Research Areas and Projects

Living in Queensland Survey

Findings from the Living in Queensland study

Social Wellbeing Conference June 2010 - presentations

Funded by:

This three year (2008-2010) longitudinal study was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage project with Together (the Union formed from the amalgamation of the Queensland Public Sector Union and the Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical Services Union, Central and Southern Queensland Branch).

Chief Investigators:

• Professor Paul Boreham (ISSR)
• Professor Mark Western (ISSR)
• Associate Professor Warren Laffan (ISSR)
• Associate Professor Geoff Dow (Political Science & International Studies)

Value: $722,000

Project Aim:

The Development and Application of a Conceptual and Statistical Framework for the Measurement of Non-market Factors Affecting Social Inequality and Social Wellbeing

Project Summary:

In response to global and national forces, a new social and economic policy framework has promoted multiple impacts on families, communities and regions in Australia. This project responds to an increasingly important research and policy question concerning the development of alternative measures of social wellbeing and social inequality to the conventional measures of economic resources within households that are currently employed. This research provided a nationally and internationally recognised evidence base on which to develop policies of importance to the quality of life in Australia’s urban and regional communities.

The Living in Queensland Survey was a 3 year household-based panel study undertaken by ISSR, data collection commenced in April 2008.

• It collected data on non-market factors affecting social inequality and social wellbeing.
• This study recruited respondents over the age of 18 years from randomly selected household across 5 Queensland regions.
• Panel members were followed every 12 months, providing 3 years of longitudinal data for at least 2,500 respondents.

  The study included two survey forms:

• A Personal Form that asked a range of questions including personal background, income, important life events, life satisfaction, working conditions and arrangements, social participation and leisure activities.
• A Household Form that included questions on household relationships, housing circumstances, household expenses and household income.

Participants can update their details here

Reconceptualising housing need in the context of 21st Century Australian housing policy

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, University of Tasmania

Rhonda Phillips

Value: $31,594.20

Social Futures and Life Pathways of Young People in Queensland - the "Our Lives" project

ARC Discovery

Zlatko Skrbis, Mark Western, Bruce Tranter, David Hogan, Belinda Hewitt, Rebecca Coates, Jonathan Smith, Margery Mayall

Value:  $600,000

This project follows a large cohort of young Queenslanders from adolescence to later life.  Using large-scale surveys, intensive interviews and focus groups, the study aims to investigate how young people think about their future and how they master their trajectories, through schools, families and the labour market in a world of rapid change and uncertainty.  The project commenced in 2006 with a survey of over 7000 Queensland year 8 students in 200 high schools around the state.  We resurveyed them in 2008, and will do so again in 2010.  We are also conducting more intensive interviews and focus groups with selected subgroups.  More information can also be found by visiting the project website.

Regulatory frameworks and their utility for the not for profit housing sector

Australian Housing and Uurban Research Institute

Andrew Jones

Value: $51,832.44

Marital Separation and divorce: social correlates, gender differences and initiation

ARC Discovery Project

Belinda Hewitt

Value: $314,494.00

Complex life pathways: A longitudinal and life course examination of relationship transitions

UQ Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Mark Western

Value: $134,812.42

Examining the impact of employment on social relationships in urban communities

ARC Discovery Project

Rod McCrea, Rebecca Wickes

Value: $591,405.00

Family-Friendly Flexibility in Working Arrangement and Work-Family Balance: Taking into Account Coping Skills and Gender

UQ Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Rod McCrea, Mark Western

Value: $20,000.00

For Better or For Worse? Understanding the Revolution in Married Life in Australia

ARC Discovery project

Janeen Baxter, Belinda Hewitt

Value: $1,496,250.00

Caring for new mothers and their families

Maria Zadoroznyj

The birth of a baby and the ensuing period of adjustment in family life are matters that are of critical concern to the individuals involved and to the wider society.

While there has been a dramatic decline in the length of time women spend in hospital following the birth of a baby, in many countries including Australia, Canada and the US, there is little if any formal support to new mothers and their families following discharge from hospital.  As a result, new mothers are increasingly relying on family or informal supports after discharge from hospital.

International and Australian evidence reveals high levels of dissatisfaction with existing postnatal care provision, high levels of unmet needs amongst new mothers, and increasing rates of postnatal depression. ISSR researchers are examining the impact of these policies cross-nationally, to determine their outcomes on maternal and child health, and on the social wellbeing of families. Australia’s relatively unusual combination of a universal health care system (Medicare) with a parallel private health insurance system, is increasingly stratifying outcomes for birthing women, both in terms of their experience of birth, and of post-birth care.

While women with private health insurance enjoy longer periods of hospital or hotel based postnatal care, those without private health insurance receive less formal care and need to rely more on informal supports, yet are also more likely to be financially, educationally or socially disadvantaged. Systematically inequitable outcomes need to be addressed in policy and practice. 

One approach used in some parts of the world (the Netherlands and the UK) is to use state-funded paid care providers (maternity assistants) to support new mothers after discharge home. This is part of a broader, rapidly growing trend in the use of paid care workers in a range of other sectors (aged care, disability, child care). Our research is ultimately aimed at the provision of high quality, equitable, and sustainable models of care that will produce best outcomes for mothers and babies, as well as informing workforce planning concerns.

Doctoral candidates’ housing decisions: The influence of higher education on home ownership

UQ New Start Up Grant

Amity James

Amity James received a University of  Queensland New Staff Start Up Grant in 2009 for the Doctoral candidates’ housing decisions project, an examination of the constraints which influence decisions, and the balance reached, by younger cohorts when negotiating the housing market. An online survey will be conducted with Doctoral students around Australia. Exploring the very specific group of young people (aged 25-35 years) enrolled in Doctoral programs will give important insights into the ways that those furthering their education meet their housing needs, how they feel about the choices they have made and the constraints that have hindered or assisted their housing outcomes. 

Provisions of Casemix Review

Department for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)

Value: $46,000

ISSR was commissioned in May 2009 by the Department for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to undertake a literature review focused on casemix funding models in the context of homelessness sector, in Australia or overseas. It also examined the use of the casemix approach in other community service sectors. The project was in response the Australian Government’s intention to work with the states and territories to review the methods of funding homelessness services. Valued at $46,000, the project was completed within a three month timeframe. A final literature review was presented to FaHCSIA to inform the next steps towards implementing the White Paper: The Road Home through the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. 

Student Visa Class - Gaining a better understanding of the integrity and impact of the student Visa Program

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Value: $84,403

Factors which may or may not influence Skilled Migrants to Locate in Developing Regional Areas

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Value: $90,935

Vietnam Veterans Family Study - Qualitative Semi-structured telephone interviews with sons and daughters of Vietnam Veterans (Tier 1a)

Department of Veterans Affairs

Value: $91,652

Vietnam Veterans Family Study (Tier 2) Main Study

Collaboration with Colmar Brunton Department of Veterans Affairs

Value: $1,010,111

Minor Injuries Longitudinal Study

Centre for National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine and Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC)

Value: $184,534