Overview of the 9-month Cohort

Design

The 10,000 study children in the 9-month cohort were recruited through the Child Benefit Register. An interviewer visited each infant’s family in their home to interview the parents/guardians. Topics covered in Wave 1 included infant and parent health, pregnancy and birth, infant development and temperament, parenting, family relationships, income and socio-demographic characteristics. 

In addition the interviewer recorded the height and weight of the parents/guardians, the length, weight and head circumference of the infant, and the GPS co-ordinates of the household.

If appropriate, and where permission was given, self-complete questionnaires were posted to non-resident parents and regular carers who looked after the child for eight or more hours per week.    

As with the 9-year cohort, the quantitative work on the infants was complemented by a qualitative study with approximately 120 families who had also taken part in the main quantitative phase.

Where are we now?

All interviews in both the qualitative and quantitative phases of Wave 1 have been completed.  A quantitative datafile has been lodged with the Irish Social Science Data Archive.

Main quantitative fieldwork for Wave 2, now that the children are aged 3 years, has just been completed.