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The future of the HILDA Survey

Professor Mark Wooden, Director of the HILDA Survey, Melbourne Institute, opened the discussion with a review of the survey, including the survey’s current achievements and future challenges. A number of challenges were identified.

Competition over space

Since HILDA commenced in 2001, the survey has collected information on a wide range of topics including retirement; health insurance; youth; intentions and plans; and non co-residential relationships. There has also been development of new question sequences on work-related training, visa category, disability, leave from work, parents’ education, literacy and numeracy, diet and smoking.

The success of HILDA means that competition for space in the survey is increasing and there is a need to carefully balance continuity with past topics, while allowing space for new research interests.

Maintaining respondent cooperation

As a panel survey, HILDA follows an initial sample of people over an indefinite period of time. Maintaining respondent cooperation and response rates is crucial for the survey’s effectiveness and success. In Wave 6, 76.2 per cent of those individuals originally interviewed in Wave 1 who were still in-scope for Wave 6 were re-interviewed. However, only 8,864 of the 13,969 original respondents have been interviewed in all six waves. In addition to tracking respondents, threats to retaining the sample in the HILDA Survey include respondent boredom (the ‘I’ve done my bit’ factor), perceptions about the study’s value, and rising concerns about privacy. Possible solutions to minimise these issues are being trialled.

Privacy

One of the major challenges for the HILDA Survey is maintaining the balance between ensuring respondent privacy and making the data available in a useful format for researchers. There is reluctance by respondents to provide certain types of information especially financial information. The survey must continue to ensure that good research practice does not conflict with ethics and privacy.

Maintaining sample representativeness

The HILDA Survey was designed to be nationally representative and maintaining sample representativeness is a priority for the survey. A major issue for the HILDA Survey sample is that there has been very limited opportunity for immigrants arriving in the country, and Australians returning to live in Australia, to join the panel after the Wave 1 sample households were selected.

Representativeness can be maintained by general sample top-up or through a targeted immigrant top-up. A targeted immigrant top-up is difficult to construct in a rigorous way and more costly per respondent added to the sample. The general sample top-up is more straightforward to implement but may not generate a sufficient number of new arrivals. On other hand, a general top-up has the advantage of capturing other groups such as single mothers, Indigenous Australians, unemployed and young people, whose representativeness in the survey has been lost as a result of high attrition. One solution may be a hybrid of these approaches.

New technology

Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) technology was trialled by a small group of interviewers during Wave 7. This method allows interviewers to enter responses directly into a laptop, which then prompts the next question based on the response. CAPI also inspires confidence in the study from respondents. Although some problems have been identified with this method, it is anticipated that these can be overcome with time and this new technology will be introduced in future waves.

International perspectives

The panel discussion provided an opportunity to hear about some of the challenges faced by international panels collecting similar data to HILDA.

The prevention of diseases like cardiovascular illness and diabetes have become important global issues and panel surveys are able to provide a clear picture of how these diseases develop over time. Professor Richard Burkhauser from Cornell University (US) stressed the importance of engaging biology (DNA) theories and physiologists in the future. This would enable panels such as HILDA to compare subjective measures of health (for example, self-reported height, weight and diet) with objective health measures (for example, measured height, weight, blood pressure and lung capacity, physical functioning, bodily fluids like saliva for DNA, blood, and cortisol measures of stress).

A number of established panels are already making forays in this direction. The USA Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) will use some of these measures in its next wave. The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) also intends to collect bio-markers and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) is already doing this.

Panel surveys also provide a great opportunity for intergenerational research. Dr Joachim Frick, GSOEP, discussed the importance of using survey instruments to capture the life course from conception through to death and post-death. For example, these later two points in the life course could trigger questionnaires, using event specific instruments, to evaluate the effect of memories and widow(er) pensions. Dr Frick also discussed some of the challenges that the GSOEP faced over its 20 year history, including:

• maintaining a representative panel survey—this was addressed through the inclusion of sub-samples of migrants, high-income households, low-income households and institutionalised households.
• shedding light on unobserved heterogeneity—this was addressed by incorporating measurements of health, personality traits, cognitive ability, and biomarkers and brain scans for selected individuals.
• fostering the life course and intergenerational research—this has been done through the use of age-specific and event-specific research instruments.

Conclusion

Although the HILDA survey is relatively young it has the advantage of learning from more established panels surveys like the BHPS, PSID and GSOEP and has a promising future. With five releases of data now available, HILDA data has contributed to a range of Australian Government policy initiatives and has been used extensively as a social research tool for academic, government and international researchers. Future waves will continue to provide important information on a range of issues relevant to how Australians live.

Presentations by Professor Mark Wooden and Dr Joachim Frick for this discussion can be downloaded from the Melbourne Institute website.

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HILDA Survey research conference July 2007

The third HILDA Survey research conference was held at the University of Melbourne on 19–20 July. You can read more about the conference in this edition of FaCSIA Research News.

PanelWhiz

Dr Markus Hahn from RWI Essen, Germany, gave presentations on PanelWhiz during July. PanelWhiz is a collection of Stata/SE Add-On scripts to make using panel data sets, such as HILDA, easier. Among other features, it allows the user to select vectors of variables at once and the matching and merging is done automatically. Canberra-based users of the HILDA data and FaCSIA staff had the opportunity to discuss PanelWhiz with Dr Hahn following a presentation at FaCSIA National Office on 25 July. For more information, visit the PanelWhiz website.

