Key Summary Report from Wave 1  

Overview

Footprints in Time is the name given to the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). Footprints in Time aims to improve the understanding of, and policy response to, the diverse circumstances faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, their families and communities. The study provides a data resource that can be drawn on by all levels of government, researchers, service providers, parents and communities.

The study collects important information about the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, covering areas including:

• the children—their physical and mental health, how they develop socially and cognitively, their place in their family and community, and significant events in their life
• the children’s families—their health, work, lifestyle, and family and community connectedness
• the children’s communities—facilities, services, and social and community issues
• services—child care, education, health and other services used by the child’s family.

Objective of the study

The main objective of the study is to provide high quality quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to provide a better insight into how a child’s early years affect their development. It is hoped that this information can be drawn upon to help close the gap in life circumstances between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Footprints in Time has four key research questions, formulated under the guidance of the Steering Committee, which were designed to achieve this objective. These are:

• What do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children need to have the best start in life to grow up strong?
• What helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to stay on track or get them to become healthier, more positive and strong?
• How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children raised?
• What is the importance of family, extended family and community in the early years of life and when growing up?

Also of interest is the role that service use and support plays in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children:

• How can services and other types of support make a difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children?

The data will provide information for individuals, families, communities, service providers, researchers and governments to design and implement culturally appropriate policies and programs that will assist with improving outcomes for Indigenous children.

Based on extensive consultations held with communities and advice from the Footprints in Time Steering Committee, some key priorities for Footprints in Time were set. Firstly, it was considered important that the study be community-based in order to gain support from families and minimise attrition. FaHCSIA is also committed to providing feedback to communities as well as the families involved in the study; ensuring that information is distributed in different ways so as to be understood by the range of stakeholders interested in the study’s data.

Both the Steering Committee and the communities consulted were also keen to ensure that Footprints in Time is relevant, useful and leads to change. It was recognised that the study needed to encompass qualitative as well as quantitative evidence, and that it should also focus on resilience and positive factors, in order to balance the negative impressions of Indigenous peoples’ lives.

Timelines

The 2003–04 Federal Budget provided the initial resources for the Footprints in Time study. The first phase, from September 2003 to June 2004, involved extensive consultation with Indigenous peoples and communities about the study. The design and development of the study commenced in December 2005, with pilot testing continuing through 2006 and 2007. Recruitment for Wave 1 commenced in December 2007 with interviews occurring from April 2008 to February 2009. It is intended under the current project that children and their families will be interviewed at yearly intervals until 2011. Wave 2 data collection is currently underway. ¹

Who is involved?

Footprints in Time is funded by the Australian Government and managed by FaHCSIA. There are 1,687 Study children and their families participating in the study.

The Footprints in Time (LSIC) Steering Committee oversees the design, development and implementation of the study. Its members are drawn from academic and community backgrounds, covering a wide range of disciplines such as health, early learning and child care. The role of the Steering Committee is to provide advice on:

• the research model design and implementation
• community engagement processes and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and peoples
• ethical and cultural protocols
• data analysis, interpretation and reporting
• the use of the data to improve policy and service delivery.

The Footprints in Time Steering Committee saw a need for expert advice to feed into the study. Accordingly, a Research Design Subcommittee was convened in 2004 to ensure that the study provided high quality information to underpin research and policy development. This committee merged with the Steering Committee in 2007. The role of the Research Design Subcommittee was to provide advice in regard to:

• ethical and cultural protocols associated with the study design
• study options for the survey design that support the research objectives and questions
• implementation of the study design
• data ownership, use and knowledge transfer issues
• processes for consulting with Indigenous communities and peoples, and seeking their support of the study design
• the nature of the study’s relationship with the design of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). ²

With the imminent release of Wave 1 data, in 2009 a Data Protocol Subcommittee was convened to work in partnership with FaHCSIA on culturally appropriate principles for data access and release.

In February 2009, the focus of the Steering Committee changed from design to implementation and membership was reviewed.

Strategic guidance and leadership on future content, operation and analysis of Footprints in Time is also provided by the Longitudinal Studies Advisory Group (LSAG). The primary objective of the LSAG is to provide advice to the LSAC, Footprints in Time and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) studies and thereby assist in maximising their strategic importance to the Australian Government

The first wave of interviews was conducted primarily by FaHCSIA-employed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Administration Officers (RAOs). Some Wave 1 interviews were conducted by other FaHCSIA staff and experienced Roy Morgan research interviewers.

Ethics

Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC) which was chosen as the primary Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) for the study. The DEC complies with the membership requirements for HRECs—the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research—and has an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Member. There is also an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander panel working with the DEC to assist with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research applications.

In addition, state/territory and/or regional ethics clearance and support was obtained for all Footprints in Time sites through state and territory HRECs or their equivalents (in accordance with The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), 2003 and Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) guidelines). State and territory departments of education and Catholic dioceses were also consulted to gain permission and support for pre-school and school teachers to complete questionnaires about the Study children. State and territory departments managing out-of-home care were also consulted.

Study sites

A non-representative purposive sampling design was implemented from which eligible families were approached and voluntary consent obtained.

