New TCD Research Reveals Children’s Perspectives on Family Life, Health and Expectations for the Future

Sep 23, 2011

Growing Up in Ireland – the National Longitudinal Study of Children launched new research capturing the experiences and perceptions of children on a range of issues including their family life, their health and wellbeing and expectations for the future. The research was launched by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD at an event in Trinity College Dublin recently.

This latest research from Growing Up in Ireland draws on in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with 120 nine-year-old children and their parents as part of the GUI Qualitative study. These families are participating in and were selected from the larger GUI Quantitative study which is tracking the lives of 8,500 nine-year-old children. These children and their families are currently taking part in a follow-up interview now that the children have turned 13 years of age.

Professor James Williams, Minister Frances Fitzgerald and Professor Sheila Greene.

In general the nine-year old children talked readily and happily about their daily lives and their plans for the future. There were many positive features of their lives at home and at school. However they also expressed some worries and concerns. Some had troubled attitudes to food and to their own weight.  Some were particularly apprehensive about going to secondary school, anticipating bullying and problems with maintaining friendships in the new school and some felt worried about other aspects of the future, such as the death or illness of loved ones and global issues like climate change and war.

A series of three Qualitative Key Findings documents are available to download from www.growingup.ie/childpublications as well as a full research report, Growing Up in Ireland - The Findings of the Qualitative Study with 9-Year-Olds and their Parents

Key Findings include:

• Relationships between children and their parents were broadly positive. Children reported spending more time with their mothers. Time spent with fathers was frequently activity based.

• Children commented on how they felt less close to parents who worked long hours and were less available.

• Parental separation had a considerable impact on children’s routines and made for relationships with non-resident parents that were challenging to sustain though still valued.

• Being overweight was clearly linked by the children to eating unhealthily and not exercising. Using a Body Image Scale measuring body size perception, children who were classified as overweight or obese were no different in their judgement of healthy body size than those with BMI scores in the normal range. This suggests that children have a clear awareness of healthy body shapes regardless of their own weight.

• Children clearly identified and were generally knowledgeable about healthy and unhealthy foods. This contrasts with findings from the main GUI quantitative study of children’s frequent consumption of foods which they themselves consider unhealthy. (Growing Up in Ireland – The Lives of 9-Year Olds, 2009)

• There were some differences between urban and rural children in the places where they play. Children in all areas frequently pointed to the lack of places to play.

• A distinction can be made between indoor and outdoor activities. Sedentary indoor games may replace time that could be spent in physical activity. The increased time spent in sedentary pastimes, especially those involving the electronic media, is currently a matter of concern given the recent rise in obesity levels and unfitness in children.

• Both cigarettes and alcohol were considered ‘bad for you’; children talked about the negative health, social and environmental consequences. None of them planned to smoke in the future but most thought they would drink in moderation when they got older.

• The children predicted that adolescence would offer more independence but also anticipated greater responsibility. They looked forward to the transition to secondary school with excitement and anxiety, and as well as expecting a change in their peer relationships they understood they might experience peer pressure to do things such as smoking and taking illegal drugs.

• Looking into the future children’s main ambitions were to be healthy, to get a good job and to stay close to friends and family. Career ambitions were high; a majority of boys wanted to be professional sports players (soccer, rugby or tennis), while most girls wanted to be professional performers, typically singers, dancers or actresses.Speaking at the event, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD welcomed the findings stating:  “The recent establishment of the Department of Children & Youth Affairs shows the commitment of this government to ensure that growing up in Ireland means that you have the best start in life available anywhere in the world.”

“The Growing Up in Ireland study is of critical importance as it provides a comprehensive and highly-valuable evidence base which can be used to inform and guide our development and delivery of targeted and effective programmes for children and young people.

At the event, the Minister also welcomed the archiving of Growing Up in Ireland data in the public archives and encouraged both analysts and researchers to use this ‘tremendous resource’ to ensure the investment made in Growing Up in Ireland is fully realised.

Professor Sheila Greene, Co-Director of Growing Up in Ireland and Director of the Children’s Research Centre, TCD, said: “The Qualitative study completed with 120 children and families complements the larger quantitative study giving the children and their parents the opportunity to provide, in their own words, very detailed information on a range of areas in their lives.

The design of this part of the study gives us a unique insight into the world in which nine-year-olds live and allows us to capture the diversity of children’s experiences and circumstances. The lives of children from all over Ireland, from different points on the socio-economic spectrum, and from many types of families are represented in this latest research. They shared their experiences and concerns on everything from healthy eating and hobbies to their expectations for life in adolescence and beyond.”

The event also marked the archiving and availability to researchers of the Anonymised Qualitative Dataset from Wave 1 of the Child Cohort (at 9 Years) from the Irish Qualitative Data Archive based in NUI Maynooth. This will be an important resource for everyone interested in research with children in Ireland. Researchers wishing to apply to access the data can visit www.iqda.ie for further information.

Growing Up in Ireland is a Government funded study following the progress of almost 20,000 children and their families – an Infant Cohort of 11,100 children participating at nine months and three years of age and a Child Cohort of 8,500 children interviewed at nine years and 13 years of age. The study is being conducted by a consortium of researchers led by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin.  Those wishing to find out more about the study can visit the study’s website www.growingup.ie.