Improving Indigenous health and wellbeing over the family life course. Improving Indigenous health and wellbeing over the family life course. This project aims to reduce Indigenous health inequalities, a major social and economic problem, by improving the policy relevant evidence base on the determinants of Indigenous health and wellbeing. This project will compare the impact of the family life course on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers and children. It will use ....Improving Indigenous health and wellbeing over the family life course. Improving Indigenous health and wellbeing over the family life course. This project aims to reduce Indigenous health inequalities, a major social and economic problem, by improving the policy relevant evidence base on the determinants of Indigenous health and wellbeing. This project will compare the impact of the family life course on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers and children. It will use survey data that follows them over time to: 1) identify family structures that enhance or harm health and wellbeing, and; 2) track changes in health and wellbeing before, during and after family transitions (i.e. births, relationship changes). Anticipated results are better targeted policy interventions to reduce Indigenous health inequalities.Read moreRead less
Reducing child deaths among the poor in Asian cities: the cultural, social and institutional determinants of child survival. The urban poor experience more, and more variable, child mortality than richer compatriots. Although there are many contributing factors including material poverty, insanitary housing, inaccessible health services, and parental ignorance of good childcare, these do not explain the full extent of the inequities. A key factor is the interest and ability of poor households to ....Reducing child deaths among the poor in Asian cities: the cultural, social and institutional determinants of child survival. The urban poor experience more, and more variable, child mortality than richer compatriots. Although there are many contributing factors including material poverty, insanitary housing, inaccessible health services, and parental ignorance of good childcare, these do not explain the full extent of the inequities. A key factor is the interest and ability of poor households to use their resources, and those of the health services to protect their children's health. This project will use an anthropological-demographic approach in Dhaka and Jakarta to investigate the cultural, social and institutional factors influencing health beliefs and hence treatment decisions at the household level.Read moreRead less
Interpersonal and Family Relations in Transcultural/Transnational Marriages. The research explores recent developments in internet-mediated courtship and the interpersonal and social relationships it generates. Literature on this topic is largely concerned with textual interpretations of match-making web sites, while media comment and academic writing promotes negative stereotypes of those who contract transnational marriages. Focusing on Australia's Indonesian and Filipino immigrant communitie ....Interpersonal and Family Relations in Transcultural/Transnational Marriages. The research explores recent developments in internet-mediated courtship and the interpersonal and social relationships it generates. Literature on this topic is largely concerned with textual interpretations of match-making web sites, while media comment and academic writing promotes negative stereotypes of those who contract transnational marriages. Focusing on Australia's Indonesian and Filipino immigrant communities we analyse such marriages in the context of contemporary forms of electronic intimacy and relationship brokering and develop a more nuanced picture of family values and gender relations in them. This timely study of an increasingly utilised means contracting Australian marriages takes current debates beyond narrow stereotypes.Read moreRead less
Socio-economic determinants of future fertility trends in Australia and other developed countries. Future demographic trends will do much to determine Australia's future. Fertility levels will dominate in deciding population numbers, age structure, and the optimum balance between natural increase and immigration. Current ARC-supported research on the theory of demographic transition provides a paradigm for forecasting likely trends, especially when employed with an existing data bank of findings ....Socio-economic determinants of future fertility trends in Australia and other developed countries. Future demographic trends will do much to determine Australia's future. Fertility levels will dominate in deciding population numbers, age structure, and the optimum balance between natural increase and immigration. Current ARC-supported research on the theory of demographic transition provides a paradigm for forecasting likely trends, especially when employed with an existing data bank of findings on social and demographic interrelations. The research is of great national benefit because even small differences in age structure will impact significantly on the size of the labour force, health services, the support of the aged and taxation levels. Relevant policy decisions will need to be made in the near future.Read moreRead less
Interactive Demographic Transition: Analysis and Theory. The demographic transition, or decline in mortality and fertility levels to produce the modern small family and normally long-lived individuals, may well be the most important social change of our time. It has occasioned much research but theory is still in disarray. This is at least partly explained by a disregard for feed-back mechanisms in the form of organized movements supporting and opposing such demographic change. My aim is to r ....Interactive Demographic Transition: Analysis and Theory. The demographic transition, or decline in mortality and fertility levels to produce the modern small family and normally long-lived individuals, may well be the most important social change of our time. It has occasioned much research but theory is still in disarray. This is at least partly explained by a disregard for feed-back mechanisms in the form of organized movements supporting and opposing such demographic change. My aim is to reanalyze data from my own and others? work, taking such interactions into account, to produce a demographic transition theory suited both to historical explanation and the guidance of contemporary policy.Read moreRead less
