External Publications Using GUI Data

Importance Understanding which children in the general population are at greatest risk of poor functional outcomes could improve early screening and intervention strategies.

Objective To investigate the odds of poor outcomes in emerging adulthood (ages 17 to 20 years) for children with different mental health trajectories at ages 9 to 13 years.

Design, Setting, and Participants Growing Up in Ireland is a longitudinal, nationally representative population-based cohort study. Data collection began in August 2007 and was repeated most recently in September 2018. All results were weighted to account for sampling bias and attrition and were adjusted for socioeconomic factors. Data analysis took place from October 2022 to April 2023.

Exposure Four latent classes captured variation in mental health in children aged 9 and 13 years, based on the parent-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Classes included no psychopathology, internalizing, externalizing, and high (comorbid) psychopathology. Those who remained in the same class from ages 9 to 13 years were included.

Main Outcomes and Measures Poor functional outcomes in emerging adulthood were measured at approximate ages 17 years (range, 16 to 18 years) and 20 years (range, 19 to 21 years). Outcomes included poor mental health, poor physical health, social isolation, heavy substance use, frequent health service use, poor subjective well-being, and adverse educational/economic outcomes.

Results Of 5141 included participants, 2618 (50.9%) were male. A total of 3726 (72.5%) were classed as having no childhood psychopathology, 1025 (19.9%) as having persistent externalizing psychopathology, 243 (4.7%) as having persistent internalizing psychopathology, and 147 (2.9%) as having persistent high psychopathology. Having any childhood psychopathology was associated with poorer functional outcomes in emerging adulthood. The internalizing group had elevated odds of most outcomes except for heavy substance use (range of odds ratios [ORs]: 1.38 [95% CI, 1.05-1.81] for frequent health service use to 3.08 [95% CI, 2.33-4.08] for poor mental health). The externalizing group had significantly elevated odds of all outcomes, albeit with relatively small effect sizes (range of ORs: 1.38 [95% CI, 1.19-1.60] for frequent health service use to 1.98 [95% CI, 1.67-2.35] for adverse educational/economic outcomes). The high psychopathology group had elevated odds of all outcomes (nonsignificantly for frequent health service use), though with wide confidence intervals (range of ORs: 1.53 [95% CI, 1.06-2.21] for poor physical health to 2.91 [95% CI, 2.05-4.12] for poor mental health). Female participants with any psychopathology had significantly higher odds of poor physical health and frequent health service use compared with male participants with any psychopathology.

Conclusions and Relevance In this longitudinal cohort study, childhood psychopathology was associated with a widespread pattern of functional impairment in emerging adulthood. Findings point to the need for a wider range of preventive interventions in child and adolescent mental health services.

Gender inequality in housework divisions is persistent. This study examined early-emerging patterns in gender roles via children’s gendered housework time in the Irish context using time-use diary and questionnaire data, controlling for key demographic variables. This study utilized longitudinal “Growing up in Ireland” data, comparing the same children’s behaviour at age 9 and 13. Participants were a nationally representative, weighted sample of school going children living in Ireland, including 4,135 girls, 3,831 boys and their caregivers. The results highlight that inequalities in domestic chores occur at nine and are even greater at 13: girls do more housework and children tend to do “gender typical” chores. Consequences are discussed in relation to gender inequality and policy implications.

Parents’ and teachers’ beliefs and evaluations of young people are important. Using a feminist institutionalist perspective, and drawing on rich data from one in seven nine-year-old children in Ireland, this paper examines mothers’ (who make up the overwhelming majority of primary care-givers) and teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ mathematics performance. The evidence shows that girls’ mathematics performance is underestimated by both relative to boys’. Mother’s gender bias was evident among high performing children, at all levels of children’s academic self-concept, and among mothers with at least third level education. While the judgements reflect children’s actual performance and engagement, a notable gender gap remains. It is suggested that the results reflect gender stereotypes: overestimating boys’ and underestimating girls’ mathematics achievements. The article indicates the importance of the informal dimension of institutions and the part played by women in the effective devaluation of girls by endorsing gendered stereotypes. Women teachers are less likely to rate children highly in mathematics, taking account of performance: arguably reflecting their own lack of confidence in mathematics assessment. The findings raise concerns for girls’ futures since mathematics is seen as an indicator of intelligence. Given the move towards teacher-assessed grading during COVID-19, understanding, and challenging, gender-stereotyping is pressing.

