External Publications Using GUI Data
Authors | Year | Title | Link ↑ | Journal/Book | Abstract |
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Ng, K., Healy, S., O’Brien, W., Rodriguez, L., Murphy, M., Carlin, A. | 2023 | Irish Para Report Card on Physical Activity of Children and Adolescents With Disabilities | Open | Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly | |
For the first time, data on children and adolescents with disabilities in Ireland are reported based on the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Para Report Card methodology. The most recent data from the last 10 years were used in the grading process (A+ to F), and indicators with insufficient data were graded as incomplete. Of the 10 indicators from the Global Matrix Para Report Cards, grades were assigned to Overall Physical Activity (F), Organized Sport (D), Active Transport (D−), Sedentary Behaviors (D−), Family & Peers (C), School (C−), Community & Environment (B−), and Government (B). Irish disability sport organizations were invited to assess the research-led audit and provided commentary around the final grading. The contextual discussion of the grades is presented through the lens of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with the purpose being to provide direction for the reduction of physical activity disparities among children with disabilities. | |||||
Keane, E., Layte, R., Harrington, J., Kearney, P., Perry, I. | 2012 | Measured parental weight status and familial socio-economic status correlates with childhood overweight and obesity at age 9. | Open | PLoS ONE | |
Background Methodology/Principal Findings Conclusions/Significance | |||||
Gallagher, A.L., Galvin, R., Robinson, K., Murphy, CA., Conway, P., Perry, A. | 2020 | The characteristics, life circumstances and self-concept of 13 year olds with and without disabilities in Ireland: A secondary analysis of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study | Open | PLOS ONE | |
Background Methods Results Forty nine percent of children with developmental disabilities were not receiving support in school as reported by parents. Discrepancies in the nature of support received were identified across disability types. Adjusting for individual and school level factors, a disability diagnosis was associated with increased odds of low self-concept scores on three of five self-concept domains. Further associations were identified which differed across disability type. Conclusions | |||||
Madden, D. | 2024 | Mental health in Ireland during the Covid pandemic: Evidence from two longitudinal surveys | Open | PLOS ONE | |
Background Methods Results Conclusion | |||||
Dahlgren, J., Healy, S., MacDonald, M., Geldhof, J., Palmiere, K., Haegele, J.A. | 2021 | Physical activity and screen time among youth with autism: A longitudinal analysis from 9 to 18 years | Open | Autism | |
To date, studies using cross-sectional methodologies make up a majority of the literature surrounding children with autism spectrum disorders and participation in physical activity and screen time. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine how physical activity and screen time behaviors co-develop for children with and without an autism spectrum disorder. To address this research gap, this study compared how physical activity and screen time levels changed over time (9 to 18 years of age) between youth with autism spectrum disorder and youth with neurotypical development. Data on the levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, light physical activity, television-, and video game-based screen time, collected as a part of the “Growing up in Ireland” study, were compared between youth with autism spectrum disorder and a propensity-matched sample of youth with neurotypical development (n = 88 per group; 176 in total). Robust regression analyses indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder became less active over time compared to children with neurotypical development and that video game screen time also differed significantly between the groups when children were 9 years old. These findings elucidate important disparities present between these groups of children during pivotal developmental times. | |||||
Crowe, M., Sullivan, A., McGrath, C., Cassetti, O., Swords, L., O'Sullivan, M. | 2017 | Early Childhoof Dental Problems: Classification Tree Analyses | Open | JDR Clinical and Translational Research | |
Investigations into the wider bioecological understanding of dental problems in early childhood are limited in national surveys. Classification tree analysis (CTA) was used to explore multilevel interactions among key aspects of child and primary caregiver (PCG) psychosocial and physical health affecting dental problems in preschool children. Data were derived from the Growing Up in Ireland study, a nationally representative sample of 9-mo-olds (N = 11,134) in 2007/2008 followed up at age 3 y (N = 9,793) in 2010/2011. Analysis included PCG reports of children’s dental problems, general health, temperament, emotional and behavioral difficulties, and their own general health, stress and depression, relationship, and sociodemographic variables. Misclassification costs were specified for the model by applying a higher penalty for misclassifying those with a dental problem (minority class). Logistic regression analyses were carried out for comparison. Dental problems were reported among 302 infants (2.7%) at 9 mo of age and 493 children (5.0%) at 3 y. CTA identified infant temperament (Infant Characteristics Questionnaire unpredictable) as the primary predictor of dental problems at 9 mo and child global health at 3 y of age. First-level predictors were PCG depression score and use of a soother at 9 mo and PCG ethnicity and unscheduled hospital visits at 3 y of age. Regression analyses results supported the most important predictors at 9 mo and 3 y of age. The CTA model for 9-mo-old infants had a specificity of 90.4%, sensitivity of 31.2%, and overall accuracy of 88.8% while that for 3-y-olds had a specificity of 58.5%, sensitivity of 66%, and overall accuracy of 59%. Key aspects of infant/child and PCG health, as well as psychosocial characteristics associated with reported dental problems, should be considered in future multidisciplinary approaches to child health. