The first part of this volume highlights four important trends that have affected children in the study countries since Young Lives began ? trends that also apply to many other countries in the developing world. First, amid the economic growth of all countries in the study, there have been striking changes at the community level, as well as striking differences between communities, that have significant outcomes for the children. Second, factors in home background remain key to acquiring competencies and skills, affecting even what children learn at school.

The chapter looks at children?s trajectories from early childhood through to the time they leave school, examining when and why they leave school, the types of schools they go to (government or private), and how various factors are shaping their educational opportunities and achievement. It synthesizes existing Young Lives analysis based on three rounds of research with two age cohorts.

Young Lives has been introduced as a longitudinal study that follows two cohorts of children in poor communities in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam as they grow into young adults. In this chapter, after pointing to the importance of longitudinal studies in the social sciences, we use the experience of designing and implementing Young Lives to reflect on some issues surrounding the process of such studies, and on the use of their findings to inform policy.

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In the past few decades, education in Peruhas shown increased enrolment, especially in primary schools, but low achievement as measured by national and international standard tests in reading comprehension and mathematics. However, averages hide wide disparities in educational outcomes, which are often influenced by individual and family characteristics. Among these, coming from a family that speaks an indigenous language has been shown to be a significant predictor of low educational outcomes as compared to coming from a Spanish-speaking family.

The main objectives of this chapter are to investigate sustained consequences of early childhood malnutrition and recovery from this condition, [q1] and to assess the long-term effects of pre-natal and post-natal economic shocks on child health and nutrition, using standardized height measurements.

This chapter uses Young Lives data from Peru,Ethiopia,Vietnam, and the state of Andhra Pradesh in India to illustrate the multidimensional nature of child poverty. The chapter focuses on the data and analysis of Rounds 1 and especially 2 in 2002 and 2006. The chapter introduces the data and presents descriptive analysis of some key dimensions of poverty. It also discusses multidimensional poverty indexes and illustrates the possibilities offered by the Young Lives data.

Starting from approaches that Young Lives has adopted, this chapter identifies fundamental ethics questions and contributes to current debates about research practices, the ethics of longitudinal research with children, and research with communities in developing countries, in a spirit of shared enquiry and learning. It discusses some of the difficulties encountered in fieldwork and strategies for attempting to resolve them.

This chapter summarizes research within Young Lives into early childhood transitions, looking at children?s experiences of early transitions within early childhood and primary education in three of the four Young Lives study countries. Numerous lines of research have converged to produce a compelling case for prioritizing early childhood care and education (ECCE) services.

By examining statistical associations between adverse circumstances in households and outcomes for children, the chapter captures the underlying processes that structure childhood risk. The chapter focuses on crime, economic shocks (such as job loss), government regulations (such as forced resettlement or land redistribution), environmental hazards, housing disasters (for example, fire), the illness or death of a household member and other family adversities (for example, separation of family members).

This chapter contributes to the debate on what constitutes 'good childhood' and well-being by using the bottom-up approach and reporting the diverse opinions of Ethiopian children and their caregivers on what constitutes a good or bad life for children, elicited primarily through group interviews and activities. The chapter contrasts qualitative data from different exercises involving children, caregivers, and community informants who explore what constitutes well-being or a good life for children in their community.