Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) – Moving into adolescence and emerging adulthood

With the release of the sixth wave of LSAC, Australia now has nationally representative longitudinal data on children from birth through to age 16-17 years. This paper will outline many of the novel and exciting new measures of Wave 6 such as:

• Executive functioning
• Vocational education and future work aspirations
• Puberty and sexuality
• Child alcohol and substance use
• Self harm
• Sources of emotional support
• Eating disorders and dietary restraint
• Family literacy

Another novel feature of the LSAC is the number of linked administrative data sets included, namely:

• Medicare Benefit Scheme;
• Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme;
• National Immunisation Register;
• National Assessment Program –Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN);
• MySchool; and
• the Australian Early Development Census.

Associate Professor Edwards will talk about LSAC as an exemplar of the next generation of longitudinal surveys where survey and linked data are used to augment the features of each other to maximise knowledge generation.