Laufende Forschungsprojekte

Abgeschlossene Forschungsprojekte

ACWP - The Australian Child Wellbeing Project

Term
2012 - 2015

Funding
u.a. Research Council Australia

Project Leader
Associate Professor Gerry Redmond and Project Officer Bridget Jenkins 

in corporation with
International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI), Jonathan Bradshaw and Sabine Andresen (s.andresen@em.uni-frankfurt.de) 

Webside
http://australianchildwellbeing.com.au/ 

Project term: The project includes six phases over three years from 2012 to 2015

Description
The Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP) is a new child-centred study in which children’s perspectives are being used to design and conduct Australia’s first major nationally representative (and internationally comparable) survey of wellbeing among children aged 8-14 years. The survey will provide important information for policy makers, service providers, schools and researchers about child wellbeing in Australia and provide information that contributes to the design of effective services for children’s wellbeing and development. 

What does the research hope to achieve?
The research team wants to speak with a diverse range of Australian children in order to hear a wide variety of views and experiences. We want to understand the perspectives of all Australian children including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, culturally and linguistically diverse children, children with disability, children in regional and remote Australia, economically disadvantaged children, and children in out-of-home care. Talking to children with differing life experiences will provide us with important information about whether and how Australian children see wellbeing differently, how different things may be important for living a good life, and how children’s individual needs may be shared or may differ.
The research team will draw on these children’s perspectives to design and conduct Australia’s first major nationally representative and internationally comparable survey of wellbeing among children aged 8-14 years. We will be talking to children again in once they have completed the survey to understand how they interpreted the survey questions and to help the research team to understand the survey data.
It is hoped that the research will provide important information for policy makers, service providers, schools and researchers about child wellbeing in Australia and in doing so contribute to the design of effective services for children’s healthy development. The survey will also make it possible to compare how Australian children are doing with children in other countries.

What will it involve? Participation would involve taking part in a fun group workshop run by the research team and/or an interview with a member of the research team. The group activities will be run on specific dates and in specific locations in several Australian states between January 2013 and May 2013.
The group activities run for 2 hours and lunch or nibblies will be provided. Each group activity contains a range of entertaining and creative activities such as playing on iPads, working with a cartoonist, and creating artworks to provide a fun comfortable environment for children to talk about what they think makes a ‘good life’ for Australian children. The format of the activities is flexible to best suit the needs of the children who participate and their families.
The individual interviews will last for about 30-40 minutes and will be conducted with children at a place convenient for them and for their families. The interviews will also involve fun activities such as playing with iPad Apps and watching cartoons on the iPad. In the group workshops and individual interviews children are free to participate as fully as they like and to opt out at any time. Everything they say will be confidential.
If you are a child who would like to participate, or are a parent or carer who thinks your child would like to participate, please contact one of the researchers listed below by phone or by email. Each child and their parent or carer will be asked to sign a consent form to confirm that you are happy to participate. Guide versions of the child consent form and parental/carer consent form are available at these links.