28th Biennial Meeting of the ISSBD

28th Biennial Meeting of the ISSBD

In June, DCU Anti-Bullying Centre’s Dean’s Fellow, Dr Ashling Bourke presented at the 28th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development in South Korea. Attendance was part-funded by DCU Anti-Bullying Centre.

The research used the Growing Up in Ireland data to explore the teacher-child relationship in Irish primary schools. The research found consistency between the quality of relationships with adults a child has - closeness with parents is also related to closeness with teachers. Teachers' use of child- centred pedagogies was also related to higher closeness in the teacher-child relationship.

The conference was also a great opportunity to learn from global colleagues and the excellent developmental research being conducted globally, particularly around the impact of digital technologies on youth mental health, cross-cultural parenting, and new co-design methodologies with adolescents.

Furthermore, using Growing Up in Ireland data to explore child-adult relationship quality, Ashling also published a paper in the Journal of Family Psychology with Kristin Hadfield in Trinity Centre for Global Health and Fearghal O'Brien in National College of Ireland. The research explored the role of parent-child relationship quality in moderating the relationship between the experiences of Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) and Mental Health in Adolescence using data from the Growing Up in Ireland study. They found that ACEs predicted poorer mental health in late childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence, and the mother-child but not father-child relationship quality moderated the association between ACEs and mental health.

To read more on this study, the paper is available here.