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Growing up In Ireland Cohort ’08 (Infant Cohort) Wave 6 at 13 years, 2021/2022

Study number (SN): 0019-06

CITATION 

ABOUT THE STUDY 

Growing Up in Ireland - the National Longitudinal Study of Children is a landmark study of children and youth which has been running since 2006.  In summary the project seeks to further our understanding of what it means to be a child or young person growing up in modern Ireland, with a view to informing policy on what both helps and hinders development. A two cohort, cross-sequential longitudinal design was adopted and began with one cohort (the Infant Cohort) of 11,134 infants (aged 9 months) and a second cohort (the Child Cohort) of 8,568 9-year-olds. Being longitudinal in nature, the same children are followed over time. The families of the Infant Cohort have been interviewed when the children were 9 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7/8 years, 9 years and subsequently at 13 years of age, while the Child Cohort and their parents/guardians were interviewed at 9, 13, 17/18 and 20 years of age. 

This wave of data concerns the Wave 6 interviews of the Infant Cohort at 13 years of age.

These data have been collected by the Growing Up in Ireland study. The Growing Up in Ireland study was funded from 2006 to 2022 by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Until the end of 2022 the study was managed by DCEDIY in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and was overseen and supported by an interdepartmental governance structure. This included an inter-departmental Steering Group with responsibility for strategic oversight and an interdepartmental Project Team with responsibility for operational oversight. Ethical oversight of the study was provided by an independent and dedicated Research Ethics Committee (REC).

The study was carried out on behalf of DCEDIY by a team of researchers at by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin.  The data have been collected under the Statistics Act 1993.

MAIN TOPICS 

• Children
• Families
• Family life
• Family environment
• Parental role
• Health
• Medical care
• Child Development
• Emotional Development
• Well-being (Health)
• Diet and Exercise
• Mental heath
• Self-esteem
• Physical activities
• Internet Use
• Television Viewing
• Education
• Peer-group Relationships
• Bullying
• Teacher-student relationship
• Covid-19

COVERAGE, UNIVERSE, METHODOLOGY 

Population 

The children of the Infant Cohort were born between 1st December 2007 and the 30th June 2008 and were aged 9 months at the time of the first data collection between September 2008 and April 2009. Over 10,000 families participated in the first wave (n=11,134) while 9,793 took part at age 3 years (Dec 2010 - July 2011), and 9,001 at age 5 years (Mar – Sep 2013). The fourth wave was a postal wave at aged 7/8 years with 5,344 responding households. The fifth wave of data collection, took place in the between June 2017 and February 2018, when the cohort was 9 years of age and was completed by 8,032 families.

The current wave is the sixth wave which took place between September 2021 and June 2022 when the cohort was aged 13 years and was completed by 6,655 families.

Observation units 

• Families / Households

Temporal coverage 

From 09/2021 to 06/2022

Time dimension  

Cohort study

Geographical coverage 

Country: Ireland

Methods of data collection 

• CATI (Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing)
• CASI (Computer Assisted Self Interviewing). 

Sampling procedures 

Simple systematic selection procedure based on a random start and constant sampling fraction

This section presents a brief outline of the sampling at Wave 1, to a background to the sampling procedures used. 

The Child Benefit register was used as the sampling frame for the first Wave of Cohort ’08. Child Benefit is a universal monthly social welfare payment to families with children. Children should be registered with the appropriate authorities within 6 months of birth or becoming part of the family (e.g. through adoption), or of the family coming to reside in Ireland. This administrative database had some extremely attractive characteristics as a sampling frame. It contained a comprehensive up-to-date listing of eligible members of the relevant population; had a wide range of relevant characteristic variables of claimants (mostly mothers); and was already in an electronic form that could be accessed for sampling purposes.  

There were just over 70,000 births in Ireland in 2007.  The Wave 1 sample for Cohort ‘08 study was selected from the 41,185 infants registered on the Child Benefit Register as having been born between 1st December 2007 and 30th June 2008. The target sample was selected over this seven-month period, with a view to carrying out fieldwork for Wave 1 when the children were 9 months of age, between September 2008 and March/April 2009. The sample was selected on a systematic basis, with a random start. Prior to selection, the sample was sorted by marital status of the claimant (usually the mother), county of residence and nationality of the claimant, as well as number of children in the payment or ‘claim’. A simple systematic selection procedure based on a random start and constant sampling fraction was used. In total, 11,134 children were recruited onto the first wave of the study; representing a response rate of 65 per cent of all families approached and 69 per cent of valid contacts made in the course of the fieldwork.

A total of 9,723 children and their families were contacted for interview in Wave 6, when the children were 13 years old. This included families who were interviewed in Wave 5, when the children were aged 9 years and some families who were interviewed in previous waves but were not interviewed at wave 5. We did not contact families who had left Ireland or those who had asked not to be contacted again. Due to the on-going restrictions caused by Covid-19, interviewers carried out the interviews with families by telephone, with a short follow up web-based self-complete survey.

A total of 6,655 questionnaire were returned, amounting to 59.8% of the families interviewed at 9 months of age. 

Weighting 

A standard iterative procedure was used to generate the weights used in all phases of Growing Up in Ireland. This was implemented using software (known as the GROSS1 system) which was developed for the ESRI. The GROSS system is based on a minimum information loss algorithm which fits population marginals to sample totals within a regression framework and adjusts the sample according to pre-specified characteristics to ensure that it produces estimates which match population totals.

For more details how the sample weights were constructed see documentation - Summary Guide to Wave 6 of the Infant Cohort

Response rate 

There are 6,655 observations in the Wave 6 data. 

For more details on response rates see documentation - Summary Guide to Wave 6 of the Infant Cohort 

DATA AND DOCUMENTATION: FILES’ DESCRIPTION 

Data (available through ISSDA application process) 

March 2024 re-issue of data  - PSI_Resp scale (Parenting Style Responsiveness subscale) amended

Documentation (available for download) 

LINKS 

https://www.growingup.gov.ie/

ACCESS INFORMATION

Accessing the data 

To access the data, please complete a ISSDA Data Request Form for Research Purposes sign it, and send it to ISSDA by email.

For teaching purposes, please complete the ISSDA Data Request Form for Teaching Purposes and follow the procedures, as above. Teaching requests are approved on a once-off module/workshop basis. Subsequent occurrences of the module/workshop require a new teaching request form.

Data will be disseminated on receipt of a fully completed, signed form. Incomplete or unsigned forms will be returned to the data requester for completion.

Copyright 

Government of Ireland

Acknowledgements 

Any work based in whole or part on resources provided by the ISSDA, should  acknowledge: “Growing up in Ireland Cohort '08 (Infant Cohort) Wave 6 at 13 years, 2021/2022." and also ISSDA, in the following way: “Accessed via the Irish Social Science Data Archive - www.ucd.ie/issda”.

Citation requirement 

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical citation

Central Statistics Office (CSO). (2024). Growing up in Ireland Cohort '08 (Infant Cohort) Wave 6 at 13 years, 2021/2022. [dataset]. Version 1.1. Irish Social Science Data Archive. SN: 0019-06. URL www.ucd.ie/issda/data/guiinfant/guiinfantwave6

Notification 

The user shall notify the Irish Social Science Data Archive of all publications where she or he has used the data.