ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre) was established in 2014, with the vision of using evidence-based research to develop new knowledge, technology and practices to benefit people living in disadvantage. Led by Professor Janeen Baxter, the Centre is administered from ISSR in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, along with 10 international universities, six government departments, and two NGOs.

Life Course Centre research undertaken at ISSR includes projects that uncover the characteristics of families and social systems that contribute to the intergenerational transfer of social and economic poverty. Researchers also investigate how best to support and enhance individuals’ capabilities to prevent or overcome disadvantage, including research on parenting, early childhood education, family structures, mental health and employment. 

Current areas of focus include:

• Reducing long-term welfare dependence, such as through studies of inequality of opportunity
• Ensuring family background, including socioeconomic circumstances and family structures, does not limit opportunities, such as university participation, for future generations
• Processes of relationship formation and dissolution, such as parenting and fathering, and elder care
• Using data and information systems for relevant and timely policies, practices and services
• Disadvantage in early childhood, such as parental unemployment and dynamics of parental work hours
• The role of schools in the transmission of disadvantage, such as school experiences and parental engagement with education
• Physical and mental health and participation eocnomically, socially and civically, such as sleep and economic vulnerability, and the moderating role of marital status on chronic illness and mental strain
• Social interventions, such as partnered projects with non-government organisations