Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
www.aifs.gov.au/growingup
Links
Longitudinal Studies of Children
Australia and New Zealand
Australian Temperament Project (ATP)
www.aifs.gov.au/atp
The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) is a longitudinal study of children's development which began in 1983 with the enrolment of a representative sample of over 2,000 infants and their families from urban and rural areas of Victoria. The study investigates pathways to psychosocial adjustment across childhood and adolescence, and the influence of personal, family and environmental factors.
On the Web site: Current progress and activity.
Christchurch Health and Development Study
www.chmeds.ac.nz/research/chds
A New Zealand longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 children born in Christchurch in mid 1977. The children have been studied at birth, four months, 1 year, annual intervals to age 16 and again at 18 and 21. Recent research has focussed on issues relating to the mental health and personal adjustment of cohort members as young adults.
Competent Children, Competent Learners
www.nzcer.org.nz/default.php?cPath=343_76&products_id=134
This longitudinal project of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research tracks the development of a group of children from near 5 through school. It analyses the impact of different experiences and resources on a range of competencies, and what can help narrow the gaps between children.
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study
http://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz
A continuing study of the health and development of 1,037 babies born in Dunedin's Queen Mary Hospital between 1 April 1972 and 31 March 1973. The babies were studied at birth, then followed up and assessed at the age of three, then every two years until the age of fifteen, then again at the age of 18, 21 and most recently, at age 26.
On the Web site: Current research activities, benefits of the research, unique features of the study, future plans.
Life Chances Study
www.bsl.org.au/main.asp?PageId=67#Lifechances
Conducted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Life Chances longitudinal study commenced in 1990 in order to examine the life opportunities and life outcomes of a small group of children born in inner Melbourne. The study looks at the influences of social, economic and environmental factors on children's lives, and compares the lives of children in families on low incomes with those in more affluent circumstances.
On the Web site: Aims and objectives of the study, funding information, publications from the study.
Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its Outcomes (MUSP)
www.ansoc.uq.edu.au/research/projects/musp
The MUSP longitudinal study commenced in 1981 through collaboration of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, South Brisbane, and The University of Queensland. The main focus of the study has been the assessment of health and social outcomes for both mother and child. The study currently spans 21 years. The various waves of the study encompass the prenatal, postnatal, childhood, and adolescent periods of the child, with the current follow-up taking place as the study children reach 21 years of age.
On the Web site: Aims and objectives of the study, variables assessed, the investigators, publications, and, information for participants.
Europe
Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
www.alspac.bristol.ac.uk
Supported by the University of Bristol, ALSPAC originated in the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy & Childhood (ELSPAC). The study's main aim is to understand the ways in which the physical and social environment interact, over time, with genetic inheritance, to affect children's health, behaviour and development. 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992 in the County of Avon, South West England (and their parents) will be followed into adulthood.
On the Web site: Aims and study design (Protocol 7th edition); response rates and biases; data preparation and availability; publications and presentations; collaboration and funding; press releases; ALSPAC questionnaires.
Danish National Longitudinal Study of Children
Young Children in Care Study
These studies are being conducted by the Danish National Institute of Social Research. The National Longitudinal Study of Children born in 1995 is a unique data set designed for analysing the health and development of children as well as the effects of non-institutional sources of learning and institutional welfare efforts. The Young Children in Care study focuses on children from the 1995 cohort who have been placed in care.
European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC)
www.med.muni.cz/elspac/Pages/index_en.html
ELSPAC is a longitudinal, epidemiological study initiated by the World Health Organisation in the 1980s to identify current problems in child health and development, initially in 14 centres located in nine countries. Currently there are 11 centres still continuing to gather data in six countries - the Czech Republic, Greece, Russia, The Isle of Man, Slovakia, Ukraine, UK - County of Avon. Co-ordination and development work is carried out in Bristol at the Institute of Child Health (University of Bristol), which acts as a Central Survey Office.
On the Web site: Details of study participants, the self completion and other questionnaires, outcome measures, exposures, augmentatiion of study design, current status of data collection, and publications resulting from the study.
Growing Up in Ireland
www.growingup.ie
Growing Up in Ireland is a government study that aims is to paint a picture of children in Ireland and how they are developing in the current social, economic and cultural environment. It will measure the factors that affect the well-being of children in Irish families and contribute to the future design of policies and services to ensure all children can have the best possible start in life.
With the first wave of data collection in 2007, the study will take place over seven years and will involve quantitative and qualitative survey-based research and analysis. It will follow the progress of two groups of children: 8000 9-year-olds and 10,000 9-month-olds. During this time there will be two sets of data collection among the children and their families.
