Growing Up in Ireland, the National Longitudinal Study of Children is a landmark study of children and youth which has been running since 2006. In summary the project seeks to further our understanding of what it means to be a child or young person growing up in modern Ireland, with a view to informing policy on what both helps and hinders development. A two cohort, cross-sequential longitudinal design was adopted and began with one cohort (the Infant Cohort) of 11,134 infants (aged 9 months) and a second cohort (the Child Cohort) of 8,568 9-year-olds. Being longitudinal in nature, the same children are followed over time. The families of the Infant Cohort have been interviewed when the children were 9 months, 3 years and subsequently 5 years of age, while the Child Cohort and their parents/guardians were interviewed at 9, 13 and 17/18 years of age. This wave of data concerns the Wave 5 interviews of the Infant Cohort at 9 years of age. The Time-Use Diary data was collected in tandem with the main Wave 5 interviews of Cohort ’08 at 9 years. It was self-completed by the 9 year old, with assistance from their parent, after the main interview. These data have been collected by the Growing Up in Ireland study. The Growing Up in Ireland study was funded from 2006 to 2022 by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Until the end of 2022 the study was managed by DCEDIY in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and was overseen and supported by an interdepartmental governance structure. This included an inter-departmental Steering Group with responsibility for strategic oversight and an interdepartmental Project Team with responsibility for operational oversight. Ethical oversight of the study was provided by an independent and dedicated Research Ethics Committee (REC).

Probability: Stratified: Proportional Simple systematic selection procedure based on a random start and constant sampling fraction A total of 10,052 children and their families were targeted in Wave 5, when the children were 9 years of age. This was made up of the families who had participated in the face-to-face interview in Wave 3 (when the Study Child was 5 years of age), as well as a small proportion of those who had not participated in Wave 3 but who had participated at one of the earlier rounds of the study. All study children who were successfully interviewed in the main study at Wave 5 were invited to self-complete the Time-Use diary.

Face-to-face interview: CAPI/CAMI

Face-to-face interview: PAPI

Self-administered questionnaire: Computer-assisted (CASI)