Australian 7 UP

The first report from a longitudinal study of Australian children (LSAC) was released last week. The study is a $20 million seven-year project funded by the federal government. It studies an initial cohort of 5000 babies aged under 12 months and 5000 four to five year olds selected in 2004 from the Medicare database. The purpose of the study is to better understand the importance of early years of life and how it affects outcomes in later years.

The first report can be downloaded at http://www.aifs.gov.au/growingup/pubs/ar/annualreport2004.pdf . Details of the study are at http://www.aifs.gov.au/growingup/home.html .

The iconic longitudinal study is the UK 7UP film series, the last edition of which studied the original children selected at age 7 in 1962, at age 42 in 1997. See http://www.paulalmond.com/7up.html . Some caution is needed in wide interpretation of these studies, as 7UP participants were selected with studier?s preferences and participation in the LSAC is voluntary. A radio talk back program (Sally Loan ABC) on the LSAC had an archaeologist and a psychologist as the first two participant parents who voluntarily rang up when invited to comment (positively) on the Australian study.

FinDem has added a link to longitudinal studies on the links page under Demographic Organisations and Data Sources. We also note that the next Census in 2007 will have a longitudinal component added to allow links between Census years. You can tread more about this at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/b623ba52d01116f0ca256fee007a5adf

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