Economic recessions have been linked to adult health, but few studies have examined how recessions influence the health of young children. This study examined the impact of life transitions linked to the recent financial crisis on the health of young children in Ireland. Data came from the Growing Up in Ireland Infant Cohort Study (n = 11,134), which assessed children before (2008), during (2011), and after (2013) the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 and incorporated questions on the impacts of the financial crisis on families. Using fixed-effects models to control for confounding, we found that a reduction in welfare benefits during the recession was associated with a significant increase in the risks of asthma (β = 0.014, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.004, 0.023) and atopy (β = 0.014, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.027). While parental job loss was not associated with child health, a reduction in working hours was associated with increased reports of child health problems (β = 0.024, 95% CI: 0.004, 0.043), as were difficulties affording basic necessities (β = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.038). Results suggest that failing to protect vulnerable families and children during economic recessions may have long-lasting implications for child health.

The Growing Up Healthy in Families Across the Globe project is an international collaboration examining the potential for harmonised analysis using five longitudinal studies (from New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland). All five studies follow the lives of children, are interested in the dynamics of family change and work to inform policy to potentially improve population well-being across the life-course. Comparative analysis from harmonised longitudinal studies, where change over time is emphasised, provides a unique view to determine how and why environments change, which environments are supportive and which are not. This paper discusses the challenges and tasks involved when preparing and conducting harmonised analysis, and initial findings from the Growing Up Healthy project are discussed. The studies were, from New Zealand, Te Hoe Nuku Roa, the Pacific Island Families Study and Growing Up in New Zealand, and from Scotland and Ireland Growing Up in Scotland and Growing Up in Ireland. Post hoc data harmonisation of measures resulted in the identification of several closely aligned variables. The harmonised descriptive variables from the five studies highlight many similarities across the studies. A risk factor model to predict child development outcomes (using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) was developed and resulted in very similar patterns of risk in New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. Risks included: maternal relationship status, maternal education, smoking in pregnancy, maternal self-reported health and maternal long-standing illness. The insights will be of interest to all those concerned with child development in contemporary New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and other similar countries.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the known correlation between non-traditional family structures and poor outcomes for children.

Discussions of this topic often focus on the distinction between two-parent families and one-parent families but this distinction can be misleading. In the Irish case, the crucial distinction is between children raised by parents who are married and children raised by a lone-parent who has never been married. The focal point here is non-marriage.

This is important since non-marriage appears to be highly selective because the least privileged groups in Irish society are more likely to have children outside of marriage and at a relatively early age.

This argument suggests that selection bias accounts for much of the association between family structure and child outcome i.e. growing up in a non-traditional family has little ‘direct’ or ‘causal’ effect on a child’s outcome. A large body of literature exists which documents a correlation between non-traditional family structure and poorer child development but researchers disagree as to whether this association represents a true causal effect.

The primary objective of the current study, therefore, is to test this selection argument and to examine the extent to which selection effects can account for differences in child wellbeing in various family types.

Empirical research into the relationship between economic well-being and child outcomes has been limited by its cross-sectional nature, or its narrow focus on predominantly financial aspects of economic well-being. This article attempts to overcome these shortcomings by using data from the Growing Up in Ireland Cohort98 (age: 9–17; N = 5,748; female: 51.4%) and Cohort08 studies (age: 3–9 years; N = 7,208; female: 49.8%), which cover a period of large macroeconomic fluctuation (2007–2017). This fluctuation makes a robust fixed effects analysis feasible, allowing for economic well-being effects to be isolated by controlling for all time-invariant confounders. The article uses three different measures of economic well-being (subjective financial strain, material deprivation, income) to explore how distinct forms of economic well-being affect child behavior. The results suggest that household income is not related to behavioral difficulties, whereas subjective financial strain is predictive of externalized behavioral difficulties in adolescent boys. Material deprivation is predictive of externalized behavioral difficulties in adolescent boys and internalized behavioral difficulties in younger boys, but has no effect on girls’ behavioral outcomes. The findings indicate that the relationship between economic well-being and child behavioral outcomes is complex, and requires multi-dimensional measures of economic well-being to accurately ascertain the different effects.

Background
Health disparities for children with intellectual disabilities can be challenging to measure due to many other factors that can impact health and healthcare use. The aim of the current study was to use longitudinal cohort data to compare children with intellectual disability (ID) in Ireland between 2006 and 2014 on healthcare utilisation and unmet need, at ages 9 and 13, using a propensity score matching (PSM) approach.

Methods
Using data from the Growing up in Ireland study, PSM was used to identify an appropriate control sample to compare with a sample of children with ID (n = 124). Participants were matched on variables that are known to influence healthcare utilisation to reduce the impact of confounding variables between groups so that differences between the groups can be estimated. Logistic regression was used to estimate effects at ages 9 and 13.