Wave 5 data available for research

Since its release in February 2007, HILDA Wave 5 data has been provided to more users than any previous wave.

As at 31 July 2007 there were 139 Australian academic researchers, 33 Australian students and 112 Australian Government users of HILDA Wave 5 data. Additionally there are 38 overseas users of the data, 16 of whom use the HILDA Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF).

Wave 6 update

Wave 6 data is scheduled for release in February 2008. Topics covered include: wealth; home loan repayments and refinancing; housing; household expenditure; social capital; height and weight; and financial risk preference.

The survey instruments used for Wave 6 are available on the HILDA website.

Wave 7 update

Interviewing for Wave 7 commenced in August 2007. Wave 7 covers a range of topics including: retirement and transitions to retirement; literacy, numeracy and financial literacy; work-related training; diet; mental health; smoking; and social support at work.

The final versions of the Wave 7 survey instruments are available on the HILDA website.

Wave 8 update

Wave 8 content development is currently underway. A key feature of Wave 8 is the re-inclusion of questions on household formation and fertility.

Data access

Researchers wishing to obtain the data can download the application form and applicable licence from the HILDA website at the address given below. Information about accessing HILDA-CNEF can also be found on the website.

FaCSIA staff wishing to apply for access to HILDA data can obtain the necessary application package, including an IT systems access form, from the FaCSIA HILDA intranet site.

Further information

Enquiries about the HILDA Survey should be directed, in the first instance, to the HILDA website,
or to Dr Annette Neuendorf (Research and Analysis Branch), tel (02) 6244 7592 or email annette.neuendorf@facsia.gov.au

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Wave 1

Wave 1 data was collected in 2004 and released in May 2005.

In 2006, information from the Medicare Australia (MA) database was linked to the LSAC dataset for those LSAC children whose parents consented. The linked MA data was obtained from the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) database and the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR). Data includes Medicare benefits received, service provided in a hospital, PBS benefits received, immunisation data, and so on.

Wave 1.5

Wave 1.5 involved the mail out of a short questionnaire to LSAC participants in June 2005. Issues explored in this survey included child behaviour, health and child care. Data was also collected on parental leave for the infant cohort.

Wave 1.5 quantitative data was released in late 2006.

Wave 2

The Wave 2 data collection was completed in early 2007. The Australian Bureau of Statistics undertook the fieldwork for Wave 2, achieving a 91 per cent response rate.

Wave 2 data was released in August 2007.

Wave 2.5

The Wave 2.5 mail back questionnaire was sent out to LSAC participants in August 2007. The questionnaire focuses on technology use, child support patterns and the impact of workforce participation on family and childhood outcomes.

Waves 3 and 4 development

Development of items for Wave 3 testing commenced in early 2006 in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), the LSAC Consortium Advisory Group, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other stakeholders.

The dress rehearsal for Wave 3 took place in July and August 2007 and data collection for the main Wave 3 is scheduled to commence in March 2008. The LSAC children will then be aged 4 to 5 and 8 to 9 years. This data is planned for release in August 2009.

Development of the content of Wave 4 will commence late in 2007, and data will be collected in 2010 when the children will be aged 6 to 7 and 10 to 11 years.

Film Australia

Film Australia produced a documentary ‘Life at 1’ looking at the lives of children of similar ages to those in the Wave 1 infant cohort and used statistics obtained from LSAC data to outline Australian trends. The families featured in the documentary were recruited separately to the main study and were chosen to reflect the diversity of families in LSAC.

Following the success of ‘Life at 1’, ABC TV has commissioned Film Australia to produce the next two episodes of the ‘Life Series’. The second documentary will be titled ‘Life at 3’ and will be filmed in 2007, with screening by ABC TV planned for 2008. The Research and Analysis Branch of FaCSIA, the Australian Institute of Family Studies and some members of the Consortium Advisory Group will continue to provide input into the documentary.

The ‘Life at 2’ website was launched in June 2007. You are encouraged to visit the website and follow the children’s and families’ progress. Further information on the ‘Life Series’ is available on the ABC website.

Conference

The inaugural LSAC Conference, organised by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, will be held in Melbourne on 3–4 December 2007. The conference will provide a forum for the discussion of research based on LSAC data and will highlight its research potential. Further information can be obtained by visiting the AIFS website.

Data access

A reminder that data from LSAC Wave 1, Wave 1.5 and the newly released Wave 2 are available to interested researchers. FaCSIA staff wishing to apply for access to LSAC data can obtain an IT systems access form from the FaCSIA Longitudinal Study of Australian Children intranet site and the Deed of Licence from the LSAC website at the address given below.

Researchers not working at FaCSIA need to complete an application as well as sign a Deed of Licence. These are available from the LSAC website.

Further information:

FaCSIA: Dr Helen Rogers (Research and Analysis Branch), tel (02) 6244 7726 or
e-mail helen.rogers@facsia.gov.au or lsac@facsia.gov.au
or the AIFS website.

