New study to track development in the middle childhood years

Researchers from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research have been awarded an ARC Linkage Grant to develop a new measure of how well Australian children are doing during middle childhood.

The grant will be used by Telethon Institute researchers based in Adelaide to develop a Middle Development Instrument in collaboration with The University of Western Australia, Menzies School of Health Research, The University of British Columbia, South Australia Department for Education and Child Development and Western Australia Department of Education.

The Institute's Dr Sally Brinkman said the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) is a validated population-level measure of well-being in middle childhood.

"The MDI was designed in Canada at the University of British Columbia, to provide schools and communities with pragmatic data to inform policies and practice," Dr Brinkman said. 

"This study aims to adapt and psychometrically validate the MDI for use in Australia, including culturally adapting the tool for Australian Aboriginal children."

The MDI is a self-report questionnaire completed by children in Grades 4 to 7. It comprises 76 questions that measure five areas of development - social and emotional development, connectedness to adults and peers, school experiences, physical health and wellbeing, and use of after-school time.

The MDI is designed to be administered as a population-level measure to provide stakeholders in communities and schools with data on their children during middle childhood.  It doesn't provide results on individual children.

Dr Brinkman said the MDI has great potential to provide educators, parents, researchers, and policy makers with much needed information about the psychological and social worlds of children.

"The Middle Development Instrument gives children a voice, an opportunity to communicate to adults about what their experiences are inside and outside of school," she said.

The project will receive $223,000 over three years from the Australian Research Council.

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