Results
Children with ID were no more likely to have visited a general practitioner or emergency department in the past 12 months than children without ID. They did have a greater likelihood of visiting a doctor in a hospital in the past 12 months and of having an overnight stay in hospital by age 9. Primary caregivers of children with ID were more likely to report unmet health needs at ages 9 and 13.

Conclusions
This approach is a novel means of comparing healthcare use in this population by balancing the impact of other factors that may result in inequities, to which children with ID may be more vulnerable.

A recent rise in home computer ownership has seen a growing number of children using computers and accessing the internet from a younger age. This paper examines the link between children’s home computing and their academic performance in the areas of reading and mathematics. Data from the nine-year-old cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland survey is adopted for this study. The survey reveals that searching for information is a more popular activity among the children than communicating online. Through regression analysis we find that using a computer is positively and significantly associated with children’s reading and mathematics scores in standardised tests. This result holds after controlling for multiple determinants of school performance. In addition, we investigate the effects of using various applications on the computer. Surfing the internet for fun, doing projects for school and emailing are associated with higher reading and maths test scores, while those who are permitted to use the computer unsupervised tend to have higher maths test scores. Instant messaging and downloading music or watching movies are negatively associated with both reading and maths scores. The results indicate that some forms of early computer use have significant associations with academic performance among children in primary school, although we could not establish the direction of causation definitively.

Keywords: home computer use, elementary education, academic performance

Purpose
The aim of this study is to examine the association between household energy poverty (EP) and trajectories of emotional and behavioural difficulties during childhood.

Methods
The Growing up in Ireland study is two nationally representative prospective cohorts of children. The Infant Cohort (n = 11,134) were recruited at age 9 months (9 m) and followed up at 3, 5, 7 and 9 years (y). The Child Cohort (n = 8,538) were recruited at age 9 y and followed up at 13 y and 17/18 y. EP was a composite of two relative measures of EP. Emotional and behavioural difficulties were repeatedly measured using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Linear spline multilevel models were used, adjusted for confounders to examine the association between (1) EP (9 m or 3 y) and trajectories of emotional and behavioural difficulties from 3 to 9 y in the Infant Cohort and (2) EP at 9 y and the same trajectories from 9 to 18 y in the Child Cohort.

Results
In adjusted analyses, EP at 9 m or 3 y of age was associated with higher total difficulties score at 3 y (0.66, 95% CI 0.41, 0.91) and 5 y (0.77, 95% CI 0.48, 1.05) but not at 7 y or 9 y. EP at 9 y was associated with higher total difficulties score at 9 y (1.73, 95% CI 1.28, 2.18), with this difference reducing over time leading to 0.68 (95% CI 0.19, 1.17) at 17/18 y.

Conclusions
Our study demonstrates a potential association between early life EP and emotional and behavioural difficulties that may be transient and attenuate over time during childhood. Further studies are required to replicate these findings and to better understand if these associations are causal.

While problems in the housing system in Ireland have been under the spotlight for the last decade, relatively little attention has been paid to the experience of children and to the consequences of housing issues for child development. International research has highlighted a range of effects of poor housing on children. Poor physical housing conditions has been associated with respiratory illnesses and childhood accidents. Overcrowding has been linked to poorer educational outcomes and deprived neighbourhood conditions to socio-emotional problems. Frequent residential mobility has also been found to lead to poorer cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. However, there is a lack of evidence on how far these findings apply in Ireland where levels of home ownership are high and levels of neighbourhood segregation are lower. This study addresses this gap. Drawing on data from the ’08 Cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland study, we explore the housing conditions faced by children in early and middle childhood and the implications of these housing experiences for their cognitive, socio-emotional and health outcomes. We adopt a multi-dimensional approach to measuring housing conditions, incorporating housing tenure, suitability of accommodation, heating deprivation, neighbourhood disorder and housing mobility.

Children with disabilities experience significantly poorer socio-emotional outcomes than their peers without disabilities. However, research evidence is scarce about children with both disability and migration background, the group which this study aimed to investigate using data from a national longitudinal study. Secondary data analyses were conducted on a sample of 7290 children (weighted with missing values imputed). Significant differences in socio-emotional outcomes were found in relation to impairment status but not in relation to migration. Having an impairment and activity limitation significantly increased the likelihood of experiencing poorer socio-emotional outcomes over time. Our findings highlight a higher risk of socio-emotional problems among children with disabilities, especially among children from lower income backgrounds and with parents with lower educational attainment. These findings clearly require policy development on two fronts: to raise professional and community awareness on these issues and to strengthen the capacity of health, education and social care systems to support schools, families, and communities.

