UGU Conference 2024
UGU arranged its first conference in november 2024. The conference targeted those who have had experiences or interest in working with longitudinal data or quantitative studies. By presenting current research through a variety of disciplines, this conference showcased various large-scale databases and their trajectories.
Date: 27-28 november 2024
Time: 27 november, 10-18.00
28 november 9-16.30
Place: AK2 Stukat (Pedagogen, A-Huset), Västra Hamngatan 25, 411 17 Göteborg
November 27-28 were two inspiring days with lectures, mingling and discussions on how research with large-scale data can be conducted in the best way.
Wednesday began with a warm welcome from our scientific director Alli Klapp, followed by Jan-Eric Gustafsson's insightful look back at UGU's history. From Karolinska Institutet, Patrik Magnusson who talked about the Swedish Twin Registry and its structure, and Peter Allebeck who talked about his research with UGU data and how our data has contributed to a better understanding of the link between cognitive ability and suicide and schizophrenia among teenagers.
Erica Lindahl from IFAU talked about how UGU data has been able to lay the foundation for several research projects, where the importance of, for example, age-integrated classes has been investigated. From Stockholm University, Hugo Westerlund talked about the REWHARD infrastructure. And Anne Boschini, who investigates the relationship between cognitive ability and fatherhood, presented an innovative way to use UGU data.
The first day's presentations ended with Mikael Hjerm, who talked about the European Social Survey and how this large-scale database has contributed to increased knowledge about gender differences in the labour market.
From Umeå University, we had speakers Hanna Eklöf and Björn Högberg, who began the second and final day of the conference with presentations on students' increased stress and psychosomatic problems - topics that the researchers with the help of our longitudinal data have been able to investigate more closely.
Hans Grönqvist from Linnaeus University introduced us to yet another unique area of use for UGU. His ongoing study examines the media's portrayal of vulnerable areas and how students who live there experience their everyday lives, as a result.
Thea Klapp, a PhD student at IPS, talked about one of her published papers that examined the relationship between high-achieving students' self-assessment and mediocre math teaching (the Big Fish Little Pond effect). Kajsa Yang Hansen, professor at IPS, presented an article where the effect of interest levels for different subjects was measured among resilient students. Before our panel discussion, Björn Halleröd from the University of Gothenburg talked about the challenges faced by large-scale research databases, and our Scientific Director Alli Klapp summed up the days and emphasized the importance of this milestone – an inspiring conference that marked 63 years of Evaluation Through Follow-up.
