Saoirse Nic Gabhainn

National University of Ireland Galway · Health Promotion

Genuine participatory research enables us to embed the principles of health promotion practice into our research. Participants and researchers can develop skills, be empowered, and have fun, as well as make important contributions to generating new knowledge for theory, practice, and policy. This chapter describes the rationale and process of devel...

Adolescents belonging to minority or marginalized groups often experience discrimination, which may negatively affect their mental and physical health. Using the dataset of the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, we analyzed perceived discrimination based on various grounds in four minority groups of schoolchildren in Irelan...

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are chronic medical conditions that are, by definition, non-infectious, and non-transmissible among people and caused by a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors. Affecting all age groups, regions and countries, NCDs cause 72% of deaths in Oman. Health promotion (HP) capacity dev...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Health promoters increasingly recognise that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTI+) adolescents deserve special attention. However, evidence on health and wellbeing of LGBTI+ youth is mainly sourced from North America, and it is largely unknown whether the health disparities betw...

BOOK TITLE: LGBTI+ youth in Ireland and across Europe: A two-phased landscape and research gap analysis PUBLISHER AND YEAR OF PUBLICATION: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Health Promotion Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway, 2021 BOOK DESCRIPTION: This publication (https://tinyurl.com/lg...

This short report provides a concise summary of the findings of the main research report of the LGBTI+ Youth in Ireland and across Europe: A two-phased Landscape and Research Gap Analysis. The summary reports have incorporated stakeholder feedback on the findings of the research elicited during the launch of the main report. The key stakeholder gro...

Sexual minority youth are at greater risk for bullying victimization than their heterosexual peers but data on perpetration and cybervictimization is limited. Using representative data from seven European countries and one region (N = 14,545), this study compared traditional bullying victimization and perpetration, and cyberbullying victimization a...

Ultraviolet (UV) exposure at young age is significant risk for skin cancer in later life. A remarkable proportion of schoolchildren in Ireland use no protection against the sun, and 3% have used an indoor tanning bed. this warrants further investigation and intervention. The aims of this study were (1) to test whether there are latent classes under...

Background/Objectives: Sexual minority adolescents have a disproportionate burden of risky sexual behaviours compared to their non-minority peers. Since some adolescents can be romantically or sexually attracted to same- or both-gender partners but may not identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, both attraction and love seem suitable indicators to cl...

This study involved the development of two new measures to assess what some young heterosexual-identifying adults report learning about sex from pornography. Inventory items were generated from an extensive literature review and six qualitative focus group sessions with young adults ( N = 54) aged 18–29 which explored how pornography could be used...

Background: Sexual minority young people have higher rates of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviours than their heterosexual peers. However, research in this area is rare in Europe, and the existing studies rarely disaggregate youth exclusively attracted to the same-gender (lesbian/gay) or both-gender partners (bisexual). Methods: In th...

Background Demonstrating long-term impacts of research can be fraught with methodological challenges, especially when approached retrospectively. Potential accusations of bias or over-interpretation, and a lack of clear and specific causal data, can be real obstacles. This paper presents a case study of research impact, including enablers and conte...

Background Discourse on the lives, health, and well-being of transgender and other gender minority (TGM) youth frequently revolves around narratives of risk and victimisation. While TGM youth undeniably face many challenges, such singular discourses belie a more complex picture of TGM youth lives and problematically position them as passive victims...

Introduction: Sexual minority youth (SMY) are disproportionately affected by mental health problems, but there is much less evidence on factors that empower them to live happy and balanced lives. This study explored various aspects of mental health of 12- to 17-year-old SMY in Ireland, compared to their heterosexual peers. Methods: A nationally re...

School participation among pupils is considered a key value of the health promoting school approach. However, few studies have documented the relationship between the school participation of pupils and health and wellbeing outcomes in different geographical contexts, especially looking at developing and developed country contexts. This study invest...

This pilot study will evaluate understandability, acceptability and answerability a set of survey items on birth-registered sex, gender identity and sexual orientation among young people aged 13-18 participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), a World Health Organization collaborative cross-national study of child and adoles...

Objectives: There is a growing research interest in different aspects of LGBTI+ young people’s lives and health, but most studies are from North America. In line with the Irish LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy 2018-2020, our aim was to collect relevant studies conducted in Europe in order to draw a landscape and identify knowledge gaps in the area of...

Background: Since the 1990s, there has been a growing corpus of evidence on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and other Sexual and Gender Minority (LGBTI+) youth. However, most of these studies were conducted in the North America, and it remains unclear whether their findings can be generalised to other countries and cultures. The third goal...

Objectives: We present patterns of sunburn, sun safety behaviors and indoor tanning bed use in a nationally representative sample of schoolchildren aged 10–17. These behaviors were explored across gender, age, and social class groups. Methods: Within the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Ireland study, 10,271 young people (aged 13.54...

Objectives: We explored whether modes of transport (cycling, walking, public transport or private vehicle) between home and school are associated with mental well-being in children aged 10–17 years, participating in the Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Methods: Scores on the World Health Organization Well-being Index an...

