5.2 Findings from Growing Up in Ireland Cohort 08 at age 3 years33F

Some interesting findings previously published (Growing Up in Ireland Study Team,

2011a & 2011b; Williams et al. 2013) in relation to family contexts from when Cohort

08 were surveyed at age 3 from when Cohort 08 were surveyed at age 3 are:

•The most frequent change to family structure between interviews was the arrival of a new sibling into the family (33% of all families).

32https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social-welfare/families-and-children/

33https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2019/act/11/enacted/en/pdf

34 Subsequent references to ‘Cohort 08 at 3’ relate to the Growing Up in Ireland study unless otherwise specified

•Nearly 8 per cent of the Study Children spoke a language other than English as their first language.

•A substantial percentage of both mothers (43%) and fathers (50%) at work outside the home felt that they had missed out on family activities as a result of work responsibilities. Furthermore, approximately one-third of both (35% of mothers and 32% of fathers) agreed/strongly agreed that their family time was less enjoyable and more pressured as a result of out-of-home work responsibilities.

•Overall, 21% of the families of 3-year-olds recorded that they could make ends meet only with great difficulty or with difficulty, while a further 40% were doing so with some difficulty. In contrast, 27% were making ends meet fairly easily, with the remaining 12% doing so easily / very easily. Note that interviews for Cohort 08 at age 3 took place in 2011 around the peak of what later became known as the ‘Great Recession’.

•One-parent families were more likely than two-parent families to receive financial support from grandparents. Just under one-third of both one-parent family types received financial support from grandparents at least once every three months (i.e. quarterly), compared to around 12% for two-parent families.

5.3 Topics from Comparable Studies