Wave 1 of the study
What happened in Wave 1 of the study?
Over three months, from June to August 2006, 2202 families from all over Australia were interviewed for the study. 39 dedicated and hard-working interviewers from I-view conducted the interviews with the families in their homes.
Through the study’s longitudinal nature, information is obtained from the same family about the same child over a period of time. This allows us to determine changes, progress and development in your child’s life and your family during the past year. This also provides you with the opportunity to follow the development of your child until just before he/she goes to school.
Interesting findings from wave 1 of the study.
Wave 2 of the study
What happened in Wave 2 of the study?
A total of 2014 families completed the wave 2 interviews from March to July 2007. Once again, a team of dedicated and hard-working interviewers from I-view conducted the interviews, many visiting the same families as they did in wave 1.
 SFIA interviewers at the wave 2 training day in Melbourne (February 2007) |
Some of the interviews in wave 2 were conducted over the telephone due to families moving great distances from the original area of the study. This is one of the challenges of Stronger Families in Australia being a longitudinal study.
Interesting findings from wave 2 of the study.
Wave 3 of the study
Wave 3 is underway!
A letter was sent to all participating families in January 2008, which advised when interviewers would be your area. Wave 3 interviews began in early February 2008.
Wave 3 is an exciting new phase of the study. Now that the study children have are four years of age, it is possible to involve them in some activities that provide a new perspective on their growth and development.
If you and your child decide it’s okay, our interviewers will do a short activity with your child during their next visit. This task is used in research a lot. Children are shown a group of four pictures and are asked to point to just one picture from the set. This task is repeated a few times with different pictures. Most children find this fun, and their answers provide valuable information about their understanding of different ideas and objects. Height and weight are important indicators of a child’s overall health, so interviewers will bring scales and a tape measure when they visit you and will be asking for your permission to weigh and measure your child. We hope your child enjoys these few minutes of focussed attention.
What happens with the information that families provide?
Information collected from the families is compiled and then analysed. As the study continues, findings will be presented in various ways, including a major report.
Some of the questions that the study will help us to answer include:
- How do parents think their children are doing in life?
- How do parents think they are doing in life?
- How do parents think they are managing their child rearing responsibilities?
- How can parents be better supported in their parenting and child rearing tasks?
- What family and other social and environmental factors affect children’s development?
- How satisfied are families with services available in the community?
- What types of services do families most need but are not available?
- How can communities best support families with young children?
As we start analysing the information, we will use this website to keep you informed of the interesting findings from the study.