Is headspace making a difference to young people’s lives?

Appendix C
on the mental health and wellbeing of Australian young people. YMM is a follow up of the first
survey conducted in 1998 (Sawyer et al., 2000). YMM aims to provide information regarding the
prevalence and nature of mental health problems and disorders in Australian young people, degree
of impairment associated with mental health problems, services used by young people and the role
of the education sector in providing services for students with mental health problems. YMM was
based on a population representative sample of over 6,000 children and young people aged between
4 and 17 years. Information was collected from parents using household based interviewing. If the
study child was 11 years or older, and parent and child consent was given, additional information was
collected directly from the young person.
‘Counterfactual’ survey young people aged 18-25 (Colmar-Brunton)
The intention of this component is to capture a diversity of young people by demographic and
geographic factors and a reasonable sample of young people experiencing comparable mental health
problems to the headspace sample (based on one-in-four 18-25 year-olds experiencing a mental
health problem in any given year).
Colmar-Brunton has undertaken the data collection for this comparison group. An initial sample of
2,000 young people aged 18-25 years was targeted. The survey collection achieved a first wave
sample of 2,119 young people. Wave 2 has also been completed with a sample size of 1,005. The
overall attrition rate of this data collection is 52%, which is higher than originally expected for this age
group, who are known to be particularly challenging to survey.
Work is being undertaken to understand any patterns or biases in those who did not complete wave
2, and the project team is assessing ways to compensate for both the level of attrition and those
more likely to drop out.
Summary information on young people surveys
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