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Family structure and women’s mental well-being: how family stressors explain mental health inequalities between lone and partnered mothers
Lone mothers have been found to report lower average mental health than partnered mothers. Following the ‘stress process model’, disparities in women’s mental health by family structure could be explained by lone mothers’ higher exposure to multiple forms of stressors, compared to partnered mothers…
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Social inequalities in children’s cognitive and socioemotional development: The role of home learning environments and early childhood education
This study uses high-quality longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland study to examine the interplay between home learning environment (HLE) and early childhood education (ECE) in explaining children’s skills development from 9 months to 5 years old across parental socioeconomic status (SES)…
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Interactions between infant characteristics and parenting factors rarely replicate across cohorts and developmental domains
Background Whether, and how, infant characteristics and parenting quality interact is one of developmental psychology’s key questions. However, whether specific interaction patterns replicate across cohorts or developmental outcomes is largely unknown. This study investigates whether infant characte…
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Early and risky adolescent alcohol use independently predict alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other drug use in early adulthood in Ireland: a longitudinal analysis of a nationally representative cohort
Background Early and risky adolescent alcohol use have each been associated with adult alcohol consumption. However, it remains unclear whether these behaviours independently predict later-life substance use when considered jointly, and research examining links with substances other than alcohol is…
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Kid gamers to adult gamblers? An investigation of gaming in childhood and young adult gambling
Technological advancement has seen a rise in computer-based and online gaming, and the online space has facilitated a proliferation in gambling options that increasingly adopt game-like features. There is a concern that gaming in childhood could predispose subsequent engagement with gambling behavio…
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Predicting the Likelihood and Outcomes of Continuous Victimisation in the Transition to Adulthood
Bullying can occur at all ages and has been associated with several negative impacts on the psychological and emotional well-being of victims. While the transition to adulthood may be an opportunity for victims to escape bullying, prior research has suggested some continuity of victimisation experie…
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Why do the earnings of male and female graduates diverge? The roles of field of study, motherhood, and job dynamics
This article investigates the dynamics of the gender pay gap using an administrative dataset of Irish graduate earnings. Although male and female graduates have similar earnings initially, a substantial gap emerges in the 10 years after graduation. We focus on three possible sources: childbirth, fie…
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Smoking and e-cigarette use in young adults with disabilities
Background Tobacco use is closely linked to social and health inequalities, including economic vulnerability, morbidity, and premature death. Young adults with disabilities experience significant social and material hardships, which may be exacerbated by tobacco use. Limited research exists on smoki…
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Longitudinal co-occurrence of adolescent mental health difficulties and democratic citizenship in early adulthood
Little is known about the link between childhood and adolescent mental health (MH) difficulties and political outcomes in adulthood. This represents an important knowledge gap in understanding early individual-level factors for future political outcomes. Using the Growing up in Ireland cohort, which…
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Sexual initiation and sexual health behaviours among young adults in Ireland
The experience of sexual intercourse for the first time is a significant life event, and influenced by a range of individual, cultural and societal factors. Age of first sexual initiation is a major area of policy and research focus, as the circumstances of first sex (e.g. whether contraception was…
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Lives of Irish Adolescents Who Were Born With a Cleft (LIA-Cleft)
Objective The objective was to describe the lives of adolescents, who were born with cleft lip and palate (CL/P), in comparison to the general population as recorded in Growing up in Ireland (GUI), the national longitudinal study of children and youth. Design This was a cross-sectional study. Sett…
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Resilience or social reproduction? ‘Prosocial’ children and gendered interdependencies between paid and unpaid labour after the Great Recession
BACKGROUND Early studies show that children might be ‘resilient’ when families navigate economic crises and related job loss. What resilience means is unclear, though, and why and from whom resilience is required has seldom been examined. OBJECTIVE I theorise children’s prosociality – helping, suppo…