The consequences of household composition and household change for Indigenous health: evidence from eight waves of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC)

ABSTRACT

Households are important health contexts, providing social, emotional, financial and material support, but little is known about the role of household composition in the social etiology of Indigenous health. Our research is framed by an Indigenous standpoint, using eight waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. We investigated whether household composition and change in household composition were associated with the self-reported general health of Indigenous children and their mothers, adjusting for socioeconomic, household structure and social support factors. Our measure of household composition comprised eight groups differentiating lone and couple parents, living with and without other children and adults. Study children in couple households with other children and adults were 16% less likely to have excellent health and mothers in these same households were 7% less likely to report excellent health than children and mothers in couple households. We find little evidence that mothers in lone parent households have poorer health than mothers in couple households, after adjustment for covariates. Change in household composition was positively associated with health for both children and mothers. The results caution against presuming a direct translatability of research findings from non-Indigenous to Indigenous Peoples.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous health
• household composition
• mothers
• children
• longitudinal

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Anastasia Sartbayeva and Fiona Skelton for their advice and assistance with analysing the LSIC data. We also thank Laura Dunstan and Huw Peacock for their extremely helpful research assistance on the paper. The data used in this analysis come from Footprints in Time – the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) that was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). The research findings are the product of the researchers and the views expressed should not be attributed to DSS. The Study would never have been possible without the support and trust of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who open their doors to the researchers and generously give their time to talk openly about their lives. Our gratitude goes to them, and to the leaders and Elders of their communities who are active guardians of their people's wellbeing. Weblink to LSIC study: https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/research-publications/longitudinal-data-initiatives/footprints-in-time-the-longitudinal-study-of-indigenous-children-lsic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this article the term ‘Indigenous’ is used to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and populations unless otherwise indicated.

 

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council under the grants FT140100861 and LP160100111.