AIFS Research - Research projects

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Family Law Reform Evaluation (and associated longitudinal research)

In response to the Australian Government report, Every Picture Tells a Story (2003), a new family law system was introduced in Australia on 1 July 2006.  To assist with the Government’s evaluation of the family law reform, the Institute was commissioned to develop an evaluation framework and methodology, collect baseline data and undertake key components of the evaluation.

Evaluation of the reforms

A document outlining the framework for the evaluation and a draft outline of the broad methodology was prepared in 2006 and early 2007. The research program for the evaluation of the family law reforms comprised three separate projects (each including a number of separate studies) that were designed to measure the impact of the changes in both broad and specific ways. The three projects focused on:

The projects tracked the impact of key themes in the package - the sharing of parenting responsibilities, child safety and child focus - on the practices and attitudes of parents, service system providers and legal system players.

A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods using multiple data sources was applied across the evaluation.

Some aspects of the research program were built on baseline research that was conducted by the Institute in order to allow pre- and post-reform package comparisons to be drawn. Others are being conducted on a longitudinal basis, allowing the impact of the reforms to be assessed as they unfold.

The final evaluation report, Evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms, was released on 28 January 2010.

Rae Kaspiew, Matthew Gray, Ruth Weston, Lawrie Moloney, Kelly Hand, Lixia Qu and the Family Law Evaluation Team

 

Family Pathways: The Longitudinal Study of Separated Families

Family Pathways: The Longitudinal Study of Separated Families explores questions about separation and caring for children when a relationship ends. In Wave 1, which was conducted between August and October 2008, information was collected from some 10,000 parents who separated after the introduction of the reforms in July 2006. This information provided a picture of what life like for families some 15 months after parental separation. Findings from Wave 1 of this study contributed strongly to the Institute's evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms.

Around 7,030 of these parents were re-interviewed in September-December 2009 and a subsequent Research Report published in early 2011 outlined findings from both Waves 1 and 2. The report highlights, among other issues, the extent to which children’s care-time arrangements, the quality of relationships between parents, and parents' views of their child's wellbeing had changed; family law system pathways adopted in finalising or changing arrangements after Wave 1; and factors linked with any changes in care-time arrangements, the quality of inter-parental relationships and apparent wellbeing of the children.

Planning for a third wave of the study is under way. The information collected will enhance understanding of the diverse ways in which post-separation circumstances and wellbeing of parents and children unfold in the longer term and identify factors that help explain such diversity.

Family Pathways: The Adolescent Study

Family Pathways: The Adolescent Study focuses on the experiences and opinions of young people whose parents separated after the introduction of the reforms in July 2006. The study complements the longitudinal study by recruiting children of the parents who participated in the first wave of the Longitudinal Study of Separated Families.

Interviews with young people aged 12-18 years were conducted between October and November 2009 and sought to capture young people's views about the changes in their families.

 

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