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Pilot studies

In June 2007, the Indigenous Research Administration Officers (RAOs) who worked on the pilot studies came to Canberra to debrief about their experiences in the field. It was very encouraging to hear how warmly they had been received into many homes, and the level of honesty they had been shown by participants when covering what were sometimes sensitive and difficult topics. This was the result of an extensive community engagement strategy which focused on building trust and establishing ongoing relationships between local researchers and the community.

Participants responded well to some changes that had been made to the questionnaire since Pilot 1, such as an increased upfront focus on the child, and RAOs were able to identify a number of areas for improvement that will enable further tailoring and streamlining of the questionnaire prior to commencing the live study. These included cultural and linguistic issues, as well as highlighting inconsistencies and ambiguities within the questionnaire.

Communities selected as pilot sites have been enthusiastic participants in the study so far, with kids proudly wearing their ‘Footprints’ t-shirts around town, and parents finding that they can have a voice in the study and talk about what is really happening in their lives and families.

Live study

After four years of designing and piloting LSIC, FaCSIA is in the final preparation stage for commencing the live study. Footprints in Time will follow 1,650 babies and children from 11 regions in Australia for a period of four years, beginning in 2008. Indigenous RAOs, local to each selected site, are being employed to conduct interviews twice a year with each family. They will be interviewing the primary and secondary carers and the teacher or child care worker who looks after the child, as well as seeing how the child is developing. The proposed sites include the remote regions of the Torres Strait, the Kimberleys, Mt Isa and Alice Springs; the regional areas of Dubbo, the New South Wales Lower South Coast, Shepparton and Darwin; and the urban areas of Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. In 2008, RAOs will begin Wave 1 interviews of 75 babies (6 to 18 months) and 75 children (3½ to 4½ years) in each region. The mixed-methods research will see each family being interviewed using qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Community meetings were held in August 2007 to talk to communities about participation in the live study. The meetings were held by RAOs and FaCSIA staff, and a short DVD using MARVIN (Messaging Architecture for the Retrieval of Versatile Information and News) was used to explain the purpose of the study and what it will involve. The DVD features cartoon characters of an Indigenous man and woman talking about the study. The voices are those of Indigenous people, and the DVDs were produced in Indigenous languages or using the local dialect of Aboriginal English specific to each site.

The next step, following these consultations, is to find the sample in preparation for beginning Wave 1 in the first half of 2008. At the same time, the pilot studies and pre-testing of changes to the questionnaire will continue.

Further information

FaCSIA: Melisah Feeney (Research and Analysis Branch),
tel (02) 6244 7545 or email melisah.feeney@facsia.gov.au
or visit the FaCSIA website.

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The conference theme of ‘Social policy through the life course: building community capacity and social resilience’ brought together two interrelated issues—life course transitions and the interconnections between social investment policies, services and programs that build both community capacity and social resilience for individuals. Sub-themes explored included:

• citizenship and participation
• families, work and care
• early childhood
• retirement and ageing
• income distribution and social inequalities
• community and place
• labour market participation and welfare reform
• organisation and delivery of human services
• children and young people.

There were approximately 140 presentations over the three days of the conference, as well as addresses by three keynote speakers. The keynote speakers—Professor Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Professor Barbara Pocock and Professor Fiona Williams—provided complementary perspectives on issues concerning family life and caring, and their relationship to social policy, both in Australia and internationally.

FaCSIA staff were involved in three presentations and a brief summary of their papers follows.

Mortality of children and parental disadvantage

Dr Peng Yu (FaCSIA)

This research used FaCSIA’s Second Transgenerational Dataset (TDS2), based on Centrelink data, to investigate the underlying influencing factors of premature death of Australian children and particularly the correlation between mortality of children and parental disadvantage. While the major causes of premature death of children in Australia are disease and injury, some children have higher exposure to health risk factors and/or are less responsive to the factors; therefore, they have significantly higher mortality.

The research found mortality of children is significantly correlated with several indicators of parental disadvantage, including Indigenous status, low income, long duration on income support, teenage motherhood, disability, and living in remote or socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. After controlling for other factors, the difference in mortality risk between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children appeared to be explained mainly by Indigenous children’s disadvantages in other aspects such as low socioeconomic status, rather than Indigenous status per se.

The national evaluation of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy

Joy Russo (FaCSIA) and Ilan Katz (Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW)

The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS) 2004–2009 is an Australian Government initiative aimed at helping families and communities build better futures for children; build family and community capacity; support relationships between families and the communities they live in; and improve communities’ ability to help themselves.

This presentation provided an update on the progress of the evaluation of the SFCS and identified some of the challenges involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of this complex initiative.

Most of the early findings are coming from the Communities for Children initiative and include anecdotal evidence of improved outcomes for children and families, such as:

• improved health outcomes for children
• improved child development outcomes
• better outcomes for parents
• strengthened relationships.

The social lives of carers in Australia

Benjamin Edwards (AIFS), Daryl Higgins (AIFS) and Norbert Zmijewski (FaCSIA)

The Families Caring for a Person with a Disability study is a collaborative project between the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and FaCSIA in which 1,002 Australian carers were interviewed on the physical, emotional, social, family relationship, financial, and labour force impacts of caring. Although there are tremendous benefits to society as a result of providing care to relatives who have a disability, the impact of this on the family can be substantial.