Footprints in Time focuses on 11 sites (see Box 1) chosen, in part, to cover the range of socioeconomic and community environments where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children live. Agreement and approval to participate in the study was sought from communities and Elders in these sites before research within the communities began.

The Footprints in Time sites were chosen to:

• ensure approximately equal representation of urban, regional and remote areas, thus enabling some geographical comparison
• represent the concentration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around Australia
• include a substantial Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in the core and surrounding areas
• include locations engaged in the pilot of the study where existing relationships could be built upon
• be located near an Indigenous Coordination Centre (ICC), if possible, where RAOs could be based.
  

Sample

Footprints in Time was designed to select approximately 150 children in each of the 11 sites, providing a sample of 1,650 children. As Indigenous children comprise 4.8 per cent of the Australian population, this means the study would have included around 6 per cent of all Indigenous children in each cohort. As such, most interviewers were required to find a large proportion of the total number of eligible children in each site and these children were spread across a wide geographical area, usually within a predominantly non-Indigenous population. An exception to this were remote areas where the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was high but the population numbers, particularly within the targeted age ranges, were low. Due to difficulties in sample recruitment related to small resident populations and geographic spread, for some sites it was not possible to find sufficient numbers of children to meet the study’s targets. In other sites the number of eligible children was in excess of the required sample.

Table 1 presents the final sample size achieved per site, while Figure 1 shows the geographic spread of Study children.

Figure 1: Footprints in Time sample distribution

Figure 1 description:This diagram depicts the geographic spread of the Study children across Australia. These study sites are: Northern Territory Top End, South East Queensland, South Coast NSW, Mt Isa, Mornington, Doomadgee, Normanton, Western Sydney, Dubbo, Greater Shepparton, Torres Strait Islands and Northern Peninsula area, Kimberly Region, Adelaide, Alice Springs and some surrounding communities.

Sample eligibility and selection

The reference population was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in Australia and born between December 2003 and November 2004 (Child cohort), and between December 2006 and November 2007 (Baby cohort). The initial aim was to interview parents and carers of 3½ to 4½ year old children (Child cohort) and of 6 to 18 month old babies (Baby cohort) with the goal of achieving an equal number of study participants in each cohort. However, the extended fieldwork collection period and the wishes of some families to be included in the study, has meant that the age ranges vary considerably from the target ages. Table 2 describes the spread of age ranges of children included in the study.

After the study sites were selected and initial consultation with communities indicated support for the study, Medicare and Centrelink records ⁴were used to create lists of children in the target age ranges based on site postcodes. ⁵Although there is considerable overlap in the Medicare and Centrelink records, the evaluation of the pilot study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicated that Medicare records improved coverage considerably. Children were also recruited through word-of-mouth, both through local knowledge provided by RAOs and through recommendations made by other Study families.

Promotion of the study occurred through community engagement events such as National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week and one-on-one consultation with communities and government and non-government service providers. This promotion also assisted in obtaining children for the sample.

Study development and testing

The study content was developed with input from the Research Design Subcommittee. It was based on extensive consultations with urban, regional and remote Indigenous communities, organisations and service providers across Australia. ⁶The overriding goal of consultations was to ensure the design of the research reflected the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities and service providers and that the data would genuinely benefit the children and their families.

Based on these consultations, as well as research from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (for example, Zubrick et al. 2003), the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Social Survey (ABS 2002) and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (ABS 2004-05) draft questionnaires were developed.

Piloting of qualitative interviews and a community engagement strategy was conducted from September 2004 to December 2005 in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) and in the ACT Metro/Queanbeyan region. A report from these trial ⁷is available from the FaHCSIA website (http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/lsic)

Piloting of the design, sampling strategy and Wave 1 survey content was undertaken in partnership with the ABS. The ABS tested the questionnaire and field procedures in the first pilot sites in 2006. A number of content areas were adapted to ensure that respondents were providing the information being sought by revising question wording, and by adding and removing questions before testing the questionnaires and field procedures again in 2007.

Initially six full-time Indigenous RAOs were employed and trained to manage the community engagement activities for the pilot research, including consent processes, data collection and dissemination of information in pilot communities.

A qualitative research strategy was piloted again in 2006. This involved interviews with a number of survey participants who agreed to be re-contacted after the first quantitative collection. Interviews were also held with Indigenous parents engaged in a South Australian family home visiting program.

Research design

Footprints in Time employs a mixed methods approach, as follows:

• quantitative information is collected directly about a range of information in relation to the Study children, their primary and auxiliary carers, and teachers using structured interview questionnaires
• qualitative information, where possible, is recorded on the ‘stories’ and life incidents of the family of the Study children.

The main quantitative data collection for Wave 1 was a structured face-to-face interview with the parent who knew the child best (Parent 1). Information collected in the interview included household, family, pregnancy and birth details, health conditions, nutrition, child care, early education and activities undertaken. Information was also collected about parent health, social and emotional wellbeing, resilience, major life events in the previous year, language, culture, employment, income, and financial stress. Copies of questionnaires are available on the FaHCSIA website.(www.fahcsia.gov.au/lsic).

