Early Years and Parenting
The Programme
The health and well being of parents and children are key goals of the Scottish Executive. The aim is to contribute to improving access to services and the reducing the differences in opportunities experienced by parents and children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Services include maternity care, those aimed at providing for the needs of vulnerable parents and those which target the children themselves.
The programme focuses on three main areas:
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The relationship between the child’s earliest experiences and subsequent outcomes. This will include the development of relevant intervention programmes and contributing to the development of knowledge about which children are most at risk of later difficulties
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The experience of the child with disabilities at home, in school and in the community as a whole
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The involvement of parents in the development of research relevant to their needs.
Programme Lead
Professor James Law is the programme lead for Early Years and Parenting, and the Director of CIHR, and is based at Queen Margaret University College.
CIHR Funded PhD Studentships
Miranda Page and Leila Mackie have been funded by CIHR to carry out PhD’s under the Early Years and Parenting programme.
CIHR Funded Postdoctoral Fellowship
Dr Melanie Gunning has been appointed by CIHR as Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the Early Years and Parenting programme.
Some of the current and completed research projects:
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“The mediating effect of language and literacy skills on the cycle of disadvantage – following five year olds into adulthood”. Funded by the ESRC and led by Professor James Law at QMUE, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institutue of Education in London. The final report for this project was submitted in November 2008 and has resulted in four papers being submitted, heralding our involvement in cohort data analysis as a branch of CIHR activity. We anticipate that there will many more opportunities to exploit the British Birth Cohorts in future and are currently looking at the identification of children with disabilities in the Millenium Cohort Study and the Scottish Growing Up in Scotland Study, a project funded by the Health Services Research programme in NHS Lothian.
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The evaluation of the national roll out of the Play@Home scheme is a programme to encourage regular physical activity in young children. The project is led by Professor Tom Mercer at QMUE and funded by NHS Health Scotland and is set to start in the Spring of 2009
For further information on the projects or for a full list of research projects funded under this programme please contact us