Research into children and adolescents ensured for another four years

Since the opening of TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research in 2013, large groups of children and adolescents in Denmark have benefitted from the methods developed by the centre’s researchers. Now TrygFonden is granting another DKK 40 million to the centre allowing it to continue its research activities until 2022.

“One of the results that we’re proud of concerns young children in daycare institutions. Here we find that if we offer childcare professionals a set of tools and a structured approach to language acquisition, they can make a tremendous difference for the children. By strengthening the focus on language acquisition, we can improve lots of children’s chances of getting an education, establishing social relations and achieving a good life,” says Simon Calmar Andersen, centre director at TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University.

“Another important research result is that we have uncovered the vast potential of parents reading with their children. Even in second grade - when the children are able to read on their own - children benefit a great deal from reading and talking to their mum or dad about what they’re reading.”

Helping even more children and adolescents
Despite the many successful initiatives launched by TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research, Denmark is still characterised by a significant gap between children who do well and those who do not. That is why more research is needed.

“After working with the well-being of children and adolescents for a number of years, we have a much better idea of the scope of the problem. We also know that we need to take action early on if we want to ensure that children in Denmark get more equal prerequisites for doing well in school and in life in general,” says Simon Calmar Andersen.

TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research is part of the Department of Economics and Business Economics. Head of Department Niels Haldrup is pleased with the research conducted so far and with the prospect of further research.

“The centre has achieved excellent results, and the new grant allows us to attract strong international researchers who can contribute further to the important research into children’s well-being and learning,” says Niels Haldrup.

With the new grant from TrygFonden, the researchers are able to launch more exciting research projects. The well-being of children and adolescents is in focus in the centre’s initiatives that aim at lowering the levels of school absenteeism, preventing youth crime and supporting families to offer children the best start in life.

The researchers would also like to see more children benefitting from the successful initiatives by rolling out these initiatives at more schools and institutions. This ambition is shared by Anders Hede, research director at TrygFonden:

“TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research is already collaborating with most Danish municipalities on the evaluation and development of initiatives that strengthen the learning and well-being of children and adolescents. This shows that municipal managers and employees are very interested in contributing to the development of even better initiatives aimed at children and adolescents.”