Scoping Study on a Longitudinal Study of Children who Leave Care

This brief discussion paper considers the research design for longitudinal studies generally and a specific 10-year follow-up study on children who leave care in Ireland. This initial discussion paper is developed in advance of discussion on the detail of this specific study with the commissioners and therefore does not refer to the detailed expectations for the study. Rather, the paper considers general issues in designing a longitudinal study. The first section reviews the research literature on longitudinal studies, while the second section proposes a tentative design for this specific study based on the information available at this point.