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The results of this data analysis should help raise awareness among clinicians of how primary caregiver and child psychosocial and general health factors are associated with early childhood dental problems, even before the primary dentition is complete. Classification tree analysis visually demonstrates how factors such as infant temperament (9 mo) and child global health (3 y) can interact at multiple levels and affect different subgroups of the child population. Future intervention strategies for oral health should involve consideration of the psychological and general health characteristics of the young child and PCG at both the patient and population levels. This knowledge could assist decision makers adopt an integrated multidisciplinary approach in formulating a coherent oral health policy for preschool children. | |||||
Murray, A., Egan, S. | 2013 | Does reading to infants benefit their cognitive development at 9-months-old? An investigation using a large birth cohort survey: An investigation using a large birth cohort survey | Open | Child Language Teaching and Therapy | |
This study uses a nationally representative sample of 9-month-old infants and their families from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to investigate if reading to infants is associated with higher scores on contemporaneous indicators of cognitive development independently of other language-based interactions between parent and infant, such as showing them pictures or talking to them. Reading to infants had an independent positive effect on scores for both the problem-solving and communication subscales of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), while the positive effect of showing pictures was independent only for communication scores. The effects of both of these activities were, however, less substantial than the positive effect observed for the more informal activity of frequently talking to the infant while doing other things; and this was observed for both communication and problem-solving. The analyses were robust to adjustment for several other factors including maternal education, gestational age, non-parental care, breastfeeding, attachment and presence of siblings. The findings highlight the potential of reading and talking to infants, not just for language and literacy development but also for other aspects of cognitive development. | |||||
D'Urso, G., Symonds, J., Pace, U. | 2020 | Positive Youth Development and Being Bullied in Early Adolescence: A Sociocultural Analysis of National Cohort Data | Open | The Journal of Early Adolescence | |
In the current study, we investigated the developmental dynamics between positive youth development, being bullied in adolescence, gender, and sociocultural risk factors. Participants were 3,509 males (49%) and 3,656 females (51%) studied longitudinally across the ages of 9, 13, and 17 years in the Growing Up in Ireland study. Using structural equation modeling, we discovered that being bullied in early adolescence was most strongly predicted by having fewer close friends, higher family poverty, and living in neighborhoods with higher levels of disorder. However, the social disadvantage of a young person’s school did not impact being bullied. More positive reports of connection and caring in early adolescence were negatively predicted by neighborhood disorder and family poverty, and being female had positive association with relationships with teachers. Developing confidence, competence, and character in late adolescence was notably related to having fewer experiences of family trauma and transitions in childhood and to having higher levels of rapport with parents in early adolescence. The results highlight the importance of studying relationships and psychological development in sociocultural context. | |||||
Bradshaw, D., Creaven, A.M., Muldoon, O.T. | 2021 | Parental incarceration affects children’s emotional and behavioral outcomes: A longitudinal cohort study of children aged 9 to 13 years | Open | International Journal of Behavioural Development | |
Parental incarceration (PI) is negatively associated with emotional, educational, and psychological child outcomes. However, few studies explore potential mechanisms through which these outcomes are transmitted or the means by which prosocial outcomes might develop. This study used data from two waves of a population cohort study of children aged 9 years and followed up aged 13 years living in Ireland. Children and parents (N = 8,568) completed measures of PI, primary caregiver (PCG) depression, PCG-child relationship quality, and child behavioral adjustment. We then conducted a secondary analysis on this national longitudinal study of children in Ireland. Using sequential mediation models, we observed a mediated indirect effect of PI on prosocial outcomes via PCG depression and PCG-child relationship quality. PI at age 9 was associated with increased difficulties and reduced prosocial behavior at age 13. Additionally, PI at age 9 affected PCG depression and the PCG-child relationship quality. Additionally, child prosocial outcomes, and emotional and behavioral difficulties were less apparent where PI had a weaker effect on PCG depression and the quality of PCG-child relationship. Supports that can mitigate the impact of PI for vulnerable caregivers and children are discussed. | |||||
Layte, R., McCrory, C. | 2012 | Paediatric chronic illness and educational failure: the role of emotional and behavioural problems | Open | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | |
Background Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Khalaf, S.Y., O'Neill, S.M., O'Keeffe, L.M., Henriksen, T.B., Kenny, L., Cryan, J.F., Khashan, A.S. | 2015 | The impact of obstetric mode of delivery on childhood behaviour | Open | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | |
