The first results from the National Longitudinal Study of Children, a major study of Ireland’s children, was launched today.
The study, entitled Growing up in Ireland, partly involves tracking the lives of 8,500 nine-year-old children and their families, draws on data collected during Wave One of the Child Cohort which took place between September 07 and May 08 and involved interviewing 8,500 9-year-old children, their parents, teachers and principals. These children will be revisited for a follow-up interview when they are 13 years old.
The study also examined 10,000 nine-month-olds. The initial results, published today, are presented in a series of brief, topic based reports in the areas of health, education, family context and the characteristics of 9 Year Olds in Ireland.
Among the findings from the second section of the study, entitled The Families of 9-Year-Olds, was that family structure, that is whether families are made up of lone, married, divorced parents etc, has “a major impact on the level of financial, human and social resources and support that children receive in their early years”.
The study found that just over 82 per cent of nine-year-olds lived in two-parent households, and 48 per cent lived in two-parent households where there were three or more resident children including themselves.
The Iona Institute today welcomed the prominence report gave to the issue of family structure. Iona director, David Quinn, said that international research “clearly demonstrates the importance of family structure for children. Above all it shows that children tend to fare best when raised by their two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.
“Hopefully as this very important study into the lives of Irish children proceeds, it will continue to highlight the importance of family structure,” he concluded.
Eighteen of nine-year-olds lived in single-parent families, with 11 per cent living in single parent families containing one or two children. The remaining seven per cent lived in households with three or more children.
It also found that 29 per cent of smaller two-parent families were in the top income group. Single-parent families were mainly in the lowest income group, especially those in the largest single-parent families, which had three or more children. Fifty three per cent of this cohort were in the lowest income group.
Just over half of all mothers of nine-year-olds classified themselves as working principally outside the home; 38 per cent said they worked mainly in the home. Four per cent said they were unemployed.
On average, mothers working outside the home did so for 27 hours a week, while fathers on average worked for 47 hours a week.
Just under 61 per cent of mothers and 43 per cent of fathers felt they had missed out on home or family activities because of work. Broken down, 34 per cent of mothers and 50 per cent of fathers felt that their family lives were being adversely affected by work.
Work also negatively affected the quality of family life for a significant proportion of parents and children. Thirty seven per cent of mothers and 36 per cent of fathers agreed with the statement “Because of work responsibilities your family time is less enjoyable and more pressured”.
However a majority of both mothers and fathers, 56 per cent, disagreed with this statement.