Parenting

The 3-year-old child will still be very much dependent on their parent(s) to meet their

basic needs and to guide them as they develop and interact more with the world.

Both parents in Cohort 24 at 9 months were asked to rank the three aspects of

parenting that they thought were most important from a list that included behaviours

such as ‘showing my child love and affection’ and ‘taking care of my child financially’.

This question on parenting beliefs had been used intermittently with earlier waves of

Growing Up in Ireland but repeating it at age 3 would provide longitudinal rather than

cross-cohort comparisons. It is recommended that the data resulting from this

question with Cohort 24 at 9 months be assessed for variability and usefulness

before reaching a final decision on including it again at age 3.

Cohort 24 at 9 months also included a new question on whether interactions with

the child – such as feeding and playing – should be led by the parent or the child (or

somewhere in between). Again, an analysis of responses to this question at 9 months

would be helpful to inform whether it would be worth repeating it at age 3 years.

Potentially, it could be interesting to see if the parent’s attitudes towards structuring

interactions with the child change between infancy and toddlerhood. Input from the

parents who took part in focus groups to inform the survey made frequent references

to how their 3-year-olds expressed stronger preferences for food and activities,

compared to their younger selves. And sometimes not getting their preferences

resulted in tantrums and other kinds of behaviour that parents found stressful or

disruptive.

A question on who took responsibility for specific parenting tasks was included with

Cohort 24 at 9 months. The tasks included bathing, feeding, playing, and taking the

infant to appointments or childcare. The answer options for each task included

variations ‘you’, ‘your spouse/partner’, ‘someone else’ or ‘no one does this’. If

repeated at age 3, some items such as ‘changing his/her nappy’ would need to re-

worded or omitted but most of the parenting tasks in the list still apply to toddlers.

Some of the parents in the focus group referred to the challenge of balancing all the

tasks associated with parenting with their work commitments, and other household

chores. For some families, support was received by extended family for jobs such as

bringing the child to appointments. Therefore, it is likely that repeating a similar list

at age 3 could show how evenly distributed parenting tasks are divided between

parents in two-parent household, or how much support lone parents get from

another person. However, an analysis of the data collected from Cohort 24 at 9

months would be useful in reaching a final decision.

In general, there is merit on getting the perspective of both parents for the above

topics but some could be limited to just the primary caregiver main questionnaire if

needed.

Recommendations for Cohort 24 at 3 years

•Repeat question on beliefs about structuring interactions with the child, as used with Cohort 24 at 9 months

•Explore data collected with the question on beliefs about most important roles for a parent, from parents in Cohort 24 at 9 months, to inform a decision on repeating them at age 3

•Repeat a version of the question on who takes responsibility for specific parenting tasks, as used with Cohort 24 at 9 months, to be informed by an analysis of responses in that wave

Play and learning