This presentation compared the social lives of the carers in the study with a sample from the general population. Carers were found to be significantly more likely than the general population to have low levels of social contact with friends or relatives outside of the household, even after controlling for a suite of demographic variables.

In particular, carers who experienced more financial hardship and cared for a person with a disability with high care needs were more likely to have low social contact and to want more contact with friends and relatives outside of the household.

A number of other papers from the conference may be downloaded from the conference website.

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Mr Phil Barresi MP, Member for Deakin, delivered an opening address which referred to the recent Budget announcement extending HILDA. There was a strong international presence at the conference. Professor Richard Burkhauser from Cornell University in the United States and Dr Joachim R Frick from the German Socio-Economic Study provided valuable insights into other panel surveys and the inclusion of HILDA into the Cross National Equivalence File (CNEF) project. Other international speakers included Professor Robert Drago from Pennsylvania State University, United States, Dr Markus Hahn from RWI Essen in Germany, Dr Steve Stillman from Motu Economic and Public Research in New Zealand, and Dr Jit Cheung and Mr Ian McGregor from Statistics New Zealand.

Thirty-six papers ranging from preliminary to fully complete papers were presented at the conference. Collectively, these papers covered topics as diverse as income and wealth; domestic labour; fertility and families; personality traits and mental health; labour market and labour force participation; welfare; and housing assistance. In addition to overseas speakers, papers were also presented by Australian academics, students and representatives from Australian Government agencies.

The department was well represented with the following papers presented by FaCSIA staff:

• Dr Michael Kortt and Mr Jason Brandrup, Research and Analysis Branch, A longitudinal analysis of income-related physical and mental health inequality in Australia
• Ms Ibolya Losoncz, Research and Analysis Branch, Personality traits in HILDA
• Mr Habte Tesfaghiorghis, Family Payments and Policy Branch, Achieved fertility, desires, expectations and intended numbers of children: a longitudinal analysis.

Overall, presentations were of an excellent standard with certain sessions (such as the session which focused on domestic labour and its impact on relationships) generating considerable discussion among conference attendees.

The HILDA conference dinner was a highlight with guest speakers Professor Peter Dawkins, Secretary of the Victorian Department of Education, and Mr Peter George, an interviewer from The Nielsen Company, the fieldwork collector for HILDA. It was especially interesting hearing Mr George speak about what HILDA interviewers went through to collect the information that forms the basis of the HILDA data. Ms Lorna Hall, HILDA Project Director from the Nielsen Company, was awarded the HILDA Survey Distinguished Award in recognition of her commitment and invaluable contribution to the HILDA Survey.

In closing the 2007 HILDA Survey conference, Mr Andrew Whitecross, Branch Manager, Research and Analysis Branch, FaCSIA, acknowledged the excellent work by the Melbourne Institute in organising such a successful conference. The diversity of information presented at the conference was a clear testament of the valuable contribution of the HILDA Survey to social policy research and development both in Australia and internationally.

The next HILDA Survey research conference will be held in 2009.

Conference papers are now available on the HILDA website.

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Major articles

‘New age pensioners—trends in wealth’ co-authored by Hazel Lim-Applegate, Peter McLean, Phil Lindenmayer and Ben Wallace, FaCSIA

This paper examines the level of wealth holdings, and changes in wealth holdings over time, as individuals enter the Age Pension program in Australia.

The analysis begins by outlining the dimensions of population ageing in Australia and implications for the fiscal sustainability of the Age Pension program. It then provides an overview of retirement income policy in Australia, followed by a review of the Australian and international research literature on income and asset dynamics over the life cycle, especially over the retirement phase of the life cycle.

Two key data sources, featuring income support recipients, are used to examine wealth patterns among people entering the Age Pension system. The first data source, Centrelink Superstar data (2000–04), provides point-in-time administrative data. It showed that age pensioners were, on average, wealthier in real terms compared to earlier corresponding groups. This is consistent with the Intergenerational Report,¹ which projected continued growth in the wealth holdings of older people. This will affect Age Pension reliance, with the proportion of seniors receiving a full-rate of pension projected to decline, while the proportion receiving a part-rate will increase significantly.

The second data source, FaCSIA’s administrative Longitudinal Dataset (LDS), provides a 1 per cent sample of income support customers back to January 1995. This data was used to examine asset draw down trends for people first granted an Age Pension in 1999–2000. These customers were tracked over the following four years to 2003–04. LDS showed that part-rate age pensioners are managing the draw down of their assets in a rational manner in expectation of a long life, which is consistent with international findings. It also showed that age pensioners continue to generate income throughout their retirement, rather than running down their assets as fast as possible. The paper concludes that Australia’s three-pillar retirement income system encourages wealth building among older people, particularly through superannuation.

‘Examining potential risk factors, pathways and processes associated with childhood injury in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children’, by Dr Tamara Blakemore, Research and Analysis Branch, FaCSIA

In Australia, injury, including poisoning, is reported as the most common cause of death from early childhood through to middle age. Apart from its potentially fatal consequences, childhood injury can also affect children’s development through its association with disability, impairment and illness.

