One of the objectives of Young Lives is to develop a replicable and relatively low-cost methodology that can be used to study childhood poverty over time. The main purpose of this document is, therefore, to provide guidance for developing country government, NGO and research professionals interested in conducting similar research and advocacy work on childhood poverty. It outlines the approach taken by Young Lives, drawing on experience and lessons learned to highlight important issues to consider. It does not provide detailed information about longitudinal studies or research techniques, which is available in other texts. The survey justification documents (archived with the Round 1 survey data in the UK Data Archive), which explain the inclusion and structure of questions in the core questionnaires, contain a range of references to literature covering issues such as working with children, longitudinal studies, and measuring child and maternal health.

Keywords: research methods, policy-influencing methods, dissemination