The Wirral Child Health and Development Study 7-9 years - Version 1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The Wirral Child Health and Development Study 7-9 years: Prenatal and infancy origins of biological and social-cognitive processes in disruptive behaviour problems in children.

  • IRAS ID

    165660

  • Contact name

    Jonathan Hill

  • Contact email

    J.Hill@reading.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Reading

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    05/Q1506/107, LREC reference for first funded wave of longitudinal study; 10/H1010/4, LREC reference for second funded wave of longitudinal study

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    3 years, 10 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    This study aims to find out why some children develop behaviour problems and what factors lead to them persisting. Children become aggressive for different reasons and we need to know more about different pathways to aggression. Early on some infants may be temperamentally more easily triggered into angry outbursts, and may become angrier in response to experiencing angry behaviour towards them or around them. Others may be born less emotional than average, and become less emotionally responsive to the feelings of other people as they develop. Other children, able to feel emotions when very young, may dampen down their emotions if they are frightened over time and do not experience parental comfort. Thus different ways of responding emotionally during early life may lead to later aggression. Many factors including genetic make-up, experiencing stress during pregnancy or infancy, and parents’ availability or ability to respond to their emotions probably also affect how they develop. 1286 families ('extensive' sample) were initially recruited and then assessed at 6 time-points from pregnancy to age 4. An 'intensive' sub-sample (>300 children)have also completed 12 assessments with biological, observational and experimental measures of emotional, behavioural, cognitive and physiological development over time. Our published findings have provided early support for the pathways. We plan now to continue to assess children and parents at age 7 and 9 with similar measures. In addition we will assess children's behavioural and physiological reactions to a social exclusion game, to emotionally-charged images or sounds, and to TV programme clips depicting children in situations likely to be associated with fear, sadness, anger or happiness. We will assess the 'extensive' group of children with briefer, but related measures. At ages 7 and 9 years we will obtain standardized information about the children's behaviours and emotions from parents, teachers, and the children themselves.

  • REC name

    North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    14/NW/1484

  • Date of REC Opinion

    22 Dec 2014

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion