We are delighted to announce that the Cohort ’18 research project will continue with further waves of data collection.

In spring 2026, when the participating children are 7–8 years old, we will contact families by telephone. During these interviews, we will ask about the circumstances of the children’s entry into school, decisions related to school choice, and their current experiences of school life. One of the key aims of this wave of the study is to understand how these decisions and opportunities affect children’s well-being and their adjustment to school.

Subsequently, when the children reach the age of 9, we will visit the families in person. The primary goal of this wave will be to obtain a comprehensive picture of children’s development and the well-being of family members. This data collection will represent a major milestone in the history of the study, as the information gathered at this point will make it possible to interpret data collected in earlier years – such as characteristics of school entry – from the perspective of children’s longer-term development.

The Cohort ’18 study began in spring 2018 with the participation of more than 8,000 pregnant women. The families involved were subsequently contacted when the children were 6 months, 18 months, 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years old, in order to gain as detailed a picture as possible of how children in Hungary grow up.

The data collected with the help of participating families have led to a wide range of important findings. To date, the methodology and main results of the study have been summarized in 11 volumes published in Hungarian. In addition, 21 Hungarian-language and 12 English-language academic articles have been published in scientific journals or edited volumes, along with a further five short popular science articles in the Korfa demographic newsletter. The data from the study have also served as the basis for two doctoral dissertations.

These studies examine the family, social, and institutional factors that influence children’s early development and well-being. Particular attention is paid to socio-emotional development, health outcomes and developmental risks, as well as life situations related to pregnancy and childbirth and inequalities in care systems. The findings also highlight the role of mothers’ labour market status, as well as social background, educational attainment, and ethnic background, in processes related to childbearing and childrearing.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to the families participating in the study. We are grateful to every family for the time, openness, and sustained cooperation through which they have supported the research over many years. Without your participation, these results could not have been achieved, nor would the future continuation of the study be possible.

The upcoming waves of data collection are being implemented within the framework of the "EFOP Plusz-3.3.2-25-2025-00001 – Strategic Developments in Social Inclusion Policy" project, with the support of the European Union and co-financed by Hungary.