Summary Report - pdf - Department of Families, Housing ...

This report uses a measure called the Level of RelativeIsolation (LORI) 1 to describe the geographicalcharacteristics of families in the study. In remote areassuch as the Kimberley region, the Torres Strait Islandsand the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA), families wereliving wholly in areas of moderate or high to extremeisolation. However, the Northern Territory Top End, AliceSprings, Mount Isa and remote Western Queensland sitescontained a mixture of areas of low, moderate and highto extreme levels of isolation. All the other remaining siteswere made up of areas of no or low levels of isolation.Unless specifically stated, percentages provided in thisreport are based on the numbers of responses and donot include the numbers of participants who refused toanswer a question or responded that they did not know.For most variables, the number of missing responses wasvery low (less than five). The number of respondents isprovided in cases where the number of missing variablesmay make a significant difference.This report’s findings are presented in two parts. Part Acontains short articles which provide an annual updateon the changes that have occurred in the three mainareas measured each wave: the child, the family andthe community. While the survey is about the childrenand their development as they move along thepath to adulthood, to understand their developmentit is important to look at the environment in whichthese changes are happening namely, their familiesand communities.Part B of the report contains longer feature articlesexploring the relationships between factors in thechildren’s development and the world in which they live.Study terminology and definitionsChild (or plural children)—the sampling unit of the Footprints in Time study. Children are Aboriginal or Torres StraitIslander children. The study follows two cohorts of children: the B cohort and the K cohort.B cohort—the younger group of study children. Most children in this cohort were aged from six months to 2 years inwave 1, 1½ to 3 years in wave 2 and 2½ to 4 years in wave 3.K cohort—the older group of study children. Most children in this cohort were aged 3½ to 5 years in wave 1, 4½ to6 years in wave 2, and 5½ to 7 years in wave 3.Parent—refers specifically to the child’s biological, foster or step parent. The term should not be taken to have thesame meaning as primary carer.Primary carer is defined as the primary caregiver of the child who knows the child best. In most cases, the primarycarer is the child’s biological mother but in some cases it is the child’s father or another guardian.LORI (Level of Relative Isolation) is a classification of remoteness indicating the relative distance of localities frompopulation centres of various sizes. LORI has five categories: none (urban), low, moderate, high and extreme. Inthis report the last two categories are combined as numbers in these areas are small. This report uses LORI ratherthan ARIA, as LORI has been designed to take account of Indigenous language and other culturally specificgeographic characteristics.Wave is the period of data collection. The Footprints in Time study has three waves of data available for analysis.The waves are conducted approximately one year apart. Wave 1 was collected primarily in 2008, wave 2 in 2009and wave 3 in 2010.1 For more information about LORI refer to Zubrick et al. (2004).8 Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children | Key Summary Report from Wave 3