Developmental Pathways

This unique and important project was proposed in 2003 and received funding in 2005, 2006 and 2007 through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant scheme.  The collaboration between Telethon Institute for Child Health and Crime Research Centre and five government jurisdictions in Western Australia (the Departments of Health, Education and Training, Community Development, Corrective Services and Disability Services Commission) was the first of its kind in Australia has re-defined the meaning of "collaboration".

Information for the project has been assembled from WA's population health databases and complementary information held by the Departments of Education and Training (numeracy and literacy), Justice (juvenile delinquency and offending) and Community Development (child protection) and intellectual disability data.  The linkages between these data sources have been made using best practice privacy preserving protocols.

There has been wide spread support for the project from within each of the participating state agencies.   It is acknowledged that the linkage process has not only provided valuable cross agency data for analyses of important topics concerning children and youth, but has also contributed to the quality of each of the contributing data sources.

All the historic linkages across more than 20 years for the five state agencies are in place.   These include links between health records combined with more than 500,000 numeracy and literacy records, 300,000 community and child protection clients and 100,000 offender records. 

Developmental Pathways projects:

1) Impact of health and social, economic and psychological condition in early life on educational outcomes in WA children.

2) Changing socioeconomic inequalities in neonate, infant and child health and development.

3) Towards prevention: a population health approach to child abuse and neglect: a measurement model and the identification of antecedent causal pathways.

4) On the dimensions and development of juvenile delinquency: a population-based study of the prevalence and frequency of offending and the individual, family and community factors that influence delinquency in WA children

5) History of maltreatment in persons who suicided in Western Australia 1986-2005

6) Exploring the pathways to contact with juvenile justicde: developing a profile of the risk and protective factors to support a strategy for change

7) Linking population data sources to better define antenatal, postnatal and environmental risk factors including educational and health outcomes of children and young adults who have been prescribed stimulant medication for ADD in WA