Housing and Children's Development and Wellbeing: a Scoping Study

A report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
 
Child and adolescent health and wellbeing is crucial to Australia's social and economic future, and its promotion presents key challenges within the current Australian policy context.
 
Early child development is vital in setting the foundation for health as well as social and economic activity across the life-course, while child developmental outcomes in terms of learning and school achievement play an important role in the school-to-work transition and subsequent labour market outcomes.
 
With falling birth rates and population ageing, children are increasingly recognised as a valuable resource as they will form the future working age population. Disturbingly, despite the economic progress Australia has enjoyed in recent years, many indicators of children's developmental outcomes are exhibiting adverse trends, including higher rates of diabetes and obesity, learning disabilities, adolescent suicide, aggressive behaviours, violence, child abuse and neglect (Stanley 2001; Li, McMurray & Stanley 2008). Furthermore, these adverse outcomes are disproportionately found in families with limited financial, social and other resources, and by virtually every conceivable measure of wellbeing Indigenous children face profoundly inferior outcomes. As one example, Indigenous youth are 23 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous youth (SCRGSP 2007).
 
Clearly, reversing these adverse outcomes in children and youth and addressing inequalities in opportunity for young Australians should be a top priority and the research required to guide policy must be cross-disciplinary. Existing evidence has established that interventions are more effective if implemented earlier rather than later in life (Shonkoff et al. 2009). Hence, investments in services that impact on child and adolescent development are likely to result in improved life outcomes for children and reduce the need for more public expenditure on services in the later years, which may be more expensive but less effective in achieving positive outcomes.
 
Government has recognised that housing has an important impact on childhood development. For example, South Australia's Department of Human Services (DHS) Early Childhood Services Framework currently lists housing as one of the important determinants of childhood outcomes (DHS 2003). Moreover, the issues are important in the Australian housing policy context because assessment of housing policy effectiveness should account for both housing and non-shelter outcomes. Childhood wellbeing and developmental outcomes are non-shelter outcomes that will influence the relative value of alternative housing policies. This is crucial in order for policy-makers to be able to prioritise alternative policies given limited government funds. Lack of understanding of the impacts of housing policy on childhood outcomes may impose future costs on the budgets of departments responsible for health, education, employment and other related outcomes.

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