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The Development and Validation of Australian Indices of Child Development—Part II: Validity Support

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Abstract

The two outcome indices described in a companion paper (Sanson et al., Child Indicators Research, 2009) were developed using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). These indices, one for infants and the other for 4 year to 5 year old children, were designed to fill the need for parsimonious measures of children’s developmental status to be used in analyses by a broad range of data users and to guide government policy and interventions to support young children’s optimal development. This paper presents evidence from Wave 1data from LSAC to support the validity of these indices and their three domain scores of Physical, Social/Emotional, and Learning. Relationships between the indices and child, maternal, family, and neighborhood factors which are known to relate concurrently to child outcomes were examined. Meaningful associations were found with the selected variables, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of the outcome indices as tools for understanding children’s development in their family and socio-cultural contexts. It is concluded that the outcome indices are valuable tools for increasing understanding of influences on children’s development, and for guiding policy and practice to optimize children’s life chances.

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Acknowledgements

The paper uses confidentialised unit record files from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The study was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and is managed in partnership with the Australian Institute of Family Studies. A consortium of leading researchers and experts from universities and research agencies provides advice on design and methodological issues. The members of the LSAC Research Consortium apart from the listed authors are Professor Stephen Zubrick* (Chair), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research; Dr John Ainley, Australian Council for Educational Research; Associate Professor Donna Berthelsen*, Queensland University of Technology; Dr Michael Bittman, University of New England; Professor Bruce Bradbury, University of New South Wales; Dr Linda Harrison*, Charles Sturt University; Associate Professor Jan Nicholson*, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute; Professor Bryan Rogers, Australian National University; Professor Michael Sawyer, University of Adelaide; Professor Sven Silburn*, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research; Dr Lyndall Strazdins, Australian National University; Professor Graham Vimpani, University of Newcastle; and Associate Professor Melissa Wake*, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Associate Professor Judy Ungerer, Macquarie University, was a member until 2007.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr Sheldon Rothman, Australian Council for Educational Research to developing the outcome indices and Ms Katherine Smith, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute to the analyses. *The contribution to this paper of these members is particularly acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics, Royal Children’s Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Flemington Rd, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia

    Ann V. Sanson & Mary T. Hawkins

  2. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Victoria, Australia

    Sebastian Misson

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  1. Ann V. Sanson
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Correspondence to Ann V. Sanson.

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Sanson, A.V., Hawkins, M.T., Misson, S. et al. The Development and Validation of Australian Indices of Child Development—Part II: Validity Support. Child Ind Res 3, 293–312 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-009-9049-3

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