Information about the Study child’s development was also collected, which will be available at a later date. This included, for the Baby cohort an Australian version of the McArthur-Bates vocabulary checklist ⁸completed by Parent 1. For the Child cohort these were the Renfrew word finding vocabulary test, an assessment of expressive vocabulary, and the Who Am I?, a school readiness instrument. Height and weight measurements were taken for both cohorts.

With parental or guardian permission, face-to-face interviews were conducted with the Study child’s other parent or another carer (Parent 2). Questionnaires were also given to children’s teachers or child care providers to complete.

Consent process

The process for gathering consent from the Study child, their family, teachers and carers forms an integral part of the study.

Prior to being interviewed, parents were provided with an introductory letter and a DVD describing the study and the consent process. At the interview RAOs went through each consent form with the participant/s and explained what permission was being sought. This enabled parents to make informed consent about their participation in the study. A plain language statement was also available for parents who preferred to read about the study. Parents gave consent on behalf of the Study child.

As well as seeking permission to take part in the study participants were separately asked for consent to:

• be voice recorded for the interview
• allow the other parent or another carer to be interviewed
• allow the child’s teacher or child care worker to be contacted
• allow the Study child to be photographed
• allow Medicare to release the Study child’s records for data linkage.

At the conclusion of the consent process participants were given a summary sheet that recorded what they had agreed to. This sheet included contact details for the ethics committee and FaHCSIA. Participants were informed that they could change their consent and are able to withdraw from the study at any time.

Wave 1 response

Interviews were conducted with the parents/main carers of 1,850 Indigenous children. Of these, 163 interviews were gathered from the parent/main carer of multiple children in the study, mainly siblings. Where this occurred one child was chosen as the Study child, leaving a final sample size of 1,687 study children.

Decisions on which sibling to select were based predominantly on whether one of the children was in the target age range at the time of the interview. Preference was given to selecting the younger child if both children fell into appropriate age ranges. If the children were twins, one child was randomly selected.

The final study data included information from:

• 1,687 parents or primary carers of an Indigenous child.
  – 960 Study children were in the Baby cohort, approximately 6–18 months old
  – 727 were in the Child cohort, approximately 3 years 6 months to 4 years 6 months old
• Approximately 1,500 Study child questionnaires, which included information on language, height and weight
• Approximately 240 interviews with the secondary carer (Parent 2)
• Approximately 45 questionnaires collected from teachers, child care centres or family day care providers.

Sample characteristics

Although not a nationally representative study, the distribution of children in the Footprints in Time sample is relatively consistent with the distribution of ABS estimates of the numbers of Indigenous children aged 0 to 5 years across Australia. The proportion of children in the study who are Aboriginal (as opposed to Torres Strait Islander or both) also reflects estimates of proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in the study sites. There are approximately equal numbers of male and female children.

Table 3 provides a summary of selected characteristics of the sample. To assist in the assessment of the representativeness of the sample, comparative (previously unpublished) population data from the ABS Experimental Indigenous Estimated Residential Population (2006) is provided.

Apart from the lack of representation from the two smaller jurisdictions (Tasmania and the ACT), the spread of Footprints in Time Study children is similar to that of the overall estimated population of Indigenous children aged between 0 and 5 years. The Study children are under-represented in South Australia, slightly over-represented in Victoria and Western Australia, and moderately over-represented in the Northern Territory.

In terms of remoteness, the study has an over-representation of children in the inner regional, remote and very remote areas and an under-representation of children in major cities and outer regional areas. The remoteness figures in this table are based on the Australian Standard Geographical Classification used by the ABS. This classification is necessary when comparing study data with ABS data. Elsewhere in this report, an indicator of the level of relative isolation (LORI) is used when describing geographic characteristics.

Notes: Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

1. Data relates to the Study child.
2. Data sourced from unpublished Experimental Indigenous estimated residential population, June 2006 (Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006. ABS data available on request).
3. The total does not include 1 record with a missing value.

1. See Future directions and acceess to data for more information about Wave 2 and 3.2
2. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is the first longitudinal study of Australian children as they grow up. Data are being collected from two cohorts every two years. The first cohort of 5,000 children was aged 0–1 years in 2003–4 and the second cohort comprising 5,000 children was aged 4–5 years in 2003–4. Study informants include the child (when of an appropriate age) and their parents, carers and teachers.
3. Some interviews were mistakenly completed in the wrong cohort. Parents of these children will be interviewed with the correct cohort interview in subsequent waves.
4. Medicare and Centrelink information was provided to FaHCSIA under strict guidelines concerning the use, privacy and security of the information.
5. The use of these records was restricted to those families who identified their children as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander on their Medicare and Centrelink registration. Such self-identification is voluntary and some families choose not to identify their children in this way.
6. A report summarising those consultations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander views on research in their communities, (Professor Robyn Penman, FaHCSIA Occasional Paper No. 16) was published in 2006.
7. FaHCSIA Occasional Paper No. 17 (2006) Growing up in the Torres Strait region: A report from the Footprints in Time trials, Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health (CRCAH) in collaboration with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (TICHR) and FaCSIA.
8. The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory.