Using the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland Survey of nine year old children we examine whether a teacher’s assessment of their pupil’s academic ability is influenced by the weight status of the child and/or the child’s mother. Multivariate regression analyses of the teacher’s assessment, cont…

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 U…

Aim To explore the association between weight and bullying; considering victims and perpetrators as two aspects of bullying, and subjective perception and objective measurement as two aspects of weight. Methods This study is based on the first wave of data collection from Growing Up in Ireland – the…

Objective Childhood chronic illness can have a high impact on the child’s quality of life. The foundations of health are established in early life, and are shaped by biological, psychosocial, spiritual and environmental processes and influences. The objectives of this presentation are twofold: first…

Background Preventing child mental health problems and child obesity have been recognized as public health priorities. The aim of the present study was to examine whether being breastfed (at all or exclusively) in infancy was a predictor of mental well-being and protective against risk of obesity at…

Background Public health policies attempt to increase parental identification of child overweight and obesity. The objective of the present research was to determine the cross-sectional, prospective and longitudinal associations between parental identification of child overweight and child mental he…

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…

This report investigates the effects of childcare in early life on children’s socio-emotional development at age five using a large representative sample of children (circa 9,000) from the Growing Up in Ireland study. At age three, prior to the Free Preschool Year, around half the children in the st…

Several approaches frame childbirth as an event that can reduce partnership quality, generate work-family conflicts, intensify financial pressures, and increase separation risk. The present study discusses theories of separation in relation to pregnancy intentions leading to a birth and analyses dat…

This paper discusses the role of grandparents in informal childcare in Ireland. It considers how recent demographic change and government policy on childcare have the potential to place greater pressures on the provision of grandparent childcare. It illustrates research literature that has examined…

Background The gold standard for categorisation of weight status is clinically measured body mass index (BMI), but this is often not practical in large epidemiological studies. Objectives To determine if a child’s weight perception or a mother’s perception of a child’s weight status is a viable alte…