Considerable debate exists around understandings of injury causation and the division between intentional and unintentional injury. This paper conceptualises childhood injury as the result of exchanges and interactions between the child and their family and community. Understanding the function of risk factors associated with childhood injury will help mitigate risks associated with such life events and is essential for the formation of effective injury prevention policy interventions.

The paper uses data from the first wave of Growing Up in Australia—the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to examine childhood injury. It is argued that the risk factors associated with physical injuries of either kind are similar, existing across child, family and broader contextual domains (factors specific to the child’s immediate home environment and their broader community and society). In addition, the paper explores the interrelationships that may exist between significant injury risk factors and examines possible pathways and processes through which injury risk may occur.

Statistical analyses revealed that childhood injury was influenced by multiple risk factors and these factors are likely to influence the occurrence of injury through interactive and indirect pathways. In particular, the statistical analysis revealed that economic hardship and stressful life events were associated with multiple indirect pathways to childhood injury.

‘Men’s and women’s fertility: differences in achieved fertility, expectations and intentions’, by Habtemariam Tesfaghiorghis, Research and Analysis Branch, FaCSIA

As Australia has experienced sustained fertility decline over the last four decades, there has been public concern and debate about the implications of falling fertility and what to do to stabilise or reverse the fertility trend.

This paper contributes to the fertility debate by examining whether there are fertility differences between women and their partners in achieved fertility and future fertility desires, expectations and intentions. This comparative study is based on primary analysis of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey Wave 1 and 2 datasets.

The paper explores three main research questions.

• A comparison of men’s and women’s achieved fertility, expectations and intentions.
• An examination of various scenarios of the completed fertility rate for men and women with incomplete fertility.
• Analysis of data on men and women who intended to have children (or more children) by when they intended to have a child or the next child.

The paper found that some deliberate compromising occurs between members of a couple to reconcile differences about the expectation of having children and the desire to have children, and that this is affected by the number of children the couple already have. When couples had inconsistent expectations about having children in the future, partners were older, had two or more previous de facto relationships, had more children, had lower educational qualifications, were more likely to have long-term health problems and were more likely to be employed, particularly full-time.

The study found a considerable mismatch between members of a couple in terms of desires, expectations and intentions to have children. This may indicate current or future problems with the stability and/or quality of their relationships.

‘Psychosocial factors and intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency: a review of the literature’ by Dr Robyn Penman, Australian Institute of Family Studies

This paper explores possible relationships between social, psychological, interpersonal and family factors and the intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency. Three key questions are addressed. First, how does the problem of welfare dependency present itself? Second, what is the evidence for transmission of welfare dependency across generations? Third, what is the evidence for a dependency culture or, if there is not a culture of dependency, what other accounts can be given for some children of parents on welfare also becoming welfare recipients themselves?

From a review of the recent literature, it is concluded that there has been a tendency to treat the problem of welfare dependency and intergenerational transmission as simple matters of fact when the evidence suggests both notions are far more complex. The evidence from the literature does not support the idea of a single causal intergenerational transmission mechanism nor does it support the proposition of a simple culture of dependency dynamic that can generally account for children from income-supported homes becoming income supported later in their lives.

Instead, the literature suggests that a broader, more ecological or multi-causal, framework with an emphasis on the environmental resources available, and capacities of adults and children to use them, may be far more useful in understanding how the need for income support can continue from one generation to the next.

Social policy note

‘Fixing houses for better health in remote communities’ co-authored by Tess McPeake, Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Branch, FaCSIA and Paul Pholeros, Healthabitat

Fixing Houses for Better Health (FHBH) projects aim to improve the living environment of Indigenous Australians in rural and remote areas through providing functioning health hardware (for example, toilets, showers, drains, taps and kitchens), as well as ensuring the sustainability of housing by better design and construction methods. A key element of the FHBH, known as Maintaining Houses for Better Health (MHBH), is based on the employment of a local Indigenous workforce to perform minor maintenance work on an ongoing basis.

The article describes the evolution of the FHBH program and budget allocations from 1999–2000 to 2004–05. It then provides a breakdown of spending on a typical project. Each house was allocated $5,000, with spending occurring on wages, fees, travel and accommodation for workers, materials, office space, and national program advice, data analysis, administrative assistance and reporting.

The article also investigates common myths associated with poor functioning Indigenous housing and provides empirical evidence from FHBH projects to debunk these myths.

• The major reason for repair work was routine maintenance not tenant damage.
• Older housing stock was not always associated with reduced level of house functioning.
• Poor design can impair house function but better supervision is also required during construction to lower the rate of faulty work found during FHBH surveys.
• The high proportion of repair work due to faulty installation by licensed tradespersons (for example, plumbing, electrical) indicates that more inspections are required.
• The data collected during house surveys leads to immediate repair work, informs national guidelines and is carried out by trained Indigenous community teams who assist with access to all areas of the house.

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This paper investigates the extent of financial disadvantage in Australia according to these four dimensions, the relationships of these dimensions with other factors, and the interrelationships between these measures and their performance over time.

