Testing the applicability of the Parenting Occupations and Purposes Framework in an Irish context.
Emma Dempsey, Laura Manley, Anne Honey and 3 others
A parenting-occupation framework (POP) held up when 44 Irish parents logged their daily tasks in real time — every category appeared, though a few new examples (faith activities, waiting, volunteering) needed adding.
No demographic factor predicted which tasks a parent did more.
Key findings
1All categories of the POP Framework were represented in the occupations and purposes reported by parents, confirming its applicability in an Irish context.
2'Attending to the child's basic needs' was the most frequently reported occupation (223 times), while 'seeking help' appeared only once across all responses.
3None of the 10 regression models examining whether parent age, child age, location, income, employment, or number of children predicted parenting occupation frequency reached statistical significance.
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What it does not show
Only 34.4% of those who consented actually completed the ESM surveys, so the 44 analysed may not represent the 131 who agreed to take part. The sample was skewed toward mothers, parents of younger children, and a relatively homogeneous socio-economic and ethnic profile, limiting generalisability to fathers, parents of adolescents, and more diverse populations. The 10 regression models were explicitly underpowered for a sample of 44 with six predictors each; the null findings may reflect insufficient statistical power rather than a true absence of relationships. Data collection coincided with seasonal events (Pancake Tuesday, Saint Patrick's Day), which may have inflated reports of food preparation and cultural activities. The framework was originally built from literature 61% of which was US-based and 55% more than 10 years old, so this Irish validation, while useful, does not establish global applicability. Convenience sampling via social media and radio means the sample is self-selected and may over-represent parents comfortable with technology and English.
Declared interests
The authors state no conflict of interests. Three of the six authors are the original developers of the POP Framework, and one co-developed the ESM application used for data collection. Two authors were final-year OT students supervised by a framework developer. No external funding source is named in the text.
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