On the Web site: Details about the study team, governance of the project, and progress of the research.
Growing Up in Scotland
www.growingupinscotland.org.uk
Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) was launched in 2005 and is following the progress of 2 groups of Scottish children and their families - 5,000 born between June 2004 and May 2005 and 3,000 born between June 2002 and May 2003. GUS has a specific focus on the early years. Families are being interviewed annually until their child is 6.
GUS is funded by the Scottish Government and is being carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research, in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh.
On the web site: Rationale for the study, progress of the research, publications, information for participants, survey design and data documentation.
Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), Centre for Longitudinal Studies
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
In 2001 the first survey of the new Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) was carried out by a consortium headed by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and government departments. The survey gathered information from the parents of 18,796 babies born in the United Kingdom over a 12-month period. The second survey will take place when the children are about 3 years of age.
On the Web site: Rationale for the study; details of the sample; the first and second suveys; the research team; and publications.
National Child Development Study (NCDS), Centre for
Longitudinal Studies
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
NCDS is a continuing, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which takes as its subjects all those living in Great Britain who were born between 3 and 9 March, 1958. To date there have been six attempts to trace all members of the birth cohort in order to monitor their physical, educational, social and economic development.
On the Web site: Background information; documentation; user groups; data dictionary; newsletter and publications, NCDS data.
North America
Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY)
www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4450&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2
The NLSCY is a comprehensive survey designed to examine a variety of factors thought to influence child growth and development. The study is following a representative sample of Canadian children from 0 to 25 years of age, with data collection occurring at two-year intervals.
On the Web site: Objectives, characteristics and survey design, research reports and newsletters online.
Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
http://education.umn.edu/icd/Parent-Child
From the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development, the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children is a study of individual adaptation from birth to adulthood in a sample at risk due to poverty. The study's focus is on social relationship experience, risk factors and protective factors in the development of disturbance, and issues of continuity and change.
On the Web site: Research overview, current activities, publications since 1995, the investigators, contact details.
Simmons Longitudinal Study: Adaptation and Development Across the Lifespan
www.simmons.edu/ssw/sls
Based at the College Graduate School of Social Work, Boston, MA, the Simmons Longitudinal Study (SLS) began in 1976 to follow one group of children entering kindergarten to adulthood. The study began as a broad-based effort to determine behavioural, health, and family factors that identify preschool youth at risk for poor academic performance and adjustment in the early school years. Data on the study group has been collected at 7 different time points, focusing on important developmental stages in childhood, adolescence, and through the transition to adulthood. In 2002 the study group will be revisited for the eighth time as they reach age 30.
On the Web site: Project description and history, what's ahead - current research activities, project personnel, publications - journal articles, book chapters, reports, theses recording the 25 year life of the project.
US Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
www.isr.umich.edu/src/child-development
In 1997, the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan supplemented its core data collection for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) with data on parents and their 0- to 12-year-old children, the Child Development Supplement. The objective of the study is to provide researchers with a comprehensive, nationally representative, and longitudinal data base of children and their families with which to study the dynamic process of early human capital formation.
On the Web site: Details of the research design, questionnaires, data sets, publications (some online), and related child sites.
US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)
http://nces.ed.gov/ecls
The ECLS Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide national data on children's status at birth and at various points thereafter. The study is designed with two overlapping cohorts - selected at birth and kindergarten age, and aims to provide data about the effects of a wide range of family, school, community, and individual variables on children's development, early learning, and early performance in school.
On the Web site: Study brief; data collection; research issues; questionnaires; data products and publications.
US Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN)
www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan
LONGSCAN is a consortium of research studies operating under common by-laws and procedures, initiated in 1990 with grants from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect to a coordinating center at the University of North Carolina and five satellite sites. The goal of LONGSCAN is to follow children and their families until the children themselves become young adults. Comprehensive assessments of children, their parents, and their teachers are scheduled to occur at child ages 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20.
On the Web site: About the study - overview, individual site/sample descriptions, descriptive statistics, structure and organisation; Personnel directory; Measures information; Publications; Links.
US NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
http://public.rti.org/secc
Initiated by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1989, this comprehensive longitudinal study was designed to answer the many questions about the relationship between child care experiences and characteristics and children's developmental outcomes.
On the Web site: Study summary; phase 1 and phase 2 data; publications, contacts.
