External Publications Using GUI Data
Authors | Year | Title ↑ | Link | Journal/Book | Abstract |
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Watson, D., Whelan, C.T., Maître, B., Williams, J. | 2016 | Socio-economic variation in the impact of the Irish recession on the experience of economic stress among families | Open | Economic and Social Review | |
In this paper we make use of the first and second waves of the 2008 and 1998 cohorts of the Growing Up in Ireland study, to develop a multidimensional and dynamic approach to understanding the impact on families and children in Ireland of the Great Recession. Economic vulnerability is operationalised as involving a distinctive risk profile in relation to relative income, household joblessness and economic stress. We find that the recession was associated with a significant increase in levels of economic vulnerability and changing risk profiles involving a more prominent role for economic stress for both the 2008 and 1998 cohorts. The factors affecting vulnerability outcomes were broadly similar for both cohorts. Persistent economic vulnerability was significantly associated with lone parenthood, particularly for those with more than one child, lower levels of primary care giver (PCG) education and, to a lesser extent, younger age of PCG at child’s birth, number of children and a parent leaving or dying. Similar factors were associated with transient vulnerability in the first wave but the magnitude of the effects was significantly weaker particularly in relation to lone parenthood and level of education of the PCG. For entry into vulnerability the impact of these factors was again substantially weaker than for persistent and transient vulnerability indicating a significantly greater degree of socioeconomic heterogeneity among the group that became vulnerable during the recession. The findings raise policy and political problems that go beyond those associated with catering for groups that have tended to be characterized by high dependence on social welfare. | |||||
McCrory, C., O'Leary, N., Fraga, S., Riberio, A. I., Barros, H., Kartiosuo, N., Raitakari, O., Kivimaki, M., Vineis, P., Layte, R. | 2017 | Socioeconomic differences in children’s growth trajectories from infancy to early adulthood: evidence from four European countries | Open | Healthy Child Development | |
Background Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Doherty, E. | 2014 | Socioeconomic Inequalities in Child Vaccination | Open | Health Economics & Policy Analysis | |
McAuley, C., McKeown, C., Merriman, B. | 2012 | Spending Time with Family and Friends: Children’s Views on Relationships and Shared Activities | Open | Child Indicators Research | |
Sociologists of childhood have stressed the importance of children’s experience in the present and children as agents who actively construct their own lives and influence relationships with family and friends. Current thinking in the field of child well-being emphasises the need to consult children as experts in their own lives. Findings from research with children have led to important insights about what contributes to well-being. Relationships with family and friends have been found to be central to well-being whilst bullying by peers deeply impacts on their well-being. Shared activities appear to be the context for children to not only master competences but also learn about and negotiate relationships. The Growing Up in Ireland interviews with 9 year old children were re-analysed with a view to exploring these crucial domains and how they impact on the children’s well-being. The children were found to have a wide circle of family connections and were particularly close to their mothers although also close to their fathers. Grandparents played a significant role in their lives and their relationships with siblings were often positive but did fluctuate. Reasons for closeness centred around trust. Lack of availability due to work was a key contributor to children feeling less close to a family member. The children were involved in a wide range of structured activities after school and at the weekend, This was usually balanced with free time although some ‘hurried’ children had frenetic lifestyles. Involvement in unstructured activities such as free play was particularly associated with time with friends and choice. Friendship was characterised by sharing and trust. On the other hand, bullying by peers had been experienced by many of the children and almost all were conscious of the danger of becoming bullied. The wider issues of work-family balance and its impact on children, the predominance of bullying and children’s right to be heard are reflected upon. | |||||
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth | 2022 | Statistical Spotlight #7 - Experiences and Perceptions of Discrimination in Ireland | Open | Government of Ireland | |
McGovern, M. | 2013 | Still Unequal at Birth: Birth Weight, Socio- economic Status and Outcomes at Age 9 | Open | Economic and Social Review | |
The prevalence of low birth weight is an important aspect of public health which has been linked to increased risk of infant death, increased cost of care, and a range of later life outcomes. Using data from a new Irish cohort study, I document the relationship between birth weight and socio-economic status. The association of maternal education with birth weight does not appear to be due to the timing of birth or complications during pregnancy, even controlling for a wide range of background characteristics. However, results do suggest intergenerational persistence in the transmission of poor early life conditions. Birth weight predicts a number of outcomes at age 9, including test scores, hospital stays and health. An advantage of the data is that I am able to control for a number of typically unmeasured variables. I determine whether parental investments (as measured by the quality of interaction with the child, parenting style, or school quality) mediate the association between birth weight and later indicators. For test scores, there is evidence of non-linearity, and boys are more adversely affected than girls. I also consider whether there are heterogeneous effects by ability using quantile regression. These results are consistent with a literature which finds that there is a causal relationship between early life conditions and later outcomes. | |||||
