By Zsuzsanna Veroszta, Julianna Boros, Balázs Kapitány, Krisztina Kopcsó, Fruzsina Leitheiser, Nikolett Gabriella Sándor, Laura Szabó and Zsolt Spéder
In 2018–2019, a sample of expectant mothers was surveyed for the first wave of Cohort ’18 – Growing Up in Hungary – a longitudinal study run by the Hungarian Demographic Research Institute. For the second wave of the study, the same families were visited when the children were 6 months old.
This is the second study report of the Cohort ’18 Study. It presents the daily lives of families raising 6-month-old children, together with the development of those children after the gestation period. In addition to the situation of the family, it looks in detail at the course of childbirth and its circumstances, as well as at the condition, early development and care of the recently born child.
During the second wave of the research, all of the approximately 8,500 respondents involved in the pregnancy wave again shared with the health visitors who attended them their experiences as mothers. And at this stage, some of those who missed out on the pregnancy wave survey were now included in the study for the first time, when they had an opportunity to report on their experiences during pregnancy. There are also new respondents, from families where the 6-month-old child’s carer is not the birth mother.
Infancy in Hungary is our report on the second wave of the Cohort ’18 – Growing Up in Hungary survey, and it paints a comprehensive picture of the main characteristics of early childhood in Hungary, based on the responses of the parents of children born in 2018–19.