crivello, G., Morrow, V., Wilson, E. (2013) Young Lives Longitudinal Qualitative Research: a guide for researchers. Young Lives Technical Note 26, Young Lives, Oxford. www.younglives.org.uk Heissler K & Porter C. (2013) Know your place: Ethiopian children’s contributions to the household economy. European Journal of Development Research, 25, 4, 600-620. Morrow, V., Barnett, I, and Vujcich, D. (2014) Understanding the causes and consequences of injuries to adolescents growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh (India), Vietnam and Peru: a mixed method study, Health Policy and Planning, 29, 1, 67-75. Morrow , V., and Crivello, G. (in preparation, 2015) What is the value of qualitative longitudinal research with children and young people for international development? For (eds) R. Thomson & J. MacLeod, ‘New Frontiers in Qualitative Longitudinal Research’, Special issue of IntJnl Social Research Methodology Orkin, K. (2011) See first, think later, then test: How children’s perspectives can improve economic research. European Journal of Development Research, 23, 5, 774-791.

17. FINDING OUT MORE… www.younglives.org.uk • methods and research papers • datasets (UK data archive) • publications • child profiles and photos • e-newsletter