Key findings

• Marriage, including living in a de facto relationship, is an important factor associated with a lower likelihood of being in ‘poverty’, regardless of the measure used.
• There is a strong link between financial stress and age.
• Before and after-housing relative income measures provide different insights. In particular before-housing measures tend to inflate the poverty rates of older cohorts, single-person households and widows and widowers. These groups do not have notably high poverty rates on the after-housing measure since a substantial proportion have little or no housing costs. Older cohorts and widowers tend to have low levels of subjective poverty and financial stress. At the same time the after housing measures generate much higher apparent poverty rates.
• Self assessed poverty—that is, the judgement that one is poor—is affected more by wealth than by income.
• Financial disadvantage for many households was more often transitory rather than permanent.
• The author advocates using the four poverty measures in combination as they measure different underlying concepts and have different relationships with factors such as sex, age, education, income, wealth and debt. Income poverty is about relatively low annual incomes, subjective poverty is a psychological judgement that gives more weight to wealth than to income, and financial stress is about an imbalance between expenditure and income.

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The findings in this report are relevant to the development of policies in the areas of child care, child support, family relationship services and welfare reform. The findings are also relevant to employers who need to be able to retain and attract employees. The analysis is based on the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children confidentialised unit record file.
Four themes are addressed in the report:

• the labour force status and job characteristics of parents with young children
• patterns of use of child care and how they vary according to parental employment status
• the impact of parental employment on parenting and time spent with children
• the relationship between parental employment status and the wellbeing of parents.

Parental labour force status

Consistent with findings from other data sources, this analysis reveals that having young children has a much greater effect on the employment patterns of mothers than fathers. Mothers with young children work shorter hours, are less likely to be employed and are employed in different types of jobs compared to fathers. There were substantial differences between single and couple mothers and differences relative to the age of the youngest child in the family.

Patterns of child care use

The analysis looked at detailed information on the use of child care and pre-school education programs (non-parental care) in relation to employment information of the parents. This enabled analysis of how patterns of child care use are related to employment.

• Parental employment is a strong predictor of non-parental care for infants.
• Parental employment is not as relevant to older children’s non-parental child care, with almost all of the 4 to 5 year-old children attending some form of non-parental care.
• For both cohorts, single parents were more likely to use multiple care types for their children.

Parents’ time with children

As would be expected, the study results show that being in employment and raising small children is demanding, especially for mothers. Time demands are greatest when children are in their first year of life and fall disproportionately upon mothers.

• Fathers’ time spent with children showed some relationship with maternal employment, such that fathers spent more time with children when the mother was employed.

Employment and financial wellbeing

Parents in the survey were asked to rate how they were getting on financially. Single mother families were more likely than couple families to say that they were ‘just getting along’ and couple families were more likely to say that they were ‘very comfortable’ or ‘reasonably comfortable’. Parents were also asked about financial hardship.

Employment and parental wellbeing

This report has undertaken analysis in relation to the positive and negative effects of work on family life (work–family ‘gains’ and ‘strains’ measure), health, psychological wellbeing, marital relationships and time pressures.

• For employed mothers, the positive effects of work on family life were greatest for those working 16 to 24 hours per week, and the negative effects of work on family life were lowest for those working less than 16 hours per week.
• The self-employed reported having lower levels of work–family strain than those working for an employer (casual or permanent employees). However, self-employment was also associated with lower levels of physical and psychological health, poorer-quality relationships, more time pressure and fewer positive effects of work on family.
• Job security, job autonomy (freedom to decide how work is done) and flexible work hours (ability to change work starting and finishing times without difficulty) showed independent and consistent associations with improved wellbeing on most indicators.

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The nine psychosocial factors identified are:

• adolescent connectedness
• aspirations, values and attitudes
• emotional intelligence
• mental health
• parent–child relationship
• pseudomaturity and life transitions (including childhood adversity)
• substance use
• temperament and personality
• victimisation and violence.

Each of the nine factors are discussed in turn, including the relationship between the factor and income support reliance of parents and children, followed by a review of appropriate questionnaire‑based measures for each factor. The authors recommend the use of established instruments in preference to ad hoc measures and multiple response format questionnaires. This is because psychosocial factors are typically complex and multi-faceted.

Some of the identified factors relate primarily to young people (adolescent connectedness, aspirations, values and attitudes, emotional intelligence, pseudomaturity and life transitions, and temperament and personality), some primarily to their parents (victimisation and violence), and some to both young people and their parents (mental health, parent–child relationships and substance use). In all cases, these factors play an important role in linking children’s outcomes to their parents’ characteristics.

Given the high degree of interconnectedness between families’ psychosocial characteristics and children’s later reliance on income support, the authors advocate the use of pathways models. Pathways models help explain the relationships between psychosocial factors and individual outcomes, and take into account that an individual’s journey from one point to another is often indirect, interactive and distinct.

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Updated costs of children using Australian budget standards—Paul Henman, University of Queensland

This report presents the costs of raising children in Australia using the budget standards methodology. The work is based on and extends earlier costs of children research. The report presents estimates of the costs of raising children as average Australian costs, and as costs for each Australian capital city. It also presents costs of raising children for adult couple households, sole parent households and non-resident parents.

