Growing Up Healthy in Families Across the Globe

The Growing Up Healthy in Families Across the Globe (GUH) project is an international collaboration examining the possibility of coordinating harmonised analysis using five longitudinal studies. The studies have been carried out in New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. The three countries have similarities that span across population size, government, health and education systems, dual languages, and inequalities. The similarity in settings enhances the potential value of harmonising analysis from their respective similar longitudinal child cohort studies.
Three of the GUH studies come from New Zealand. The oldest study is Te Hoe Nuku Roa – Best Outcomes for Māori and was designed specifically to capture the influence of Māori society on personal and family development. The second study, the Pacific Island Families Study follows the development of New Zealand born children identifying as Pacific Islanders. Next, Growing Up in New Zealand is a longitudinal study following the lives of children (from before birth) representing a cross-section of the diverse births in contemporary New Zealand. Comparison between New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland has been carried out using the studies Growing Up in Scotland and Growing Up in Ireland, both on-going child cohort studies in Scotland and Ireland respectively.
The aim of the harmonised analysis is to increase understanding of how families change over time and to determine how and why environments change, which environments are supportive and which are not and how the policy context can shape these environments. Similarities and differences across the studies will be identified and exploratory harmonised analysis conducted.