This is the Phase Two report of the Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP) which is a child-centred study that started with young people’s perspectives to design a major nationally representative survey of wellbeing among 8 - 14 year olds. The survey will benchmark child wellbeing in Australia and provide information that contributes to the development of effective services for young people’s healthy development. This document reports on Phase Two of the project: development of the wellbeing indicators. The development of indicators was informed by the findings of the first qualitative phase of the project, a review of literature and existing wellbeing measures, considerations related to online implementation, two stages of feedback from the Project Steering Group as well as cognitive interviews with children in the target population (i.e. Years 4, 6, and 8) who responded to various versions of the field trial questionnaire.
The Australian Child Wellbeing Project is being conducted by a team of researchers at Flinders University of South Australia, the University of New South Wales, and the Australian Council for Educational Research. It is funded by the Australian Research Council through a Linkage Grant, and supported by Partner Organisations including the Departments of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, and Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.