Key findings include:

• Costs of children generally increase with age of the child.
• Labour force status of the primary carer has a big impact on the cost of a pre-school age child:
  • full-time carer—this child is the cheapest to raise
  • primary carer working full-time—this child is the most expensive to raise.
• Adelaide is the cheapest city in which to raise a child, whereas Melbourne and Canberra are often the most expensive. This is mainly due to the relative costs of child care and housing.
• Sole parents face greater expenditure costs when raising children relative to couple adult households, due in part to greater needs for child care and respite.
• The total costs of raising children across two households (for the resident and non-resident parents) are significantly higher than raising a child in one. This is because of the need to duplicate household infrastructure.

The estimated costs of children in Australian families 2005–06—Richard Percival and Ann Harding, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, ANU

This report estimates the direct gross costs of children in one and two-parent families in Australia, where the costs of children are defined as parental expenditures on children up to 17 years of age. The level of expenditure is determined by comparing the expenditures of families with the same number of adults, with and without children, and at the same ‘material standard of living’. No account is taken of the indirect costs of children (for example, the forgone earnings due to mothers working part-time rather than full-time).

Key findings include:

• The costs of children are lowest for children aged 0 to 4 years, and highest for children aged 15 to 17 years.
• Higher income families spend more on their children than lower income families.
• While the dollar costs of children rise in line with rising family incomes, they fall when expressed as a proportion of gross family income (particularly for older children).
• The average expenditure per child is found to be greatest for families with one child and this falls for larger families.
• The average expenditure on children in sole parent families is higher as a percentage of gross income than in couple families.

Costs of children and equivalence scales: a review of methodological issues and Australian estimates—Matthew Gray, Deputy Director (Research), Australian Institute of Family Studies

This report reviews the approaches that have been used to define the costs of a child and the methods used to estimate these costs. It provides an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. The most important conclusion to draw is that there is no unambiguous ‘true cost’ of a child. Any judgements made need to be informed by available empirical estimates.

No single method for estimating the costs of children is entirely satisfactory. This report produces a consensus figure for the costs by taking the average of all available credible estimates of the costs of children. When calculating the costs of children as a proportion of family income spent on children (for the average of Australian studies published in the last twenty years), it is estimated that couples with one child spend 16 per cent of their income on that child, couple with two children 28 per cent, couples with three children 37 per cent, and four children 40 per cent.

Key findings:

• Recent Australian research shows that while in dollar terms the costs of children increase with income, as a proportion of income, expenditure on children decreases as income increases.
• Evidence also suggests that costs of children increase with the age of the child.
• Total costs of children are higher for separated families because of duplicated fixed living costs and the costs associated with contact.

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The first part of Mr Bray’s lecture introduced complex issues associated with the concept and definitions of poverty and inequality, how these are measured and the questions this type of analysis generates. He also reviewed some of the theories, technical aspects of measurement and contemporary Australian results of this type of analysis.

Mr Bray discussed the notion of inequality, and noted that while much of the debate was not around issues of inequality as such, but rather about equality of what. Possible dimensions of distributional equity include income, wealth, resources, opportunity, wellbeing, happiness, property and other rights, discretionary time, reward for effort or achievements, services, freedom, political power and considerations in judging total welfare. Mr Bray also considered the importance of location and sub-populations, in terms of the type of groups that could be compared and why, raising issues of differences in costs, life style, the working age of the population and their regions.

The technical tools used for analysing income distributions include Lorenz curves, Gini coefficient, Atkinson, Entropy measures, income shares, percentile comparisons and poverty measures. Income graphs derived from Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys, including unearned income, earned income, private income, gross income, disposable income, income change and income growth, were examined in regards to expenditure and wealth.  Relating income and equality research to the work of FaCSIA, Mr Bray presented information about the real increases in income support payments from the 1970s showing that in real terms the amount of money provided to customers had increased dramatically, in particular to low income working families with children. The first lecture concluded with a discussion of Adam Smith’s concept of poverty.

This question of concepts of poverty was the focus of the second lecture. Mr Bray discussed the range of different approaches that are used to both define and measure poverty.  Presentation of the results of these measures highlighted the extent to which apparent levels of poverty were very specific to particular measures, and how the use of these measures frequently identified quite different groups as being in poverty.  The data he presented showed that common approaches such as relative income poverty did not match well with peoples’ own perception of wellbeing, the incidence of hardship or perceptions of wellbeing.

Mr Bray concluded with an explanation of the capability approach proposed by the Nobel Prize winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. Sen, while recognising the importance of resources, inputs and actual outcomes, places an emphasis on the opportunities and freedom individuals have to make choices.

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Professor Walker started with a brief and useful history of the UK child support system, which was initially set up in 1993 to deal with the rapidly rising welfare cost of lone mothers and to encourage employment among separated couples. The system was updated in 2000 and further modified in 2006 because it was not producing the intended impacts on labour supply and welfare outcomes. In fact, records show that fathers try to reduce labour supply to fall below child support levels and mothers do not seek employment if the amount of child support they are receiving is high.

Professor Walker is concerned that parents (particularly fathers) fail to invest in their children when separation risk is high and he talked about the effect of child support on separation risk. His research shows that separation risk will:

• reduce if the father’s child support liability is higher
• increase if the mother’s child support eligibility is higher
• reduce if child support has no effect on income support.

