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Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Almost one-in-eight children live with one parent, CSO survey finds
Almost one-in-eight children in Ireland live with one parent , new data from a Central Statistics Office (CSO) survey of 10,000 households shows. The study draws on findings from the longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) survey, which followed a group of children born in 2008 – known as 'cohort '08″ – who will be turning 17 this year. Data analysed in this report was collected when the children were three years old. Almost 10,000 households with a three-year-old child were interviewed as part of the survey. Of the 9,793 interviewed, 12 per cent of 'primary-resident' parents reported that their child had another parent who was not living with them, or a 'non-resident parent'. READ MORE A 'non-resident parent' refers to a parent of a child who did not live at the child's primary address at the time of data collection, while 'primary-resident parent' refers to the parent living with the child at the time of the interview who provided most care to the child. Contact details were provided for almost 400 non-resident parents, with responses obtained from 137 of them. All of them were men. Non-resident parents whose contact details were not provided lived further away from their child and had reduced daily contact with their child. They also had decreased rates of providing financial support to the primary-resident parent and reduced frequency of contact with that parent. They had less positive relationships with primary parent than those for whom the primary parent did provide contact details, according to that parent. Half of non-resident parents reported living with the mother of the three-year-old when she became pregnant with the child, while four-in-10 said they spoke about the child with the primary parent every day. Of the 137 non-resident parents who responded, 60.6 per cent said they paid nothing towards the rent or mortgage due on the home where their child was primarily resident. Three-quarters said they provided regular financial support (other than direct mortgage or rent payments) to the primary-resident parent. Three-in-10 primary-resident parents who provided contact details for the non-resident parent reported that the non-resident parent never provided any financial contribution towards the household and maintenance of the child. That figure doubled for those who did not provide contact details. Some 35 per cent of non-resident parents felt they had a lot of influence on big decisions concerning their three-year-old, such as decisions regarding healthcare. Some 51.8 per cent of non-resident parents reported spending more than seven nights with the three-year-old in a typical month, while 47.4 per cent reported that the length of a typical contact occasion with the child was 24 hours or more. Of the primary-resident parents who provided contact details, almost four-in-10 reported that the other parent had daily contact with the child.
BreakingNews.ie
12-05-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Study finds no clear links between gaming by children and gambling as young adults
There is no clear link between gaming by young children and gambling as young adults, according to the findings of a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute. However, it claimed there was still a potential need for policies and regulations to reduce the risk of potential harm, as it found stronger links between online gaming by older teenagers and gambling at the age of 20. Advertisement The ESRI study said it found no statistically significant link between childhood gaming and later gambling as young adults, but there was a strong correlation between online gaming in older teenagers and online gambling and gambling frequency at the age of 20. It found teenagers who were gaming at 17 were 1.4 times more likely to be more frequently gambling by the age of 20 than those who were not playing games online. At the age of 20, young adults who are online gamers are 1.7 times more likely to be online gamblers more frequently. However, longer periods spent gaming were not associated with the frequency of gambling. Advertisement The study analysed data from the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study which follows over 4,200 children born in 1998. It examined information pertaining to their gaming behaviour when they were aged 9, 17 and 20 and its links with the frequency of gambling when they were 20. The author of the study, Gretta Mohan, an ESRI senior research officer, said it examined the 'gateway hypothesis' which proposes that gaming in childhood could predict future gambling behaviour. The study found almost 90% of 9-year-olds used a computer to play video games with two-thirds spending at least one hour gaming online on a typical day. Advertisement When they were aged 17, almost 39.6% of young people said they were playing games online with the figure increasing slightly to 41.1 per cent at 20. Approximately 10 per cent of eenagers said they were gaming for more than two hours daily on a typical weekday. However, the figure increased to 20 per cent on weekends. The study also revealed that 3.6 per cent of 20-year-olds reported gambling (excluding lottery games) at least on a weekly basis with a further 3.6 per cent gambling at least once a month. There was also a three-fold increase in the proportion who participated in online gambling among young adults, going from 2.9 per cent among those aged 17 to nine per cent three years later. Advertisement The results showed young male adults were significantly more likely to be involved with gambling than females of the same age. The report acknowledged that there is increasing concern among parents, researchers and policy makers about the rapid expansion of gaming and gambling opportunities in contemporary society. Dr Mohan noted that there had been a greater 'gamblification' of gaming through the introduction of loot boxes, skins and social casino games in recent years which did not exist in 2007 when the data on the gaming habits of 9-year-olds was collected. She claimed the effects of various innovations in gaming on gambling behaviour were not observed in the study and were an issue that warranted further research. 'Given the rapidly evolving nature of online gaming and gambling, ongoing monitoring of these behaviours in younger and older cohorts is crucial,' said Dr Mohan. The study said the findings did not support the 'gateway hypothesis' in terms of early childhood but did give credence to it in relation to later adolescence.