Rubio Cabañez, M. | 2023 | Stratifying Cities: The Effect of Outdoor Areas on Children's Well-Being | Open | SocArXiv Papers | |
This study examines how the presence of outdoor areas such as parks and playgrounds affects children’s well-being and how this effect is moderated by families’ socioeconomic status. Specifically, I aim to answer two research questions. First, does the presence of outdoor areas in children’s neighborhoods affect their well-being? Second, is there a differential effect depending on children’s socioeconomic status? The main part of the study uses data from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being. The results suggest that the presence of outdoor areas in children’s neighborhoods has a positive effect on their well-being. In addition, the estimated effect of outdoor areas is larger for children from families with low socioeconomic status. Finally, findings from the Growing Up in Ireland data set suggest that children’s mental problems are a plausible mechanism through which outdoor areas affect children’s well-being. These findings have meaningful policy implications. Efforts to provide access to appropriate outdoor areas may be more likely to benefit disadvantaged children and thus reduce inequality in children’s well-being. | |||||
McMahon, G., Creaven, A., Gallagher, S. | 2020 | Stressful life events and adolescent well-being: the role of parent and peer relationships | Open | Stress & Health | |
It is well established that stressful life events (e.g., family bereavements or moving to a new country) are damaging to psychological health and well-being. Indeed, social relationships are often noted as an important factor that can influence well-being and buffer the negative effects of stress. However, the quality and source of these relationships, particularly for adolescents, are often overlooked. Using the Growing Up in Ireland Survey, a population-based study of 13-year-old Irish adolescents (N = 7,525; 51.1% female), the current study examines the quality of both parent and peer relationships as potential mechanisms explaining the association between stressful life events and psychological well-being indices in adolescents. As expected, results showed that stressful life events negatively impacted the psychological well-being of adolescents. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that both parent and peer relationship quality mediated this association. Further exploratory analyses found that for girls, greater numbers of stressful life events were associated with poorer quality relationships with both their parents and peers, and in turn, these were linked to lower levels of psychological well-being. For boys, this effect was only evident for parental relationship quality, but not peers. The implication of these findings for adolescent’s psychological well-being, particularly for girls, is discussed. | |||||
McNamara, E., Murray, A., Williams, J. | 2019 | Study Profile: Growing Up in Ireland | Open | Longitudinal and Life Course Studies | |
Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) is a two-cohort, longitudinal study of children and young people. The study aims to describe the health and development of Irish children across a range of topics; these include physical and mental health, family socio-demographic status, education, and the child’s behaviour, attitudes and key relationships. The study has been collecting data since 2007, beginning with a child cohort at nine years old (n = 8,568) and then an infant cohort at nine months old (n = 11,134). These data provide researchers and policy makers with a unique analytical tool to explore the well-being of children in Ireland. This paper provides an overview of all the stages involved in the development of the study, from its inception, to the establishment of the study’s aims, objectives and design, the ongoing data collection and panel maintenance, and the many uses of GUI data today. | |||||
Quail, A., Murray, A., Williams, J. | 2011 | Support from grandparents to families with infants. | Open | ESRI Research Bulletin No. 2011/01/04. | |
Parent-child interactions are influenced by factors outside the immediate family. A recent paper † based on data from the Growing Up in Ireland study (GUI) focuses in particular on the support provided by grandparents in caring for very young children. Such support can have important direct and indirect influences on child development. For example, a grandparent who babysits a young child while parents have a night out has a direct interaction with the child in the context of providing care. However, there is also an indirect influence in the context of supporting the mother-father relationship which, in turn, could be expected to affect (positively) parental interactions with the child. The transition to parenthood and early infancy have been identified in the literature as the critical periods requiring most support. Infancy is a particularly intensive parenting period. Children at this stage remain highly dependent on caregivers for their basic needs but, by 9 months (the age of infants at the time of data collection in the GUI study), they are also starting to become more mobile and interaction-seeking. In the Irish context, 9 months may also be the stage when mothers may be contemplating a return to work or education following maternity leave (paid and unpaid) – and those who have been breastfeeding will likely have finished at least exclusive breastfeeding. Here we report some key results from the paper; further detail, and a full set of references to the literature can be found in the paper itself. | |||||