Other Australian Longitudinal Studies
Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA)
www.cas.flinders.edu.au/sanra/research/proj0020.html
ALSA is a cross-disciplinary prospective study of adults aged 70 years and over that began in Adelaide, Australia in 1992 and is being conducted by the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University. It is a population based bio-psycho-social and behavioural study of 2087 older adults residing in the community and in residential care.
On the Web site: Description of the study; data collection; project researchers; funding.
Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA)
www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey is a major longitudinal panel survey of Australian households to be conducted over a four year period. The primary objective of the HILDA survey is to support research around three inter-related objectives: Income dynamics; Labour market dynamics; and Family dynamics.
On the Web site: Information about survey instruments; respondent information; online discussion papers and conference papers; and links to related studies.
Life at School Project, Australian National University
http://crj.anu.edu.au/menus/submenus/school.php
The Life at School Project is a longitudinal and multidisciplinary study of school bullying and building capacity to regulate safe school communities. The project started in 1996 when 32 primary schools in Canberra were asked to participate in distributing self-completion questionnaires to children and their parents about the quality of school life. The focus of the research was school bullying, who was most likely to be a victim or a perpetrator of bullying, how well were schools dealing with bullying, and what should be done to manage the problem better. Since 1996, versions of the Life at School Survey have been conducted in Bangladesh, Canada and South Korea. In 1999, a follow-up was conducted to investigate status of original children in relation to bullying and victimization. With the latest Wave 3 (2005-2006) data, longitudinal information can now be obtained on continuity and change in children's experiences of bullying and victimization from middle childhood to young adulthood.
On the Web site: Current research activities, publications and other useful documents.
Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA)
www.immi.gov.au/media/research/lsia
The LSIA is the most comprehensive survey of immigrants ever to be undertaken in Australia. To date it has conducted two surveys: LSIA 1 surveyed migrants who arrived in Australia between September 1993 and August 1995; LSIA 2 surveyed migrants who arrived in Australia between September 1999 and August 2000.
On the Web site: Introduction to the LSIA; Description of the LSIA sample; How LSIA data was collected; Topics covered by the LSIA; Sample reports from LSIA 1; Sample reports from LSIA 2; Getting access to LSIA Data; LSIA questionnaires; and Related surveys.
Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY)
www.acer.edu.au/research/LSAY/overview.html
Managed jointly by Australian Council for Educational Research and the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, LSAY is studying the progress of several groups of young Australians as they move from school into post-secondary education and/or work. The oldest group in the project was born in 1961 while the youngest were in Year 9 in 1998. Issues investigated in the LSAY project include school achievement and school completion, participation in vocational and university education and employment.
On the Web site: Study details; briefing papers; Technical reports; Cohort reports; Research reports.
Negotiating the Life Course, Australian National University
http://lifecourse.anu.edu.au
The Negotiating the Life Course Project is designed to study the changing life courses and decision-making processes of Australian men and women as the family and society move from male breadwinner orientation in the direction of higher levels of gender equity.
On the Web site: Current research activities; working papers; data access.
The PATH Through Life Project, Australian National University
www.anu.edu.au/cmhr/path.php
The PATH Through Life Project is a longitudinal study of an adult community sample randomly selected from the Electoral Rolls of Canberra and Queanbeyan. It aims to investigate the causes of three classes of common mental health problems: (1) anxiety and depression (2) alcohol and other substance abuse (3) cognitive functioning and dementia. The project investigates four broad themes that are relevant to each of these problems: ageing vs cohort effects; social, psychological, nutritional and genetic risk factors; and co-morbidity of mental health problems.
On the Web site: Team members; methodology and procedures; additional substudies; preliminary outcomes; research paper online.
Wollongong Youth Study
www.uow.edu.au/health/psyc/gongyouthstudy
The Wollongong Youth Study (WYS) is a longitudinal study of over 800 teenagers in Wollongong, New South Wales and metropolitan Sydney. With the support of the Australian Research Council (2004-2006) and the on-going support of the Wollongong Catholic Diocese, the WYS commenced in 2003 when students entered high school. The broad aim of this research is to identify the key psychological factors that put adolescents at risk of poor emotional, social, behavioural, and academic well-being. Students are surveyed once a year.
On the Web site: Key researchers; Publications.
Women's Health Australia
www.alswh.org.au
The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health commenced in 1995 and is being conducted by researchers from the University of Newcastle in collaboration with the University of Queensland. The Study was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. Women's Health Australia is designed to follow young, mid-age and older women for up to 20 years and will explore factors that promote or reduce health in women who are broadly representative of the whole Australian population.
On the Web site: About the project; the people; current events; publications and presentations; surveys and data; information for participants.