Research on the impact of school and community food environments on adolescent food choice is heavily reliant on objective rather than subjective measures of food outlets around schools and homes. Gaining the perspective of adolescents and how they perceive and use food environments is needed. The aim of this study was to explore adolescent’s perce...

The HBSC Ireland report Trends in Health Behaviours, Health Outcomes and Contextual Factors between 1998-2018: findings from the Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study explores the trends in the health and wellbeing of children in Ireland between 1998 and 2018. To date, HBSC Ireland has collected data from 62,720 school-aged children...

Outcome 5 of the Irish Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures national youth policy framework ("Connected, respected, and contributing to their world") offers a suitable way to study psychosocial determinants of adolescent health. The present study (1) provides nationally representative data on how 15-to 17-year-olds score on these indicators; (2) compa...

Introduction: The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) is a World Health Organization collaborative cross-cultural study of adolescents aged 11–15 years, from 50 countries and regions in Europe, North America and the former Soviet republics. Since 1983 (the first survey round), the sex/gender of the respondents have been categorised with...

Introduction: Active transport is a priority area within the Physical Activity Strategy for the WHO European Region 2016–2025. Active transport (walking and cycling) is associated with better physical health indicators. Cycling, as a form of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, has multiple health benefits, including positive impact on mental an...

Excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, sunburn and sunbed use in childhood are risk factors for developing skin cancer in adult life. This report presents data on these risk factors in Ireland for the first time. Data are presented principally from the Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study 2018. This report was deve...

HBSC aims to drive youth participation as standard in adolescent research and to provide data that are meaningful to young people, are reflective of current lifestyles, and are of value to policy and program development. Further to significant benefits within the research process, the active and meaningful involvement of young people results in imp...

Spanking, whipping, and choking are examples of aggressive behaviours that can be performed in consensual sexual encounters. However, within the pornography research literature, such behaviours are often perceived as being nonconsensual, categorized as “violent,” and argued to predict sexual aggression. Viewing nonconsensual pornography may be asso...

INTRODUCTION School health programmes have been demonstrated to be the most cost-effective way to influence health behaviours in young people (1–4). The purpose of this two-part handbook is to support schools as they seek to implement interventions aimed at reducing the main modifiable risk behaviours for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) (5,6). The...

The aim of this article is to consider critically the relationship between professional and public understandings of Family Support. It is based on research comprising baseline and follow-up population surveys carried out with 1000 respondents to establish levels of public awareness of the Parenting, Prevention and Family Support services provided...

Purpose: Sexual minority youth (SMY) are at increased risk of poor health, but it remains unclear whether this phenomenon is universal. In this study, nationally representative samples of 15-year olds from eight European countries and regions were investigated to test if adolescents who have been in love with same- or both-gender partners report po...

This report presents data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey carried out in 2018 in the Republic of Ireland. This is the sixth time that data of this kind have been collected from young people across the Republic of Ireland; previous surveys were conducted in 2014, 2010, 2006, 2002 and 1998 (www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc). HBSC...

Background: Chronic lower back pain (CLBP) is a major health care burden and often results in workplace absenteeism. It is a priority for appropriate management of CLBP to get individuals back to work as early as possible. Interventions informed by the flags approach, which integrates cognitive and behavioral approaches via identification of biops...

This is the Research Protocol for the LGBTI+ two phased study: A landscape and knowledge gap analysis of research conducted on Sexual and Gender Minority youth in Ireland and Europe Pre-registered at the Open Science Foundation Registries: https://osf.io/46q8f Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and other Sexual and Gender Minority (LGBTI+, S...

Sexual minority youth are at higher risk of substance use than heterosexual youth. However, most evidence in this area is from North America, and it is unclear whether the findings can be generalized to other cultures and countries. In this investigation, we used data from the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study to compare su...

Purpose: A large corpus of research suggests that Sexual Minority Youths (SMY), including those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or are partially or exclusively attracted to same-sex partners, are at higher risk of several mental and physical health problems than their heterosexual (or opposite-sex attracted) peers. These health disparities c...

Background: Our knowledge on the health risks of LGBTI+ youths in Europe is limited. It remains unclear how social and individual determinants contribute to health inequalities in Sexual Minority adolescents. Objective(s): We tested whether a country-level indicator of LGBTI+ equality predicts health of same-, opposite-, both-sex attracted and no...

This study examined the overlap in reported attraction and love, as part of a pilot study for the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Ireland.

The aim of this study was to test the suitability of the short Spirituality Scale devised specifically for Irish schoolchildren.

Although some positive outcomes for pornography engagement have been highlighted, researchers and educators have also expressed concerns about youth pornography engagement and have called for porn literacy education to be incorporated into sex education programs. As yet, there is lack of agreement regarding intervention development. This study aime...

This study explored the frequently held belief that pornography use for sexual information occurs in the absence of good sex education and examined whether such a relationship was moderated by a person’s sexual orientation. A more general goal for the study was to explore pornography viewing habits of Irish university students. Cross-sectional quan...

Purpose School-based programmes face a variety of personal, environmental and organisational challenges to implementation. Stakeholders can provide crucial contextual information to improve implementation. The purpose of this paper is to explore teachers’ perspectives on implementation through a bottom-up participatory process. Design/methodology/...

