The inaugural Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Research Conference was held on 3-4 December 2007, in Melbourne.

The aim of the conference was to provide a forum for the discussion of research based on LSAC data and to highlight its research potential.

LSAC was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs as part of its Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. The study began in 2004 and is following the development of two cohorts of children, aged 0-1 years and 4-5 years. LSAC is designed to identify policy opportunities for improving support for children and their families and for early intervention and prevention strategies.
Conference program

A number of leading researchers presented at the LSAC Conference, covering a wide range of themes.

Presentations

Presentations are arranged by name of the first author listed on each. Presentation slides from the conference program may be available upon request. If you are interested in viewing the slides of a particular presentation please contact the LSAC team. Please note the availability of presentation slides are subject to the presenter's consent.

Jennifer Baxter, Lixia Qu and Ruth Weston
Family structure, quality of the co-parental relationship, post-separation parenting and children's socio-emotional wellbeing

Jennifer Baxter, Matthew Gray and Michael Alexander
Working families' use of child care

Donna Berthelsen and Sue Walker
Parent involvement and children's early learning competence in literacy and mathematical understanding and approaches to learning

Tamara Blakemore
Profiling child care arrangements and outcomes over time: Analysis of data from three waves of “Growing Up in Australia”: LSAC

Bruce Bradbury
Why do the children of young mothers have poorer outcomes?

Sally Brinkman and Sven Silburn
AEDI Concurrent and Predictive Validity

Jack Chen and Lixin Ou
Clusters of injuries and chronic health conditions and their changes between baseline and follow-up for the kindergarten cohort

Ben Edwards, Michael Sawyer and Sara Pfeiffer
Pathways of neighbourhood influences through the family: How do neighbourhood social processes influence young children's emotional and behavioural problems?

Eric Emerson, Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Andrew McCulloch, Chris Hatton, Jan Blacher and Hilary Graham
Child Disability & Parental Well-Being

Mario Fiorini
The Effect of Home Computer Use on Children's Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills

Matthew Gray and Diana Smart
Overview of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Matthew Gray and Jennifer Baxter
The labour market and financial consequences of relationship breakdown and re-partnering for mothers with young children

Linda Harrison and Sharynne McLeod
Risk factors associated with speech and language impairment at 4–5 years of age

David Hay
One child in 33 is a twin or higher multiple – using the LSAC data to identify the needs of multiple birth families

Harriet Hiscock, Louise Canterford and Melissa Wake
Infant sleep problems: natural history and predictors

Ilan Katz and Gerry Redmond
Why do rich children have better outcomes? An analysis of the LSAC “K” cohort

Ibi Losoncz and Carolyn Talevich
Factors influencing compliance with child support obligation

Diana Smart and Ann Sanson
Do today's Australian children have more problems than they did 20 years ago?

Julie Smith and Jennifer Baxter
Breastfeeding, infants' and mothers' time use: a comparison of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) and Time Use Survey of New Mothers (TUSN MB]

Sue Walker and Donna Berthelsen
Exploring gender differences in literacy and mathematical understandings in the early years of school: Can differences be explained by behaviours in the classroom?

Gillian Whitehouse, Amanda Hosking and Marian Baird
Investigating the optimal duration of maternity leave: Evidence from the Parental Leave in Australia Survey (LSAC Wave 1.5)

Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck and Allison Waters
The Interrelationships of parenting and children's temperament: Implications for emotional and social problems

Data workshop

Data Workshops were held on the day following the conference. The focus of the training was to assist users of the data, those considering becoming users, or those who are interested in learning more about LSAC data, to gain confidence in understanding and navigating the LSAC datasets. The training covered a range of topics designed to give a comprehensive overview of the conduct of the study, its datasets and supporting documentation.

To register your interest or find out more, contact the LSAC Team at AIFS.

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