The following information provides a brief overview of the characteristics of Footprints in Time Study children.
While the full value of a longitudinal survey, such as Footprints in Time, is only realised in later waves of the study, the Wave 1 data does provide a snapshot of a wide range of information about Indigenous children and their families. The information below provides a sample of the data including:
- family structure and housing
- household finances
- cultural identity
- health and development
- activities
- parenting
- stressful life events
- environmental factors
The findings reported here are based on Wave 1 interviews conducted with the primary carer of the Study child, known as Parent 1 (P1). P1 is identified at the start of the interview as the adult family member who spends the most time with the Study child. In most instances (96 per cent) this was a parent 9, usually the mother (93 per cent). In 50 instances (3 per cent) the primary carer was a grandparent and in 39 cases (2 per cent) fathers identified themselves as the main carer of the child. The following information uses ‘parent’ to refer to the primary carer of the child (P1), unless otherwise specified. Analyses exclude data with missing values.