The Duchess of Cambridge has backed a major new study which will track the development of children born in 2021 over the next five years.
Kate today met academics leading the Children of the 2020s research project, which will investigate the effect on children of their home environment, community, early years services and their families' social and economic circumstances.
Speaking ahead of the visit to University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies, she said: "Our early childhoods shape our adult lives and knowing more about what impacts this critical time is fundamental to understanding what we as a society can do to improve our future health and happiness.
"The landmark 'Children of the 2020s' study will illustrate the importance of the first five years and provide insights into the most critical aspects of early childhood, as well as the factors which support or hinder positive lifelong outcomes."
The Duchess, who has made early childhood development a cornerstone of her public work, added: "I am committed to supporting greater in-depth research in this vital area and I'm delighted to be meeting all those behind the study at this early stage."
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WATCH: Kate Middleton meets early years experts at University College London
The nationally representative birth cohort study will track the holistic development of children in England from the age of nine months to five years.
Researchers will begin recruiting up to 8,000 families in January 2022 for babies born in April, May and June 2021.
Kate was welcomed to the university by provost Dr Michael Spence, Professor Li Wei, director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education and Professor Alan Thompson, Dean of the Faculty of Brain Science.
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Kate was then escorted to the Institute of Education library by Professor Pasco Fearon, Chair in Developmental Psychopathology and Principal Investigator of the Children of the 2020s study.
Alissa Goodman, Professor of Economics and Director of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, listed previous birth cohort studies conducted in England in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000 and explained how some children from the first cohort continued to take part in the study well into their 70s.
Kate asked: "The families that took part in the studies, do they then get involved? Do you find there's an invested relationship in the study?"
Professor Goodman replied: "At first it's a study that the parents signed up to, but we are very concerned to understand at what point do the children become drawn into it and how do they understand what their participation is."
Kate was then shown archive material of historic research into early childhood dating back to the 1940s, including a "Birth Questionnaire" given to new mothers in 1958.
"We had answers to questions around who looked after the husband while the woman went into hospital," said Professor Goodman.
"Oh, it was different then!" remarked the Duchess.
The questionnaire also included questions about pregnant women's smoking habits.
The responses allowed researchers to track the impact of smoking during pregnancy on a baby's birth weight and the longer-term affect it had on a child's life, eventually resulting in a public health campaign to stop women smoking while pregnant.
"It wasn't really known whether that was important and it [the question] went in at the last minute and then that question was then analysed later. About a third of women reported that they had smoked during pregnancy and it was from that question that it led to more research around the effects of smoking on the baby relating to cognitive development and other issues in later life," explained Professor Goodman.
The Children of the 2020s study is being conducted by the University’s Faculty of Brain Sciences and the Institute of Education and is commissioned and funded by the Department for Education.
Researchers want to understand how a wide range of factors impact children's social, cognitive, and early language development, their mental health and readiness for school.
They also aim to identify when developmental gaps start to appear and what more can be done to support disadvantaged families.
Kate was then introduced to Tanya McCormack, head of early years, schools and Send analysis and research at the Department of Education (EYSSAR) and Simon Bailey, senior research officer at the Department of Education.
During a roundtable discussion, the Duchess was shown graphs charting brain development from early childhood to early adulthood and how the environment plays a crucial role and also how a higher socio-economic status correlates to a greater amount of gray matter in a young child's brain.
Another slide explained how the study would look at factors like parental mental health, trauma, life events, stressors and regional and neighbourhood characteristics in relation to child development.
She asked: "Which countries do we feel are leading on this? Which countries have a successful model we could be learning from?"
Professor Fearon replied: "I have to say the UK is not bad. We do have some brilliant programmes for young children."
The Duchess heard how Australia has a focus on prevention and he added: "We are trying to think more about prevention rather than intervention."
Kate asked: "Are there other cohort studies we can learn from internationally?"
Told there were similar studies in Scotland, Ireland and across Europe, she remarked: "There have been quite a lot of studies around trauma, but it's hard to measure the positive influences on early childhood. I suppose that’s what this study is going to start to do."
The Duchess also told researchers how she had noticed the impact of social issues closer to home after looking back at four generations of her own family tree.
"The conversation was about how you can see big changes in society and how much that's affected the experiences of different generations," said Professor Goodman afterwards.
Professor Fearon added: "Intergenerational patterns of inequality are very rigid and hard to hack. We were talking in the meeting about what are the key points of opportunity where you can disrupt those generational patterns and get to a better outcome that might have had a history of really difficult experiences."
He said of the Duchess: "We have met before, she came to UCL once before and I've followed the work of the Royal Foundation for some time so I feel that we share a very common objective to really focus in on the early years to support children's development.
"It's just a pleasure to talk about it because we're talking the same language and we're on the same mission.
“She really understands the importance of good evidence and that it can be a bit scant for the earliest years and it makes it much more difficult to make the case for better support for families with young children and babies.
“She asks the most pertinent questions, she knows the area really, really well, which was really impressive actually given all the things she has to do.
"It really shows that she is really interested in the subject because she is extremely knowledgeable. It's like speaking to a colleague really."
Kate, who in June launched The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, will carry out more engagements relating to the study in future
Professor Goodman added: "We were very impressed with her interest and knowledge and hopefully she'll be back to see how we are doing, that would be amazing."
Over the course of her royal life, the Duchess has focused on how difficulties in adulthood including addiction, family breakdown, poor mental health, suicide and homelessness can be traced to someone's early childhood experiences.
Through the Centre for Early Childhood, she hopes to highlight how those early experiences shape the developing brain and why positive relationships, environments and experiences during this period of childhood are so crucial.
Its work will focus on; promoting and commissioning research to increase knowledge and share best practice; working with people across the private, public and voluntary sectors to collaborate on new solutions and; raising awareness and inspiring action to drive real, positive change on the early years.
For her outing, the Duchess wore a repeat checked dress with a pussy-bow collar from high street favourite Zara. She teamed the ensemble with her grey Hugo Boss pumps and accessorised with her Mappin & Webb Empress earrings.