Interaction with extended family

The consultation group members noted that beyond capturing multigenerational

information, it would also be useful to collect data about the study child’s level of

interaction with other extended family members such as uncles, aunts and cousins.

30 Note that sibling relationships is also mentioned as a continuing topic in this chapter, due to a single question in C08 at 3.

These family members can play an integral role in the child’s development, especially

as modern-day family dynamics change and evolve. This is also a relevant topic given

the immigration in Ireland over the last few decades, as immigrants often reach their

destination country without extended family to interact with as part of their social

network (Lim et al., 2022). In other scenarios, immigrant families may spend

substantial time with extended family due to tightly knit migration networks (Cox &

Fafchamps, 2007).

In order to capture the experiences of the study children with their extended family

members, the study child’s caregiver can be asked how frequently, if at all, the study

child interacts with their aunt(s)/uncle(s) and cousin(s). Previous questions for Cohort

08 at age 9 asked how many times per week/month the study child saw their

extended family, differentiating between cousin(s) and aunt(s)/uncle(s). While this

may not capture the quality of the relationship, it will provide insight into the nature

of modern-day family dynamics and help researchers to understand how involvement

with extended family members relates to a child’s development. Similar to other new

topics, this topic is of longitudinal value, as interaction levels may change over time

and across different life stages; collecting this information from an early age allows

analysis to compare the level of interaction with extended family as the child ages.

Recommendation for interaction with extended family:

•Bring forward Question I9 from the Cohort 08 at 9 years Primary Caregiver Questionnaire, which asks about the frequency of interaction with extended family members, or an equivalent item.

Face-to-face vs virtual contact with extended family