Today, children and young people face futures that are filled with promise but also considerable challenge. They face a growing global burden of mental health problems and a rapidly changing world. The challenge is to not only protect the emotional wellbeing of young people but also to prepare them for future adversities, not yet fully apparent.
To do this effectively, we need comprehensive data mapping of social and emotional development, at a whole of population level, from early childhood to young adulthood. The best we have, currently, is a patchwork of disconnected data, at different ages, using different indicators. This means we are ‘flying blind’ when it comes to delivering programs to reduce mental disorder and grow future global citizens.
We have addressed this data gap by building a new Comprehensive Monitoring System (CMS) designed to map each age and stage of development, from early childhood to young adulthood, across eight developmentally interconnected census surveys, separated by 3-year intervals, and delivered through universal services serving each age group.
The CMS has been specifically designed to extend the reach of the highly successful Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), which is a federally funded, triennial census of more than 300,000 school-aged children (5-6 years) that captures over 95% of all children of this age across Australia. The aim is to develop a government-ready system which could eventually be rolled out state-wide, or nationally.
Study focus
The aims of this pilot implementation are to:
- co-design a data capture protocol based within local government maternal and child health services, primary and secondary schools, and local learning and employment services;
- support community-led implementation of whole-of-population data collection across eight census points spanning childhood to young adulthood, which includes the AEDC on school entry; and
- provide community leaders with robust epidemiological maps of mental health outcomes, and social determinants, that provide a single, contiguous, picture of development across the most formative years of the early life course.
Time period
2022 - OngoingOriginal sample size
Eligible population expected to be over 1000Intergenerational
NoImaging
NoLinkage
NoBiosamples
NoEthics approvals or requirements
Ethics approval has been granted by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC; reference number 62026) and ratified by the Deakin University HREC (reference number 2020-281). Contact with participating schools is facilitated by local community, health and education leaders and includes approval from the state Department of Education and Training.Waves
| Wave | Year / Period | Age (mean, range) | Eligible sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-12 months | ||
| 2 | 2-3 years | ||
| 3 (AEDC) | 5-6 years | ||
| 4 | 8-9 years | ||
| 5 | 11-12 years | ||
| 6 | 14-15 years | ||
| 7 | 17-18 years | ||
| 8 | 18-21 years |
Key references
Cleary, J., Nolan, C., Guhn, M., Thomson, K., Barker, S., Deane, C., Greenwood, C., Harper, J., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Letcher, P., Macdonald, J., Hutchinson, D., Spry, E.A., O’Connor, M., Carr, V., Green, M., Peachey, T., Toumbourou, J., Hosking, J., Nelson, J., Williams, J., Zubrick, S.R., Sanson, A., Lycett, K. and Olsson, C. (2022) A study protocol for community implementation of a new mental health monitoring system spanning early childhood to young adulthood, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, XX(XX): 1–20, https://dx.doi.org/10.1332/175795921X16599509057666
Primary institution
