Developmental trajectories of child resilience, their determinants, and associations with risk experiences and behaviours: protocol for a national cohort study within the ReDiKid project
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Background
Resilience during the transition from middle childhood towards early adolescence is best understood as a dynamic, adversity-activated developmental process rather than a fixed individual trait. Building on the Resilient Kid in the Digital World framework, this protocol describes the longitudinal component of the broader research programme, designed to characterise developmental trajectories of resilience-related capacities and resources and adaptive functioning, identify their determinants, and examine prospective associations with risk experiences and behaviours across behavioural, family, school, and digital contexts.
Methods
This is a national school-based cohort study following children aged 9–11 years at baseline across four waves at approximately six-month intervals from autumn 2025 to spring 2027. Schools are selected from the Czech national register using stratified probability-proportional-to-size sampling by region, municipality status, and area-level socioeconomic status; all eligible Grade 4 and Grade 5 pupils in participating schools are invited. The recruitment plan covers approximately 72 schools and 8,000 eligible children, with an anticipated 50–60% participation rate for complete child–parent pairs, corresponding to a target of approximately 4,000–4,800 linked child–parent dyads at baseline. Longitudinal planning aims to retain at least 1,000 linked dyads through Wave 4. Data are collected through child self-report, parent self- and proxy-report, and school-coordinator online questionnaires. Measures cover resilience-related capacities and resources, adaptive functioning and well-being, risk exposures, digital engagement, health-related behaviours, family context, parental mediation, and school context. Analyses will be tailored to the specific research questions and may include longitudinal and multilevel approaches complemented by reciprocal and person-oriented analyses.
Discussion
The study provides a multi-dimensional, nationally distributed longitudinal resource for examining how child functioning and resilience-related resources change together with risk experiences and contextual conditions during a key developmental transition. The design explicitly distinguishes resilience-related measures from evidence of resilience under adversity and treats digital environments as one interacting developmental context rather than as an isolated exposure domain. The cohort may also inform understanding of early vulnerability and protective processes relevant to problematic digital engagement, without treating such indicators as clinical diagnoses.
