Exploring the predictors of socio-economic variation in child overweight and obesity in Ireland : a sociological analysis

Abstract

This thesis addressed the issue of childhood overweight and obesity in Ireland. In the first instance the socially structured distribution of overweight and obesity was established with the mechanisms by which this occurs then explored. Data was drawn from the infant and child cohorts of the large, nationally representative, 'Growing Up in Ireland - National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland (NLSCI) project’. The focus of the thesis was on the relationship between individuals and their social environment and as such was informed by the belief that where risk factors are identified through the application of statistical methods, the underlying mechanisms are seldom deterministic with causal pathways often heterogeneous. By this method, the thesis highlighted the means by which childhood overweight and obesity is perpetuated by the social environment in which children are positioned.