Do Australian Children Today have more Problems Than 20 Years Ago?
It is commonly believed that Australian children are not as healthy or happy as they were in previous generations. The rising rates of problems such as obesity, depression, suicide and substance use lead many to believe that todays children are faring worse than yesteryears children. But there is little actual information to test this view. Two landmark longitudinal studies, the Australian Temperament Project (ATP) and Growing up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), asked similar questions about childrens personality and behaviour, enabling a rare comparison of children born 20 years apart, in differing eras. Data from the first two LSAC data collection waves were used (0-1 and 2-3 years for the Baby cohort, and 4-5 and 6-7 years for the Kindergarten cohort), as was data from the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th ATP waves (0-1, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 years respectively). The comparisons revealed that most children from both studies were progressing well in terms of their
