Background
The idea for the Growing Up in Scotland project (GUS) grew
out of a longitudinal scoping study commissioned by the then
Scottish
Executive Education Department (SEED) in 2000 which
highlighted a lack of existing data relating to two important
developmental phases in children's lives - early years and
the transition into adolescence. The scoping study recommended
that
the Executive consider commissioning a longitudinal study in
one of these areas. This recommendation was realised in 2003
when the Growing Up in Scotland study was commissioned by the
Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED). Growing Up
in
Scotland is a large-scale longitudinal social survey designed
to examine the characteristics, circumstances and behaviours
of children from birth to late adolescence (and possibly beyond).
It will form a central part of the Scottish Government's
strategy for
the long-term monitoring and evaluation of its policies for
children, with a specific focus on the early years. A contract
to undertake the development of the study and the first four
years of fieldwork and analysis was awarded to the Scottish
Centre
for Social Research in collaboration with the Centre for Families
and Relationships at Edinburgh University. Although the survey
has various features in common with other cohort projects,
such as the Millenium Cohort Study , it also differs in a
number
of important respects. For example,
- it has a specifically and uniquely
Scottish focus
- it is driven specifically
by the needs of policy
- it has a particular focus on
service use, awareness and contact in various key stages
of childhood - e.g. health, education, childcare
- it has an intensive focus
on the early years of children's lives.
As part of the development of the study,
a scoping exercise was undertaken, first, to ensure that the
design and content of the study matched as closely as possible
the identified needs of its core policy users and, secondly,
to help to embed the main study in the broader academic and
policy community. This involved interviews with policy makers,
a series of consultative seminars with representatives of the
academic community, discussions with other researchers and a
desk-based review of previous studies and existing instruments.
A second stage of the study was commissioned during 2008. This
included funding to recruit a new Birth Cohort of 6,000 babies
born during 2010/11 and to carry out interviews with the families
when the child is 10 months old.
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