SeCTioN e: pareNTaL heaLTh

This section asked about parental health, including chronic conditions, exercise and weight perception. It also asked about the family’s and child’s medical insurance cover, and whether the parent was a carer for anyone. It included the Everyday Discrimination Scale.

Section E Construct Questions Included at

Family and child medical cover

– none, full cover, or GP only E6–E8 √ √ √

Caring for someone with illness or special needs; where, time spent and related pressure on family life

E9-E14

Physically active E15 √ √ √

Perception of own weight E16 √ √ √

Perceived discrimination E17

8.2.5.1 Commentary

Parental health (E1-E6 and E15-E16)

These questions worked well. As in earlier sections, the decision was made to ask ‘month’ of onset of a chronic condition only if the condition had started in the current year. Feedback from experienced interviewers who had worked on multiple waves of the study indicated that participants often had difficulty remembering the month of onset if the diagnosis wasn’t recent. A question was added to this subsection for the main survey on whether any long-standing conditions had been diagnosed by a doctor.

Health insurance/Medical card coverage

There were no issues reported in relation to these questions (E6-E8) and no changes were suggested.

Parent as carer

These questions at E9-E14 were new to Growing Up in Ireland and were intended to pick up the parent’s other caring responsibilities and how they might affect the main parenting role or family dynamic. Just under 15% of Primary Caregivers reported ‘looking after anyone who needs special help or care’.

Everyday Discrimination Scale

This scale is discussed in detail in Chapter 11. The scale had previously been used with the young people in Cohort ’98 at age 17/18 years but this was its first use with the Primary Caregiver. Psychometrically, the scale worked well but for a number of respondents their experience of harassment related specifically to their occupation (e.g. being a garda or teacher). This was not the type of discrimination the Study Team had in mind when including the scale initially, although the problem of occupation-related harassment seems to be a major issue for some parents. This issue and related suggestions are detailed further in Chapter 11.

8.2.5.2 decisions and summary of changes for the main phase

• The ‘month’ part of E4 on timing of diagnosis was to be asked only if diagnosis was in the current year.

• A question on whether a long-standing condition had been diagnosed by a medical professional was added.

• The Everyday Discrimination Scale was moved to the self-complete section and an additional ‘reason’

for discrimination as ‘being related to parental occupation’ was included for clarity.

8.2.6 SeCTioN f: ChiLd’S pLay aNd aCTiviTieS

This section asked questions about activities shared with the child, time spent reading for pleasure, development and maintenance of the child’s cultural identity, and pocket money.

8.2.6.1 Commentary

Activities done with the child and reading for pleasure by child

The items included in the lists at F1 and F2 worked well and only some minor changes were suggested.

These were to (a) delete F1c ‘visited the library’ with the Primary Caregiver as it was largely duplicated by F2e (visiting a library with any family member), and (b) delete F2h ‘going for a picnic or camping’ as this was likely to be seasonal and weather-dependent. Instead, it was decided to extend F2g ‘going for a walk or cycle’ to include ‘a hike’ to capture a longer activity/outing. There were no issues on questions about time spent reading (F3/F4) and no changes were suggested.

Section F Construct Questions Included at

age 3 Included at

Activities done with the child F1–F2 √ √

Time spent reading for

A completely new question was introduced in this pilot about the child’s activities where the parents had a specific aim to develop or maintain his/her ‘cultural or national identity’ (F5/F6). Over a third of parents (36%) answered in the affirmative. Details of the activity were collected in an open-ended question that was asked of everyone regardless of ethnicity or citizenship. Many of the text responses referred to Gaelic Athletic Association sporting activities (such as hurling and camogie) or generic answers that didn’t specify which culture/identity was being fostered (e.g. ‘attending cultural events’). The Study Team suggested, therefore, that an additional question be inserted before the open-ended description to specify whether the activity refers to Irish or another culture. The latter could be important to migrants retaining a sense of their cultural identity as well as to broadening the awareness of other cultures among Irish children.

Pocket money

There were no problems reported with this question at F7, although there was some speculation as to whether the term ‘pocket money’ should refer only to money the child was free to spend as they wanted.

Some parents may give the child money to cover the costs of pre-agreed activities such as a weekly dance lesson, which could lead to some confusion. In the pilot, over half of children (55%) got no pocket money, 12% got €2 and 16% got €5 (per week). Given the need to reduce some of the response burden on the PCG questionnaire and the possibility for ambiguity about the question, the Study Team decided to remove this question for the main phase.

8.2.6.2 Summary of changes for main phase

• F1c (visiting the library) was deleted due to duplication with F2e.

• F2h (going on a picnic or camping) was deleted due to weather/seasonal variations but ‘a hike’ was added to F2g.

• A new question was added to identify whether activities to maintain cultural identity related to Irish or other cultural/national identity at question F5/F6.