Current Projects:

Child and Youth Development Research Partnership (CYDRP), 2017-2024
This collaborative research partnership between CCDE and the NT Government supports the ongoing maintenance and development of the CYDRP data repository and selected research projects. Completed CYDRP funded research projects have included a project to understand the association between early child maltreatment and youth offending; and a recently completed project on school retention through the middle school years. The initial program (2017-2019) was extended for a further five years to 2024.

Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities grant, 2018-2023
This grant supports a body of research to inform child and family services in the Northern Territory, with a particular focus on improving outcomes through prevention and early intervention. Completed projects include a study of the increased risk of self-harm among young people with a record of child abuse or neglect and a recent study on long term trends in the prevalence of offending among young people. A current project is exploring opportunities for early intervention in middle childhood for children in contact with multiple services. These studies have all utilised the CYDRP data repository.

Against the odds: Understanding the factors influencing wellbeing among Indigenous youth in the Northern Territory, 2019-2024
This mixed methods study, funded by the NHMRC, is exploring the positive pathways for the development of NT Aboriginal youth using the linked administrative data held within the CYDRP data repository (Stage 1) along with interviews with community and professional stakeholders including Aboriginal youth (Stage 2).

Patterns of mobility among primary school children in the Northern Territory, 2022-2023
There is high mobility of NT school-aged children, which presents challenges in the delivery of education, including: a students’ capacity to progress academically; teachers’ capacity to teach; disruption to the school and classroom; and, a flow on impact for other students.  This study has analysed the multiple records available in the CYDRP data repository, for each child, to describe patterns of mobility for children through their primary school years and the characteristics of clusters of children with similar patterns of mobility. This linkage project has been funded by the NT Department of Education.

Impacts of Banned Drinkers Register Re-introduction in Northern Territory
This project aims to investigate the impact of the re-introduction of the Banned Drinker Register in the Northern Territory, where rates of alcohol-related harm are more than twenty times that seen in other Australian states. An interdisciplinary team will use qualitative and quantitative methods across urban and remote locations to answer complex questions about policy impact.

Completed Projects:

Developmental pathways to child health and wellbeing in the NT, 2014 – 2017
This research partnership involves a collaboratively developed program of policy relevant research that utilised data-linkage analysis to investigate the population dynamics and causal pathways through which individual- and community-level factors in early life influence outcomes in key areas of policy concern. This program of research established what is now referred to as Extract 1 of the CYDRP data repository, which was the template for the ongoing body of research supported under the CYDRP program. 

Hearing Loss in Kids Study (HeLoKids), 2018-2019
The program of research utilised linked data in the CYDRP data repository to describe the effects of diagnosed hearing loss on children’s developmental trajectories. The program was funded by the Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The series of studies have reported the impact of hearing loss on early child development, child abuse and neglect, school attendance, academic performance and youth offending.

Story of Our Children and Young People 2019 and 2021 
The “Story” reports key indicators of child and youth wellbeing, at NT regional level, along with stories of positive change and cultural stories of wellbeing. The Story was a key action out of the NT Government’s early childhood strategy and was developed with the support of an independent Editorial Committee. The Story provides a platform for tracking progress over time, with updates every two years. The first Story was delivered in 2019, and in 2021 the second story (the 2021 Story) extended the availability of information with the development of an online data platform with the capacity for users to develop tables and graphs of locally relevant information. The data platform is available on the Northern Territory Government website.

Development of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Prevention and Health Promotion Resources for New Directions: Mothers and Babies Services (2015 – 2017)
This project, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, develop and implement a flexible module package of FASD Prevention and Health Promotion Resources (FPHPR) to reduce the impacts of FASD on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and young children.