Creating community indicators for early childhood development: challenges and innovations from the kids in communities study

ABSTRACT

The community (or neighbourhood) is seen as a potential point of intervention for improving early childhood development outcomes through place-based approaches targeting all children. Yet there are insufficient robust data to guide policy and practice. Developing community factors for early childhood development is one way to facilitate more informed, evidence-based community action. This paper discusses the methodological learnings from the Kids in Communities Study, an Australian investigation into community-level factors important for early childhood development, including some of the challenges and innovations associated with the measurement and development of indicators. It highlights the importance of not only developing quantitative community indicators, but also in capturing qualitative data that emerge from communities. In an environment where the implementation of place-based approaches has outpaced the evidence, there is an urgent need for rigorous evidence that can identify community factors (and hence potential actions) that might influence early childhood development.

KEYWORDS:

• Community
• early child health and development
• mixed methods
• indicators

Acknowledgements

The initial work for data collection and analysis was funded by Kids in Communities Study (KiCS), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (LP130100411) led by The University of Melbourne. From this work, the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) funded the development of community-level indicators for early childhood development (ECD) and draft manual of community indicator measures and methodologies. The DSS and partner organisations of the ARC Linkage Grant are gratefully acknowledged for their generous in-kind and financial support. The Researchers (Ju-Lin Lee, Anna Jones, Rachel Robinson, Dominic Peel, Michelle Tennant, Amanda Alderton, Abbe Moriarty, Ashleigh Wilson, Alanna Sincovich, Genevieve Smith, and Melanie Dare) are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable contributions to the project. We are also thankful to our many students, stakeholders, and participants, for providing their time and assistance to the project. Prof Sharon Goldfeld (Lead Chief Investigator) is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellowship (1155290), Prof Billie Giles-Corti by a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow Award (1107672), and A/Prof Sally Brinkman by an Early Career Research Fellow Award (1090146).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [LP130100411]; Department of Social Services, Australian Government [4-4fE66UX].

Notes on contributors

Sharon Goldfeld

Professor Sharon Goldfeld is a paediatrician and public health physician at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) and Co-Group Leader of Child Health Policy, Equity and Translation at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia. Her research interests on developing data and indicators, investigating community-based systems change and implementing equity-based, community-based intervention trials focus on projects that keep child health on the policy and political agenda in Australia.

Karen Villanueva

Dr Karen Villanueva is a postdoctoral researcher holding a joint appointment across the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Healthy Liveable Cities Group at RMIT University. Her research interests focus on how urban neighbourhoods shape child health behaviours and outcomes. She is interested in locational and socio-environmental determinants of children’s independent mobility, activity spaces (areas they roam), and early development. She is currently the Project Coordinator of the Kids in Communities Study.

Robert Tanton

Professor Robert Tanton is the research director of National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM). He has extensive experience in spatial statistics and indicators of disadvantage. His research interests include special disadvantage, community adaptability and sustainability, indicators of wellbeing and statistical modelling disadvantage in urban, regional and rural communities.

Ilan Katz

Professor Ilan Katz is the Director of the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include parenting, child protection, youth justice, early intervention, prevention and family support, children and communities, social inclusion and child outcomes, comparative child welfare systems, adoption, migration, race and ethnicity and children of parents with mental illness.

Sally Brinkman

Professor Sally Brinkman is social epidemiologist with the majority of her research focusing on society’s impact of child health, development and early education, population monitoring, teenage pregnancy prevention and data linkage studies.

Billie Giles-Corti

Professor Billie Giles-Corti is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow at the RMIT University, and directs the Healthy Liveable Cities Group in the Centre for Urban Research. Her research interests all evolve around the impact that the built environment has on the health and wellbeing of communities.

Geoffrey Woolcock

Professor Geoffrey Woolcock is interested in closely working with communities developing measure of community strengths and factors that contribute to building child and youth friendly communities. His research has involved applying indicators of community strengths in socio-economically disadvantaged communities, social and community service planning and evaluation, including social impact assessment and project evaluation, social capital and community capacity building.