Lenihan launches study of 18,000 children

The largest study of Irish children to date, involving more than 18,000 young people, has been launched by Minister for Children Brian Lenihan.

The National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland, the first phase of which will last seven years and cost €24 million plus Vat, will track the progress of 10,000 nine-month-olds and 8,000 nine-year-olds.

The research aims to identify the factors that help children do well in life and keep them safe. It also seeks to determine what keeps teenagers at school and to identify the origins of anti-social behaviour, as well as exploring the quality of children's nutrition in early childhood on later health.

Mr Lenihan said the first results would be available in less than two years and would inform policy from then on. "We know that the roots of many problems in adolescence and adulthood can be found in early childhood. This study will provide information about children over the course of their life and this will help us understand how, why and when children get into, and overcome difficulties."

Dr Sinéad Hanafin, head of research at the Office of the Minister for Children, told the launch yesterday that similar studies in other countries had led to significant changes in the lives of children.

In Britain, for example, changes in infant sleeping patterns led to a reduction in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs). Targeted language support for immigrant children in Canada had improved academic performance, while in South Australia, lead had been reduced in petrol after a study revealed the effects of lead exposure on children's IQ.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to carry out such a study, Mr Lenihan said, in order to provide a database to help understand children's development in today's society. The team of 45 researchers plans to collect data from the younger cohort at ages nine months and three years, and from the older group at ages nine and 13.

The study was originally put out to tender in April 2004 but difficulties arose with the original proposal, Mr Lenihan said.