Chair’s foreword I am once again amazed by the continued commitment and generous support of our participant families to the Footprints in Time study. It is extraordinary that for four years more than 1200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have repeatedly welcomed our interviewers into their homes. Each year, our people entrust Footprints in Time with data on significant experiences and struggles that our participant families have faced over the past year. I want to pass on my warm thanks and deep appreciation to both the Footprints in Time families and staff for their continued dedication to the success of the study. In many communities, the Research Administration Officers who visit the families to collect the data act as the face of Footprints in Time and help to keep our participants connected with the study. I appreciate that these connections are one of the reasons participation is so high. Longitudinal studies like Footprints in Time provide both policy makers and researchers with a valuable source of data to understand the causes and pathways that lead to certain life outcomes. Footprints in Time is continually increasing in significance as a highly valued longitudinal data source about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. With four waves of data currently available, Footprints in Time is at a point where it can be used longitudinally to identify possible connections in early life to later outcomes. These longitudinal connections can be vital in understanding complex areas such as the impact of family and community life on success at school. As of wave 4, the majority of our study children have started school. Many Footprints in Time children are flourishing at school. Yet there are still a sizeable number of children having educational difficulties. Identifying the factors behind these different outcomes is crucial to helping our children thrive at school. For example, we have identified that reading to children predicts improved literacy scores. We also hope to identify, and promote, the positive influences teachers are having on our study children’s development. I hope that both policy makers and researchers will continue to employ the information derived from Footprints in Time to understand the lives of Indigenous children and their families. Such insights are needed to develop programs and policies that will enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to have the strongest possible start to life. Introduction to this report
Chair’s foreword I am once again amazed by the continued commitment and generous support of our participant families to the Footprints in Time study. It is extraordinary that for four years more than 1200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have repeatedly welcomed our interviewers into their homes. Each year, our people entrust Footprints in Time with data on significant experiences and struggles that our participant families have faced over the past year. I want to pass on my warm thanks and deep appreciation to both the Footprints in Time families and staff for their continued dedication to the success of the study. In many communities, the Research Administration Officers who visit the families to collect the data act as the face of Footprints in Time and help to keep our participants connected with the study. I appreciate that these connections are one of the reasons participation is so high. Longitudinal studies like Footprints in Time provide both policy makers and researchers with a valuable source of data to understand the causes and pathways that lead to certain life outcomes. Footprints in Time is continually increasing in significance as a highly valued longitudinal data source about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. With four waves of data currently available, Footprints in Time is at a point where it can be used longitudinally to identify possible connections in early life to later outcomes. These longitudinal connections can be vital in understanding complex areas such as the impact of family and community life on success at school. As of wave 4, the majority of our study children have started school. Many Footprints in Time children are flourishing at school. Yet there are still a sizeable number of children having educational difficulties. Identifying the factors behind these different outcomes is crucial to helping our children thrive at school. For example, we have identified that reading to children predicts improved literacy scores. We also hope to identify, and promote, the positive influences teachers are having on our study children’s development. I hope that both policy makers and researchers will continue to employ the information derived from Footprints in Time to understand the lives of Indigenous children and their families. Such insights are needed to develop programs and policies that will enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to have the strongest possible start to life. Introduction to this report