GUIDE: Innovations and Challenges to Survey Child Well-Being in Italy

This chapter discusses the methodological innovations and challenges related to surveying child well-being in Italy, and the role of the GUIDE (Growing up in Digital Europe) project. The GUIDE research infrastructure aims to develop a comparative longitudinal survey on child well-being across European countries. The proposed survey would follow two cohorts of children, one from ages 8 to 24, and one between ages 1 and 24. The data collected through this longitudinal survey will provide a holistic evaluation of child well-being and constitute an evidence base for public policies at different territorial levels in participating countries, as well as creating a unique dataset for comparative policy analysis. Building on pilots conducted in five countries in 2023, the Italian GUIDE team at the University of Bologna pre-tested the implementation of the survey in Italy. In collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IRPPS), the team also produced a design for the pilot in Italy. This design will facilitate the evaluation of different survey modes, with particular interest in the option for a “push to web” via self-completion Computer Assisted Web Interviews (CAWI). The pilot will also permit assessment of the robustness of the survey instrument to regional heterogeneity, as data will be collected in northern (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna) and southern (Campania and Apulia) regions; specific technical elements of the sampling strategy are discussed. After outlining the state-of-the-art regarding data on child well-being in Italy, the chapter analyses the work conducted so far to establish GUIDE in Italy, and presents pathways to the full-scale launch of the GUIDE survey in 2027 in Italy and Europe.