Background
Self-harm is a major public health concern in young people and is governed by a complex interaction of different risk factors. While many studies have identified these risk factors, less is known about how they tend to co-occur together.

Methods
A latent class analysis was conducted using risk factors for self-harm from two waves at ages 13 and 17 from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study their associations with self-harm were examined longitudinally at ages 17 and 20, respectively.

Results
At age 13, there was a ‘peer problems’ group with higher probabilities of bullying, being unpopular and internalising problems and a ‘school and substance use problems’ group with higher probabilities of substance use, truancy or excessive absence from school and violence. Both of these two groups had over a two-fold risk of self-harm at age 17 in comparison to the low risk factor group. At age 17, there was a group with depression that was diagnosed by a medical professional with the highest relative risk (RR:13.9 (95 % CI 10.2–19.0)) of self-harm at age 20. Two other groups with undiagnosed depression had high probabilities of being bullied, and either high or low probabilities of substance use that had a 9.4 (95 % CI 6.8–13.1) and 7.4 (95 % CI 5.5–10.0) relative risk of self-harm at age 20, respectively.

Conclusions
Identifying hidden sub-groups using risk factors for self-harm in young people can inform potential public health interventions by clinicians and other professionals who work with young people.

Self-harm in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) is the result of a complex interaction of biological, psychiatric, psychological, social, and cultural risk factors. A lot of research has already been conducted to identify the risk factors for self-harm in AYAs. On the other hand, there has been less research conducted on the simultaneous effects of, and the interactions between, multiple risk factors for self-harm in heterogeneous AYA individuals. In this study, we conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) of three waves from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) longitudinal cohort study at ages 13, 17 and 20 to identify homogenous subgroups of AYA individuals who exhibit similar risk markers for self-harm at these three time points. Then, we evaluated the risk that these subgroups ever self-harmed by age 17, self-harmed at age 20, or were persistently self-harming across both time points. The most at-risk group appeared to be the individuals aged 17 who had been diagnosed with depression/anxiety. Compared to the low-risk-marker group, the ‘diagnosed with depression/anxiety’ group had a 30-fold risk of self-harm at age 17, and 32-fold risk of persistently self-harming by age 20. The ‘undiagnosed but high depression’ group at this time point was also at significant risk of self-harm. This research enables us to understand which risk markers tend to co-occur together and will help to identify high-risk groups for self-harm both clinically and in the community. An investigation of risk markers like this can potentially be used in the design of public health interventions to reduce the burden of self-harm, and indeed suicide, in young people.

Key messages

• We identified sub-groups of young people with a high-risk of self-harm and suicide from the general population.

• These identifiable sub-groups can inform intervention policies and strategies for prevention programmes both in clinical and non-clinical settings like schools.

Childhood obesity is a growing concern worldwide. The association between childhood obesity and maternal smoking and/or paternal smoking has been reported. However, few studies have explored the association between childhood obesity and exposure to carers’ smoking status. This study aimed to assess the impact of carers’ smoking status on childhood obesity in a cohort of children enrolled in the Growing up in Ireland (GUI) study. Participants from the GUI infant cohort were categorized into four groups based on their exposure status: Neither caregiver smoked (60.4%), only primary caregiver smoked (13.4%), both caregivers smoked (10.9%). Exposure to primary carers’ smoking (98% are biological mothers) was found to be significantly associated with childhood overweight/obesity at age three (Odds Ratio: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.17–1.46) and at age five (OR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.16–1.49). Exposure to both carers’ smoking status was significantly associated with increased odds of childhood overweight/obesity across both waves. These findings emphasize the health burden of childhood obesity that may be attributable to maternal smoking postnatally and through early childhood in Ireland.

Keywords
growing up in Ireland, childhood obesity, primary carer, secondary carer

Previous research has tended to classify stepfamilies based on self-report of their familial relationships. However, some stepfamily members do not identify as being part of a stepfamily, leading to the exclusion of certain stepfamilies from stepfamily research. Using data from the first national cohort study of children in Ireland, the aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of self-identifying stepfamilies with those of non-self-identifying stepfamilies, a group about which little is known. The analysis revealed that in approximately 10% of stepfamilies, neither parent declared their stepfamily status (n = 34, N = 288 stepfamilies). No differences emerged between self-identifying and non-self-identifying stepfamilies in the quality of the parent–child or spousal relationships. Non-self-identifying stepfamilies were less likely to be complex, and were more likely to be stepmother and simple stepfamilies than self-identifying stepfamilies. These findings suggest that non-self-identifying stepfamilies constitute a significant minority of stepfamilies who may exhibit unique structural characteristics.

Keywords: stepfamily; family  relationships; identity; stepchildren; stepparents; membership status