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

IntroductionFootprints in Time is the name given to the LongitudinalStudy of Indigenous Children (LSIC), an initiative of theAustralian Government. Footprints in Time is conducted bythe Department of Families, Housing, Community Servicesand Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) under the guidanceof the Footprints in Time Steering Committee, chairedby Professor Mick Dodson AM. The study aims to improvethe understanding of, and policy response to, the diversecircumstances faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderchildren, their families and communities.This report is the third in a series of key summary reportsproduced for each wave of the data collection. The reportprovides a descriptive analysis of key findings for wave 3.Further information about the study, including the fieldwork,is available at Appendix A of this report. Readers may wishto refer to the first two reports for more detailed informationabout the developmental phase of the study and for resultsfrom waves 1 and 2.Important notes on reading this reportThis report is meant only to provide a descriptive analysisof the data on a broad range of subjects. It encompassesa large number of topics to demonstrate the richnessof the data available for research. As such, each articleonly skims the surface of the potential research that ispossible and readers may find that the report raises morequestions than it answers.Analysis for this report is based on the “beta” or preliminaryversion of the dataset. Using the final release of thedataset may provide slightly different results.The report has been written by non-Indigenous analystswithin the Department of Families, Housing, CommunityServices and Indigenous Affairs. While every effort hasbeen made to interpret the data within Indigenouscontexts, there may be instances where a greaterunderstanding of Indigenous cultures might aidinterpretation. We strongly encourage potential data usersto draw on the strengths of an interdisciplinary approachwith Indigenous collaborators.As you read this report, it is important to bear in mind thecontext in which the data is collected. Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander children are the sample units in thisstudy. Some data is collected directly from the childrenbut this was limited in the early waves. Direct collection willincrease as the children become older.The children are divided into two cohorts: the B cohortand the K cohort. The original intended age of thechildren for wave 3 was 30 to 42 months (2½ to 3½ years)for the B cohort and 66 to 78 months (5½ to 6½ years) forthe K cohort. In practice, however, the B cohort consistsof children born in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and the K cohortconsists of children born in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Thismeans that most of the B cohort was 2½ to 4 years old(87.5 per cent) and the K cohort was 5½ to 7 years old(85.8 per cent) in wave 3.In wave 3, 813 children were interviewed for the B cohortand 591 children were interviewed for the K cohort,bringing the total study sample to 1,404. Unless otherwisestated, only those children interviewed for wave 3 of thestudy are referred to.The majority of information was collected by Indigenousinterviewers from the ’primary carer’ and includesinformation about both the child and the family contextin which they live. In wave 1 the primary carer was theperson who had primary responsibility for the care ofthe child. Although this was the mother in 91.9 per centof cases, it was sometimes the father, another relative ora foster carer. In all three waves, the same person wasinterviewed as the primary carer only if they continued tohave significant caring responsibilities for the child. About3 to 4 per cent of children had different primary carersfrom the previous interview. As you read this report, it isimportant to bear in mind that the term ‘primary carer’has a broader meaning than parent.The demographics of the sample are thereforevery different from those of many other surveysabout Indigenous people. The primary carers werepredominantly women with an average age of about32, looking after young children. Although all the childrenwere Indigenous, about 16.0 per cent of primary carers inwave 3 were not.Researchers may well be able to gather informationusing other datasets for many of the data items availablein Footprints in Time. However, as a longitudinal survey,Footprints in Time provides a unique opportunity tofollow the development of a group of children andexamine the factors contributing to their individual andcollective outcomes.The data is not meant to provide a comparisonbetween Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.The Footprints in Time sample was not selected tobe representative of the Indigenous population andthere are no weights to adjust for this. For example, theFootprints in Time sample has a higher proportion ofpeople living in areas of high or extreme isolation thanis the case in the total Indigenous population. In 2008,the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander SocialSurvey (NATSISS) (ABS 2009) found that 68 per cent of theIndigenous population was living outside major cities,44 per cent in regional areas and 24 per cent in remoteand very remote areas. By comparison, 73.25 per centof Footprints in Time participants were living outsidemajor cities, with 39.5 per cent in regional areas and33.7 per cent in remote or very remote areas. It is thereforenot always appropriate to make comparisons and thesehave been kept to a minimum. However, some have beenincluded to highlight differences or similarities betweenthe Footprints in Time population and the generalpopulation. Others are provided to enable comparisonsof the Footprints in Time sample with data from otherIndigenous surveys to provide an indication of how closelythe results align with those of other studies.Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children | Key Summary Report from Wave 37