In this report, we present Ireland-specific findings on the items that were introduced in the 2018 round of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), a WHO collaborative cross-cultural study. Pilot testing of the new items involved 363 students aged 9–18 from five different schools in Ireland. Beside descriptive statistics overall and in...

In this short report we tested whether a standardised two-item measure, assessing feelings of attraction and love, is suitable for 13–18-year-old schoolchildren in Ireland.

Behavioural and developmental factors mean that adolescents who initiate sexual intercourse early may be at an increased risk of adverse sexual health outcomes at the time of first sex and later in life. In an Irish context, there is insufficient knowledge about the specific correlates of early sexual initiation. This research explores relationship...

Background: Adolescents attracted to same- (SGA) or both-gender partners (BGA) are more vulnerable to various health risks then their opposite-gender (OGA) or not attracted (NA) peers. According to the minority stress hypothesis, this health inequality may be attributed to the exposure of SGA and BGA adolescents to rejection and discrimination, whi...

Background: The food environment within and surrounding schools may influence children's diets. This study explored if the internal and external school food environments were associated with intake of specific food groups among adolescents. Methods: Participants were a subset of 5344 post-primary school students that took part in the Health Beha...

It is challenging to find age-appropriate ways to categorise young people across their sexualities. The Health Behaviour of School-aged Children (HBSC) cross-cultural study offers a standardised measure of romantic attraction, which is understood to be one aspect of sexual orientation. We present initial findings on the health of same- and both-gen...

Background: The need to tackle sexual health problems and promote positive sexual health has been acknowledged in Irish health policy. Young people's sexual behaviour however remains under-researched with limited national data available. Methods: This study presents the first nationally representative and internationally comparable data on young...

Sexual orientation is a multidimensional phenomenon, which includes identity, behavior, and attraction. The attraction component, however, is less studied than the other two. In this article, we present the development of a two‐item measure to identify adolescents who prefer same‐ and both‐gender partners for love and dating. The questions were adm...

McGregor, C. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2018) Public Awareness of Parenting, Prevention and Family Support Services: Population Survey Final Report. Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway.

Health Promotion Unit, World Health Organization, Swizerland

Health Promotion Unit, World Health Organization

Background This paper describes the methodological developments of the sexual health items included in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study since their mandatory inclusion in the study in 2002. The current methodological, ethical and pedagogical challenges in measuring young people’s sexual health behaviours are discussed along...

Internationally, subjective health complaints have become increasingly prevalent in children. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of health complaints is needed to inform effective policies and strategies. This study explores if meeting physical activity and total screen time (TST) recommendations are associated with the risk of...

div class="title">School food environments and children's dietary behaviours: data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey - Volume 75 Issue OCE3 - C. Kelly, M. Callaghan, S. Nic Gabhainn, M. Molcho, A.A. Thomas

Background Positive wellbeing, including high life-satisfaction can buffer against negative outcomes such as psychological disorders. Modifiable lifestyle factors including diet may be associated with maintaining positive wellbeing however; this association is not extensively researched in adolescents. Fruit and vegetables are markers of healthy di...

Objective: To examine whether use of pornography as a source of sex education predicted male and female genital dissatisfaction, within a social comparison framework. Design and Method: This study is based on cross-sectional survey data from 2162 University students, of whom 47% were female. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire...

Objective: The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a World Health Organization collaborative cross-national research project which aims to improve understanding of young people’s health and wellbeing, including sexual behaviours. Data are collected on a four year cycle from schoolchildren in 43 countries in Europe and North Ame...

Objective: To examine the relationship between early exposure to pornography and genital-related satisfaction among young Irish adults. Design and Method: This study employed cross-sectional survey data from 2,162 University students, of whom 53% were male. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire, which included items on pornograp...

Objective: It is an ethical imperative to disseminate research findings to as wide an audience as possible in a manner that is useable, understandable and appropriate for stakeholders. This study sought to explore and identify appropriate approaches to use with adolescent sexual health survey data among a range of stakeholder groups. Design and Met...

Objective: Tackling adolescent sexual health problems and promoting positive sexual health has been widely acknowledged in health policies across Ireland. Increasingly emphasis is placed on integrating empirical evidence at policy and practice level, however limited data on Irish adolescents’ sexual behaviour are available. This study presents the...

Objective: Using a conceptual model of school-based implementation, this study aimed to explore teachers’ implementation of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in a school context. Design and Method: A model of school-based implementation was derived from a review of the literature and a mixed methods approach was employed to examine compon...

Introduction Chronic lower back pain (CLBP) is a major healthcare problem with wide ranging effects. It is a priority for appropriate management of CLBP to get individuals back to work as early as possible. Interventions that identify biopsychosocial barriers to recovery have been observed to lead to successfully reduced pain-related work absences...

This report presents data from HBSC Ireland 2014, the Irish Health Behaviour in Schoolaged Children survey. The 2014 HBSC survey is the fifth time that data of this kind have been collected from young people across the Republic of Ireland; previous surveys were conducted in 2010, 2006, 2002 and 1998 (www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc).