New Questions for the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study in Ireland: Pilot 2022

The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a cross-national research study conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, running on a four-year cycle. In 2022, Ireland participated for the seventh time in the HBSC study. The overall aim of the HBSC study is to gain new insight into and increase our understanding of young peoples health and well-being, health behaviours and their social context. HBSC collects data on key indicators of health, health attitudes, and health behaviours, as well as the context of health for young people. The study is a school-based survey with information collected from students through self-completion questionnaires in classrooms. In line with the International HBSC Study Protocol, a pilot study was carried out in Ireland March and April 2022 in five schools that were not selected for the main study data collection to test items that were reformulated since the 2018 data collection, or new items that were considered for inclusion in the 2022 Irish HBSC questionnaire. In this report, we present the findings from the pilot study.