Nolan, A., Smyth, E. | 2020 | Talking about sex and sexual behaviour of young people in Ireland | Open | ESRI Research Series 112 | |
This report uses data from the ‘98 cohort of Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) to examine when, where and how young people receive information on sex and relationships, and the role of this information in shaping sexual competence (or readiness) and behaviours among Irish adolescents. | |||||
Brady, A.M., Hennessy, E., Polek, E. | 2015 | Teenage parenthood and child externalising and internalising problems: evidence from the 'Growing Up in Ireland' study | Open | The Irish Journal of Psychology | |
Previous research has suggested that the children of teenage parents are at a high risk of developing both internalising and externalising behaviour disorders. The current study aimed to explore pathways through which children of teenage mothers show more externalising and internalising psychopathology than their peers whose parents were older. The present study used data from the first wave of the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ 9-year-old cohort and employed structural equation modelling to assess the explanatory value of a model informed by previous research findings. Goodness-of-fit indices indicated that many aspects of the familial environment of Irish teenage families did indeed place children at a substantial risk of problematic developmental outcomes. In particular, the results implicated the influential power of economic stability and familial conflict on the well-being of teenage families and related child outcomes, results similar to those reported in international studies. Keywords: teenage mothers in Ireland, economic stability, externalising problems, internalising problems | |||||
Layte, R., McCrory, C. | 2012 | Testing competing models of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire's (SDQ's) factor structure for the parent-informant instrument | Open | Personality and Individual Differences | |
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief 25-item instrument that has been widely employed in clinical and epidemiological studies to assess children’s psychological adjustment. Despite its widespread application in child and adolescent research, concerns have been expressed regarding the construct validity of the instrument and whether it might be tainted by a method factor that may undermine its utility as a diagnostic tool. We employed a confirmatory factor analytic approach to compare the goodness of fit of four competing models suggested by the extant literature for the parent-informant version of the questionnaire using data for 8514 nine-year-old children participating in the Growing Up in Ireland Study – a large population based cohort study in the Republic of Ireland. While analysis of the data provided support for the traditional five-factor conceptualisation of the instrument, a six-factor model which incorporated a method factor was found to fit the data marginally better. Nevertheless, we conclude that the existence of method effects does not present any great threat to the structural validity of the instrument taking account of patterns in the data and model parsimony. | |||||
MacIver, L., Girard, L.C. | 2022 | The association between paternal depression and adolescent internalising problems: A test of parenting style as a mediating pathway | Open | Current Psychology | |
Whilst there is a large evidence base demonstrating the impact of maternal depression on the development of adolescent internalising problems, less is known about the association between paternal depression and adolescent internalising problems, and the mechanisms through which risk is conferred. This study examined the association between paternal depression and adolescent internalising problems, investigating parenting style as a pathway through which this association may be mediated. Participants included 4048 families taking part in the Growing Up in Ireland child cohort study. Self-report measures of paternal depression were completed when the study child was aged 9. Adolescents assessed paternal demandingness, responsiveness and autonomy granting at the age of 13. Adolescent internalising symptoms were measured at the age of 17/18 by the primary caregiver. A parallel multiple mediator model was used to test the total and specific indirect effects of the three parenting styles, whilst controlling for covariates and other mediators in the model. A direct effect of paternal depression on adolescent internalising problems was found (B = .051, 95% CI: 0.020, 0.083). However, no support for mediation via any of the paternal parenting styles (i.e., responsiveness, demandingness, or autonomy-granting) were found. These findings build on an emerging evidence-base demonstrating a specific direct association between paternal depression and adolescent internalising problems, and suggest that interventions ought to also target fathers suffering from depression to help reduce the risk of adolescent internalising problems. | |||||
Maher, G.M., O'Keefe, G.W., O'Keefe, L.M., Matvienko-Sikar, K., Dalman, C., Kearney, P.M., McCarthy, F.P. & Khashan, A.S. | 2020 | The Association Between Preeclampsia and Childhood Development and Behavioural Outcomes | Open | Maternal and Child Health Journal | |
