Social Development Project Collection

This collection consists of data relating to the Longitudinal Social Development Project. As part of the initial project, children and their primary care giving parent visited the project team at the University of Melbourne when they were 2 years old and twice when they were 4 years old. Families were also invited to continue involvement in this longitudinal study at child age seven years. Questionnaires were mailed to parents prior to university visits and completed by the parent before or during the visit, with additional questionnaires completed when the child was aged 5 and 6. The scope of the project developed with additional funding from VicHealth in 1999 to extend the study by including 50 children whose parents experience psychological difficulties and who are therefore at high risk of developing emotional problems themselves. This project involved two visits to children at 2 years old and a further two visits when they were four years old.

The collection includes coding sheets from all visits, completed teacher and parent questionnaires, video recordings of children and EEGs (an electroencephalogram (EEG) is a medical test used to measure the electrical activity of the brain). As well as research data the collection includes a large amount of administrative and preparatory material such as grant applications, consent forms, instructions to volunteers, letters to parents and background literature.