ARU Research Report 2019

32 The Up Project Limitations of This Study This study was a preliminary glimpse into the potential benefits that intergenerational interactions and activities might offer to children and older adults. The Up project being its third year meant that we were not able to establish baseline data for the older adults or for children, given that both groups has been exposed to the project previously. For the children this was most often in the form of their interactions with children who had taken part already. Given this, we opted to explore the journey and experiences of children and older adults taking part most recently, with a qualitative and exploratory approach. Although unable to provide decisive findings, this approach does offer avenues which further studies can explore with more structured, long-term and rigorous approaches. At this stage this research is only able to offer suggestions of the benefits which projects like Up can offer, and the challenges or considerations which need to be accommodated.