GUI Annual Conference 2013

Growing Up in Ireland 5th Annual Research Conference

The 5th Annual Growing Up in Ireland conference took place on Wednesday 27th November 2013, in the Croke Park Conference Centre Dublin. To download a copy of the conference brochure please click here.

The conference was opened by Frances Fitzgerald T.D., Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, who launched the latest in a series of Growing Up in Ireland Key Findings. These are based on data collected from five-year-olds and their families between March and September 2013.

The opening presentation, Five-year-olds and their families – preliminary results from the third wave of the Infant Cohort was presented by Prof. James Williams, Principal Investigator of Growing Up in Ireland and can be downloaded by clicking here.

Keynote Speaker

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Jan O. Jonsson on Assessing Child Poverty: measurement, comparisions, trends. Professor Jonsson holds the Chair of Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, and is Director of the Swedish Level of Living Surveys. His research interests include the sociology of the family; life-course studies and intergenerational processes (incorporating the study of children’s well-being); and social stratification, especially educational inequality and social mobility.

Conference Presentations

30 papers were presented at the conference. These were based on Growing Up in Ireland’s Child and Infant Cohorts and will focus on a range of topics including health, parenting, education and childcare

Presentations from the conference can be downloaded below and a Book of Abstracts is available here.

Session A

Health, Eligibility and Utilisation of GP Services

Anne Nolan and Richard Layte

Session B

Bold Boys and Good Girls? The Gender Gap in Special Educational Needs in Irish Primay Schools

Denise Frawley, Selina Mc Coy and Joanne Banks

A Progress Report on the NCSE Study Entitled “Educational Experiences and Outcomes for Children with Special Educational Needs”: Classification and Analysis Issues, and Next Steps

Jude Cosgrove, Caroline McKeown and Joe Travers

Session C

Ireland’s New Family Inequalities: The Role of Public Policy

Tony Fahey

The Importance of Striking Balance: Underemployment, Overemployment, and Psychological and Marital Well-Being in Mothers of Infants, and their Partners

Eamonn Barron and Ela Polek

Session D

Defining Crisis Pregnancy: Implications of operationalisation for understanding risk factors and for assessing the impact of crisis pregnancy on parent and child outcomes

Owen Corrigan

An investigation into the effect of cigarette smoking during pregnancy on infant’s respiratory health

Dervla Kelly, Alan Kelly and Tom O’Dowd

Session E

Fun, Learning or Both – Does it Matter to Academic Achievement what Children do on the Internet?

Dorothy Watson

Session F

A lark in the park: Child injury and neighbourhood characteristics in Ireland

Margaret Coen and Ela Polek

Explaining Social Class Variation in Child Weight Gain from Birth to Age Three

Richard Layte and Regien Biesma – Blanco

The effects of individual, family and environmental factors on physical activity levels of nine year olds in Ireland

Sharon Cadogan, Eimear Keane and Patricia Kearney

Children’s Activities and Outcomes

Amanda Quail, James Williams, Emer Smyth and Siobhan Scarlett

Session G

The use of a Dietary Quality Score as a predictor of childhood overweight and obesity

Catherine Perry

Maternal Employment, Childcare and Childhood Obesity in Ireland

Therese McDonnell

A study of early complimentary feeding determinants in the Republic of Ireland based on a cross-sectional analysis of the Growing Up in Ireland infant cohort

Patricia Dominguez Castro, John Kearney and Richard Layte

Early Introduction of Cow’s Milk in Infants in Ireland

Elaine Murray, John Kearney and Richard Layte

Session H

Bullying, cyber-bullying, and ICT use among primary-school children in Ireland

Ann-Marie Creaven, Jude Cosgrove and Caroline Mc Keown

Communication and Closeness: Parent-child relationships

Ashling Bourke and Catherine Maunsell

Family structure and risk factors: An investigation into emotional and behavioural outcomes for nine-year-olds

Zara Lafferty and Dorit Deering

What do we know about parenting and children’s learning? A review of the findings from GUI and the Prevention and Early Intervention Initiative (PEII)

Stella Owens

Session I

Breastfeeding Rates in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Britain – international comparative research using child cohort studies.

Susan Morton, James Williams, Lucinda Platt and Jan Nicholson

Child Neglect Neglected: Could we Make Better use of Teachers’ Reports about Child Neglect in Ireland and the USA?

Ela Polek and Diane Wach

Child Well-Being in the UK and Ireland; an exploratory comparative analysis of the Growing Up in Ireland and Millennium Cohort Studies

Jennifer Shore and Raegan Murphy