Objective This paper examines the joint impact of maternal employment and childcare during infancy on childhood weight at ages three and five in the context of weak social support for early childhood care and education. Method Using three waves of longitudinal data from the Growing-Up in Ireland survey (n = 8,393 age three, n = 8,039 age five), propensity…

Both psychological and sociological accounts have suggested that the home learning environment play an important role in children’s cognitive development and may provide insights into inequalities in cognitive outcomes. Using the infant cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland Study (GUI), this chapter investigates firstly if differences in the home learning environment at age three…

Given growing concerns about disadvantaged boys’ achievement and disengagement from learning, this paper investigates differences in reading ability by gender and social origin. It uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland study to investigate how parents’ approach to learning at home and children’s exposure to early care and education contribute to these differences. We…

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…

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…

This article explores the role that home-learning activities (HLAs) play in the relationship between social origin and cognitive development using an Irish birth cohort study, Growing Up in Ireland. Numerous studies using different measures of the home-learning environment (HLE) have shown that it has considerable influence on young children’s cognitive development, and that the HLE…

This nationally representative study of Irish infants explores whether the set of child and environmental factors established as predicting language outcomes aged 3 years would also predict language and communication development as early as age 9 months. Associations between infant and environmental characteristics and infant language outcomes at 9 months, as measured on the ASQ 10-month communication questionnaire,…

This study reports recent trends in periconceptional folic acid use in Ireland using archived data from Growing Up in Ireland – the National Longitudinal Study of Children. Of a sample of 10,891 mothers, 6,936 (64%) reported taking folic acid before conception and 10,157 (93%) reported taking folic acid during the first trimester of pregnancy. Younger…

Anecdotal evidence suggests that grandparents provide a substantial amount of childcare support to parents of infants in Ireland yet there has been little attention to the provision of grandparent childcare at policy level. Using nationally representative data on childcare provision in the Republic of Ireland, this study examined the prevalence of grandparent childcare provision for…

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…