While separation is associated with a large drop in income for the custodial parent, studies have shown that child support may be effective in reducing child poverty among non-intact families. Findings from an analysis of British Household Panel Study (BHPS) data from 1991–2004, using an instrumental variable approach, indicate that child support has an independent effect on educational outcomes. In particular, this research showed that child support had beneficial effects over and above other income sources on reading and maths scores for 5 to 8 year olds.

This lecture reinforced the continuation of child support arrangements that ensure all children have access to both parental incomes.

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On 3 July, Lorraine Muller spoke on ‘Incorporating Indigenous learnings into social work practice’. Lorraine is a PhD student at James Cook University and she recently attended the inaugural International Indigenous Voices in Social Work conference in Hawaii. In her talk, Lorraine provided insight into the strength of community and spiritual connection among Indigenous people, described the impact of colonisation on social structures and norms in Indigenous communities, and explained how these factors influence Indigenous social work practice.

Fiona Williams, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds, gave a lecture on 10 July entitled ‘Empowering parents in Sure Start Local Programmes’. The talk was based on findings from the national evaluation of the Sure Start Programme which targeted the most disadvantaged communities in the UK. These were characterised by high levels of unemployment, large numbers of single parents and a high proportion of people from migrant backgrounds.

While the two speakers were talking about very different groups of people in globally disparate locations, a number of common themes emerged. In both cases, people in these communities felt disempowered when dealing with bureaucracy and mainstream services and did not identify with mainstream culture.

The characteristics of successful projects in these communities were also very similar and included:

• the need for a holistic approach—typically including physical and mental health issues as well as traditional social work and community development skills
• openness, accessibility, informality, non-judgemental approach
• listening—a ‘time rich’ approach
• the importance of two-way learning rather than an ‘expert/subject’ relationship, recognising the expertise of the community
• breaking down the ‘us’ and ‘them’ between staff and the community
• respect begets respect—between staff, staff–community and within the community
• providing a supportive environment for communities to articulate their needs and determine their own sense of priorities.

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Professor Ribar examined how welfare receipt changed among families in the Three-City longitudinal survey. He discussed how incomes, employment, and the composition of incomes changed with welfare participation and showed whether incomes continued to rise after families discontinued welfare

Useful background information was provided on US welfare reform, which was enacted by the Federal Government in 1996 with the goal of promoting economic self-sufficiency and reducing program dependence through increased work. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program included restrictive measures, such as time limits, work requirements and benefits sanctions. Some encouraging provisions, such as higher earning disregards, lower tax rates, and great transitional assistance were intended to move families from welfare into work.

Findings were presented from the Three-City Study, a longitudinal survey of approximately 2,400 low-income families from Boston, Chicago and San Antonio, which began in 1999. The survey sample comprised mainly single mothers and a few married families selected from low to moderate-income neighbourhoods (families with incomes below 200 per cent of the US poverty line). All participating families had children in the age range of 0 to 14 in 1999. They were surveyed in three waves in 1999, 2001 and 2005.

The study found that welfare participation declined over time, consistent with both national trends and the natural ageing of the sample, as children grew older and contributed to household income through private sources. Another contributing factor to this decline was that exit rates from welfare were high while entry rates were low. Participants who remained on the program throughout the study worked less, were more likely to be single, and reported worse health and higher rates of disability. By the end of the third wave in the program, two-thirds were receiving Medicaid and just under half received food stamp benefits.

Professor Ribar pointed out that those who remained off welfare had the highest incomes and the best economic circumstances. The participants who exited from welfare support had an increase in household earnings through marriage or cohabitation with a partner or spouse. Continuous welfare participants experienced slight increases in income as benefits from other programs rose marginally. Non-employed leavers also benefited from partners and spouses, although their income was below what they received on welfare.

The picture after nine years of welfare reform was generally positive with higher incomes and lower rates of poverty, although this trend did slow during the period 2001–2005. However, as average income grew and program participation decreased, many families continued to depend on welfare income but from other programs, particularly disability payments.

Further information about the Three-City Study.

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Communities and change: research partnerships and collaborations in education and social work

Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney
22–23 October 2007
Sydney, New South Wales
Further information:
email: r.fraser@edfac.usyd.edu.au
tel: (02) 9351 5989
web: www.edsw.usyd.edu.au/research/events/research_fest

Social change research in the 21st century

Centre for Social Change Research, Queensland University of Technology
1–2 November 2007
Carseldine, Queensland
Further information:
tel: (07) 3138 4776
web: www.socialchange.qut.edu.au/conferences/socialchange

Paid care research network symposium: for-profit providers of paid care

Paid Care Research Network
29–30 November 2007
Sydney, New South Wales
Further information:
email: apcrn@paidcareresearch.net.au
web: www.paidcareresearch.net.au/page.php?sid=6

Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) research conference

Australian Institute of Family Studies
3–4 December 2007
Melbourne, Victoria
Further information:
web: www.aifs.gov.au/growingup/conf/conference2007.html

Research and Analysis Branch
Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Box 7788 Canberra Mail Centre ACT 2610
web: www.fahcsia.gov.au (follow the links ‘publications’ › ‘research’)

Editorial enquiries:
tel: (02) 6244 5458
fax: (02) 6244 6589
email: publications.research@fahcsia.gov.au

FaHCSIA Research News is released quarterly.