Purpose Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Brannigan, R., Cronin, F., McEvoy, O., Stanistreet, D., Layte, R. | 2022 | Verification of the Goldilocks Hypothesis: the association between screen use, digital media and psychiatric symptoms in the Growing Up in Ireland study | Open | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | |
Aims Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Driscoll, D., Kiely, E., O’Keeffe, L.M., Khashan, A.S. | 2024 | Household energy poverty and trajectories of emotional and behavioural difficulties in children and adolescents: findings from two prospective cohort studies | Open | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | |
Purpose Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Butler, E., Clarke, M., Spirtos, M., O Keeffe, L.M., Dooley, N. | 2024 | Pregnancy complications and childhood mental health: is the association modified by sex or adverse social circumstances? Findings from the ‘growing up in Ireland’ national infant cohort study | Open | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | |
Specific pregnancy complications, socioeconomic position and sex have all been independently associated with child mental health outcomes, but their combined effects remain unclear. We examined whether total number of complications experienced in the pregnancy associated with mental health at 5 and 9-years, and whether this varied by sex or adverse social circumstances. Pregnancy complications were self-reported at 9-months post-natally from a list of 16 complications. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) when their child was 5 and 9-years. The primary outcome was the SDQ-total and scoring in the clinical range (> 16) was a secondary outcome. We applied generalized linear mixed models to a large nationally representative Irish cohort (GUI; n = 11,134). Analyses were adjusted for sex, adverse social circumstances (at 9-months), and gestational smoking. We included an interaction term between pregnancy complications and each variable respectively in separate models to examine if associations varied by sex or adverse circumstances. After controlling for covariates, total complications associated with mental health at 5 and 9-years. Each additional pregnancy complication conferred a 10% higher total-SDQ score (exponentiated co-efficient 1.10 [95%CI 1.06–1.14], 1.20 [1.15–1.26], 1.20 [1.12–1.29] and 1.34 [1.21–1.48] for 1, 2, 3 and 4 + complications respectively). For the dichotomised outcome, generally increasing odds for clinical levels of mental health difficulties were observed (OR 1complication = 1.89, 95%CI [1.37–2.59]; OR 2complications = 2.31, 95%CI [1.53–3.50]; OR 3complications = 1.77, 95%CI [0.89–3.52]; OR 4 + complications = 6.88, 95%CI [3.29–14.40]). Females had significantly lower odds of exhibiting clinically significant mental health difficulties than males (OR = 0.43, 95%CI[0.32–0.57]). There was no evidence that the association between pregnancy complications and child’s mental health varied by sex or social circumstances at 5 or 9-years. Males exposed to numerous pregnancy complications in the context of adverse social circumstances had the highest predicted probability of having mental health difficulties in middle childhood. | |||||
Crowe, M., O'Sullivan, M., Cassetti, O., O'Sullivan, A. | 2020 | Estimation and consumption pattern for free sugar intake in 3-year-old Irish preschool children | Open | European Journal of Nutrition | |
Purposes Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Crowe, M., O’Sullivan, M., Cassetti, O., O’Sullivan, A. | 2020 | Estimation and consumption pattern of free sugar intake in 3-year-old Irish preschool children | Open | European Journal of Nutrition volume | |
Purposes Methods Results Conclusions | |||||
Neville, R.D., Nelson, M.A., Madigan, S., Browne, D.T., Lakes, K.D. | 2021 | Does physical activity moderate the association between screen time and psychosocial development in early childhood? Analysis of a longitudinal infant cohort study in Ireland | Open | European Journal of Pediatrics | |
The objective of this study was to explore the extent to which the association between screen time and psychosocial development in preschool children differed between the sexes and according to their frequency of engagement in physical activity. Data are based on a prospective cohort of Irish children, collected between 2010 and 2013 when children were ages 3 (n=9786) and 5 years (n=9001). Children’s screen time (h/day), psychosocial development (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and physical activity (bouts/week) were assessed via caregiver report. The magnitude of the association between screen time and changes in behavioural difficulties differed significantly between the sexes. For boys, the association between increased screen time and the onset of behavioural problems coincided directly with a reduction in their frequency of engagement in physical activity. The association between screen time and changes in behavioural difficulties was not moderated by girls’ engagement in physical activity, however; and there was no difference in the association between screen time and prosocial behaviours at different frequencies of engagement in physical activity for either boys or girls. Conclusions | |||||
Mohan, G., Nolan, A. | 2020 | The impact of prescription drug co-payments for publicly insured families | Open | The European Journal of Health Economics | |
