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Productivity outcomes appear to be most frequently described as associated withsocioeconomic status of the family (parental income and asset base) and parentalinvolvement at school. As noted by Ermisch (2008), these factors are associated witha greater probability of parents engaging with their children more.Social/criminality outcomes were most frequently described in the context of the qualityof the relationship between the parents as well as the level of bonding between theparents and children. Factors such as the length of time the biological father remainedin the family home, number of changes of parents, parental conflict, and poor socialbehaviours by the parents (criminality, alcoholism and illicit drug use) were all shown tobe associated with a greater likelihood of criminality by children.2.2 LONGITUDINAL CHILD AND YOUTH STUDIESA number of longitudinal Australian as well as international studies of children and youthhave either been completed or are currently underway with available interim results (Table2-8). Large longitudinal studies offer the potential to specifically measure the impacts of FFon a range of social, health and economic outcomes on the child as well as the family.‘Longitudinal data are essential to answer many of the questions facing policymakers and researchers today. We know that the roots of many problems inadolescence and adulthood can be found in early childhood. The study willprovide data tracking children over time, to help researchers to understand how,why and when children embark on pathways to adaptive and maladaptiveoutcomes and where the opportunities are to help children move onto betterpathways’ (Sanson et al, 2002).Controlling potential confounding variables enables an analysis of causal impacts. However,not all child and youth related longitudinal studies collected data on FF. Some studiescollected FF information that corresponded to a number of aspects of the family environment,but did not include any specific measures of FF.In addition to this are considerations about the ease of access to data records. A number ofthe studies listed in Table 2-8 are from private research groups or otherwise not in the publicdomain. Access to these data records will require specific information requests to theresearch organisation. Costs will likely be associated with data provision, if it is permitted.International differences between social, policy and economic environments mean thatAustralian data are strongly preferred. That said, Björklund et al (2006) found that estimatesof the negative relationship between living in a non-intact family and child outcomes wereremarkably similar between the USA and Sweden (two countries with significantly differentsocial and policy structures). If Australian data sources do not provide the informationrequired, international data sources could be examined for their ability to provide appropriateinformation, however this scoping study has only analysed the appropriateness of theidentified Australian databases: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) – Section 2.2.1; the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth (LSAY) – Section 2.2.2; the Australian Temperament Project (ATP) – Section 2.2.3; and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) study –Section 2.2.4.25