Objectives Methods Results Conclusions for Practice | |||||
Shiely, F., Ng, H.Y., Berkery, E.M., Murrin, C., Kelleher, C., Hayes, K. | 2017 | The association between weight perception and BMI: Report and measurement data from the growing up in Ireland cohort study of 9 year olds | Open | International Journal of Obesity | |
Background Objectives Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Driscoll, D.J., Khashan, A.S., O’Keeffe, L.M., Kiely, E. | 2024 | The association of multidimensional household poverty with child and mother psychopathology wellbeing trajectories using a prospective longitudinal cohort in Ireland | Open | European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | |
Background Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Sunday, S., Clancy, L., Hanafin, J. | 2023 | The associations of parental smoking, quitting and habitus with teenager e-cigarette, smoking, alcohol and other drug use in GUI Cohort ’98 | Open | Scientific Reportd | |
We analyse parental smoking and cessation (quitting) associations with teenager e-cigarette, alcohol, tobacco smoking and other drug use, and explore parental smoking as a mechanism for social reproduction. We use data from Waves 1–3 of Growing Up in Ireland (Cohort ’98). Our analytic sample consisted of n = 6,039 participants reporting in all 3 Waves. Data were collected in Waves 1 and 2 when the children were 9 and 13 years old and in Wave 3 at age 17/18 years. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models were used to analyse teenage substance use at Wave 3. Parental smoking was associated with significantly increased risk of all teenage substance use, adjusted odds ratios were aOR2.13 (ever e-cigarette use); aOR1.92 (ever alcohol use); aOR1.88 (current alcohol use); aOR1.90 (ever use of other drugs); aOR2.10 (ever-smoking); and aOR1.91 (current smoking). Primary caregiver smoking cessation (quitting) was associated with a lower risk for teenager current smoking aOR0.62, ever e-cigarette use aOR 0.65 and other drug use aOR 0.57. Primary caregiver smoking behaviour had greater associations than secondary, and age13 exposure more than age 9. Habitus seems to play a role and wealth was protective for teenage smoking. The findings suggest that prevention interventions should target both caregivers and their children. | |||||
Franz, K., Kelly, M. | 2021 | The Behavioural Outcomes of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Other Developmental Disabilities as Perceived by Parents during the COVID-19 Lockdown | Open | Disabilities | |
The COVID-19 lockdown and closure of schools, clinics, and community-based services put children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and other developmental disabilities (DDs) at increased risk of negative outcomes. This study aimed to investigate parents’ perceptions of their children’s behavioural outcomes during the COVID-19 lockdown, parents’ satisfaction with services during this time, and willingness to engage in telehealth. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Ireland. Parents (n = 89) completed an online questionnaire that included the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ-P). Results demonstrated that children with ASD/DDs were vulnerable to negative outcomes including hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, problems with peers and fewer prosocial behaviors. Children’s behavioral outcomes (‘current sample’, n = 89) were also compared with pre-COVID-19 data taken from the Growing Up in Ireland Study (‘GUI sample’, n = 327). The current sample exhibited significantly more behavioral difficulties than the pre-COVID GUI sample (p < 0.001). For the current sample, scores on each of the five SDQ subscales were significantly associated with a total impact score, and parents reported dissatisfaction with support services provided and willingness to engage in behavioral telehealth. Commitment is required to identify barriers to services faced by families in Ireland and to address the need for adapted behavior support services during periods of emergency. Keywords: COVID-19; intellectual disabilities; developmental disabilities; autism; behavior; behavioral support | |||||
Smyth, E. | 2024 | The Changing Social Worlds of 13-year-olds | Open | ESRI Research Series No.178 | |
This study draws on data on Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Cohorts ’98 and ’08 to document changes in the lives of adolescents over the period 2011/12 to 2021/22, building on an earlier study (Smyth, 2022) which compared their experiences at nine years of age. This decade was a period of considerable social and policy change, including reform of the junior cycle, growing digitalisation and the disruption of the pandemic to all aspects of young people’s lives. Changes were also evident in the profile of young people and their families, with increasing cultural diversity, higher education levels among parents, lower levels of financial strain and increasing numbers with a disability among members of Cohort ’08 than among their older cohort counterparts. The study looks at changes in 13-year-olds’ relationships with their parents and peers, in their day-to-day activities and in their experiences of school. The main research questions addressed by the study are: How have the quality of relationships, experience of learning and activities engaged in by adolescents changed over the course of a decade? To what extent do any such changes reflect differences in the family characteristics of the young people? Are any such changes more evident for boys or girls or for young people from different social backgrounds? Is differentiation by gender and social background in adolescents’ social worlds less evident for the younger cohort than previously? |