Childhood obesity and maternal education in Ireland

•The socioeconomic gradient of childhood obesity by maternal education is examined.•A gradient is found for both genders and waves of a longitudinal Irish dataset.•The gradient becomes steeper for girls as they move from age 9 to 13.•The gradient is steeper for girls when account is taken of the depth of obesity.•Girls whose mothers have the lowest education level are particularly disadvantaged.

This paper analyses the socioeconomic gradient of childhood obesity in Ireland using the Growing Up in Ireland data with three innovations compared to previous work in the area. A different measure of socioeconomic status, maternal education, is employed. In addition, the depth and severity of obesity are examined as well as the incidence. Finally, the use of two waves of longitudinal data permits the analysis of the persistence of obesity. Results show that overall childhood obesity stabilised between the two waves. However the socioeconomic gradient becomes steeper in wave 2 for girls and in particular when depth, severity and persistence of obesity are accounted for. Girls whose mothers fail to complete secondary education are shown to be at a particular disadvantage.