Co-payments for prescription drugs are a common feature of many healthcare systems, although often with exemptions for vulnerable population groups. International evidence demonstrates that cost-sharing for medicines may delay necessary care, increase use of other forms of healthcare and result in poorer health outcomes. Existing studies concentrate on adults and older people, particularly in the US, with relatively less attention afforded to paediatric and European populations. In Ireland, prescription drug co-payments were introduced for the first time for medical cardholders (i.e. those with public health insurance) in October 2010, initially at a cost of €0.50 per item, rising to €1.50 in January 2013, and further increasing to €2.50 in December 2013. Using data from the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study of children, and a difference-in-difference research design, we estimate the impact of the introduction (and increase) of these co-payments on health, healthcare utilisation and household financial wellbeing. The introduction of modest co-payments on prescription items was not estimated to impinge on the health of children and parents from low-income families. For the younger Infant Cohort, difference-in-difference estimates indicated that the introduction (and increase) in co-payments was associated with a decrease in GP visits and hospital nights, and a decrease in the proportion of households reporting ‘difficulties with making ends meet’. In contrast, for the older cohort of children (the Child Cohort), co-payments were associated with an increase in GP visiting, and an increase in household deprivation. While the parallel trends assumption for difference-in-difference analysis appeared to be satisfied, further investigation revealed that there were other time-varying observable factors (such as exposure to the economic recession over the period) that affected the treatment and control groups, as well as the two cohorts of children differentially, that may partly explain these divergent results. For example, while the analysis suggests that the introduction of the €0.50 co-payment in 2010 was associated with an increase in the probability of treated families in the Child Cohort being deprived by 9.4 percentage points, the proportion of treated families experiencing unemployment and reductions in household income also increased significantly around the time of the co-payment introduction. This highlights the difficulty in identifying the effect of the co-payment policy in an environment in which assignment to the treatment (i.e. medical cardholder status) was not randomly assigned. | |||||
Roddy, Á. | 2022 | Income and conversion handicaps: estimating the impact of child chronic illness/disability on family income and the extra cost of child chronic illness/child disability in Ireland using a standard of living approach | Open | The European Journal of Health Economics | |
Child chronic illness/ disability can present significant challenges for children, families and society that require appropriate policy responses; yet little is known about the demands placed on families resources from an economics perspective in terms of its impact on household income and the extra income required to achieve the same standard of living as families who do not have a child with a chronic illness/disability. The paper uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland National survey dataset for nine year olds. It is the first study to empirically investigate the impact of child chronic illness/disability on earnings, standard of living and the extra cost of disability together. It is also the first study to explicitly address endogeneity in the standard of living model by using a two-stage process where residuals were harvested to provide efficient estimates. The findings show that families experience significant disadvantage and economic hardship due to reduced household income and a lower standard of living due to the extra cost of disability that would require considerable income to compensate. Policy implications of these findings suggest that a tiered approach to disability support payments which encompass broader criteria for inclusion based on varying severity levels be introduced to alleviate the financial hardship and compromised economic wellbeing of families affected. In addition, more innovative policies are required to implement appropriate timely access to health and social care services and flexi parental employment, which in turn requires the provision of adequate access to high quality educational and care facilities. | |||||
McCrory, C., Layte, R. | 2012 | Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking and childhood behavioural problems: a quasi-experimental approach. | Open | Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology | |
This retrospective cross-sectional paper examines the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and children’s behavioural problems at 9 years of age independent of a wide range of possible confounders. The final sample comprised 7,505 nine-year-old school children participating in the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland study. The children were selected through the Irish national school system using a 2-stage sampling method and were representative of the nine-year population. Information on maternal smoking during pregnancy was obtained retrospectively at 9 years of age via parental recall and children’s behavioural problems were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire across separate parent and teacher-report instruments. A quasi-experimental approach using propensity score matching was used to create treatment (smoking) and control (non-smoking) groups which did not differ significantly in their propensity to smoke in terms of 16 observed characteristics. After matching on the propensity score, children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 3.5 % (p < 0.001) and 3.4 % (p < 0.001) more likely to score in the problematic range on the SDQ total difficulties index according to parent and teacher-report respectively. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was more strongly associated with externalising than internalising behavioural problems. Analysis of the dose–response relationship showed that the differential between matched treatment and control groups increased with level of maternal smoking. Given that smoking is a modifiable risk factor, the promotion of successful cessation in pregnancy may prevent potentially adverse long-term consequences. |