Drivers of ageing and adaptive ageing in middle-aged and older adults

This project will help answer crucial questions about how our early years influence our health and wellbeing in middle and later life, and what we can do to live a healthy and prosperous life later down the track. Established in 1983 and now spanning three generations of study participants, the Australian Temperament Project is one of Australia’s longest running studies of social and emotional development. The next phase of this work is a unique opportunity to collect data on ways in which we adapt to and cope with social and emotional challenges in middle and later life. It will survey study participants who are now aged in their 40s, as well as their parents in their 70s, and connect this to decades of data on social and emotional development collected from these same participants since 1983. It will provide insight into important and largely unanswered questions about the way social factors in the first half of life shape our later selves. This study will directly inform government and health policy for promoting healthy ageing, with a focus on what can be done to build the social and relationship skills from the very beginning of life. The team will continue to support state and federal governments, and peak bodies such as the World Health Organisation and United Nations, to provide world-first insights which can inform how we reduce the pressures on our health and welfare systems that will be needed to support ageing populations in Australia and globally.

You can find out more about the Australian Temperament Project here: https://www.melbournechildrens.com/atp/