Social exclusion and teenage motherhood in Australia. Our current understanding of teenage motherhood paints a very grim picture of the lives of teenage mothers and their babies. An over-reliance on the welfare system and social isolation lead to inadequate opportunities for education, employment and productive relationships and are responsible for enhancing social exclusion and weakening a society's social and economic fabric. This project provides great benefit to both the Australian community ....Social exclusion and teenage motherhood in Australia. Our current understanding of teenage motherhood paints a very grim picture of the lives of teenage mothers and their babies. An over-reliance on the welfare system and social isolation lead to inadequate opportunities for education, employment and productive relationships and are responsible for enhancing social exclusion and weakening a society's social and economic fabric. This project provides great benefit to both the Australian community and individual teenage mothers and their children. A deeper understanding will lead to better design of support systems and programs for young mothers and their children.Read moreRead less
Transition to adulthood in greater Jakarta: A longitudinal perspective. Interviewing 3,000 young adult Indonesians at two points in time, this project examines whether their economic and social outcomes change across time or whether early experience determines longer-term outcomes. What are the factors involved in transition to adulthood among young people in a rapidly developing metropolis of a developing country?
Founders and survivors: Australian lifecourses in historical context. This project will create one of the world's outstanding longitudinal studies of human health and resilience. It will contribute to the historical understanding of European migration, settler colonialism, forced labour and human health under stress, long-run family formation and falling fertility, household economy, and the social determinants of health. It will contribute to debate both nationally and internationally on the lo ....Founders and survivors: Australian lifecourses in historical context. This project will create one of the world's outstanding longitudinal studies of human health and resilience. It will contribute to the historical understanding of European migration, settler colonialism, forced labour and human health under stress, long-run family formation and falling fertility, household economy, and the social determinants of health. It will contribute to debate both nationally and internationally on the long-run effects of social and biomedical interventions and of investment in human capital. It will tell the grassroots history of the Australian penal and colonial experiments and it will form a scholarly coalition with the great community of family historians. Read moreRead less
Understanding an important aspect of current-day family dynamics: the institution of repartnering in Australia. Families are at the core of Australia's social fabric. Understanding their dynamics assists in developing good policies and mechanisms to support them. Repartnering is an important aspect of current-day family dynamics. Yet we know relatively little about how these partnerships operate. This project will illuminate the patterns and issues central to repartnering and provide a significa ....Understanding an important aspect of current-day family dynamics: the institution of repartnering in Australia. Families are at the core of Australia's social fabric. Understanding their dynamics assists in developing good policies and mechanisms to support them. Repartnering is an important aspect of current-day family dynamics. Yet we know relatively little about how these partnerships operate. This project will illuminate the patterns and issues central to repartnering and provide a significant contribution to social research. Results from this study will equip policy makers with appropriate knowledge to develop policies aimed at assisting families. The findings will contribute to growing international knowledge on family dynamics in repartnered relationships, as well as strengthen Australia's social and economic fabric through stronger families.Read moreRead less
Do Australian parents want both a son and a daughter? From the late 1990s, policy makers became more aware of the importance of fertility in influencing population age structure and growth rates in Australia. The proposed project will augment our understanding of fertility dynamics both current, and over high and low fertility regimes. It will also highlight an important factor in fertility decision-making. There is considerable speculation on the impact of shifting gender-role attitudes on sex ....Do Australian parents want both a son and a daughter? From the late 1990s, policy makers became more aware of the importance of fertility in influencing population age structure and growth rates in Australia. The proposed project will augment our understanding of fertility dynamics both current, and over high and low fertility regimes. It will also highlight an important factor in fertility decision-making. There is considerable speculation on the impact of shifting gender-role attitudes on sex preference, but evidence supporting this is mixed. By developing a deeper understanding of the factors influencing progression to having more children we will be better able to predict fertility trends and provide support to Australian parents. Read moreRead less