CHE Seminar Series: Families, communities and adversity - Using linked administrative data to strengthen support for First Nations youth
This paper demonstrates that routinely collected and linked administrative data on education, health care use, and contact with the child protection and juvenile justice systems can be used to develop an informative indicator of multi-dimensional adversity for First Nations youth. We use data from a linked administrative data repository which covers all First Nations youth born between 2000 and 2006 observed living in Australia's Northern Territory. We construct a simple index of adversity that counts up to seven exposures to events with assumed negative consequences (low school attendance and achievement, diagnoses of mental health and substance use disorders, child protection notifications and maltreatment substantiations, and criminal charges) between ages 12 and 18. This index is strongly predictive of suicide and suicide attempts, validating it as a meaningful measure of adversity. Relative to the cohort mean of 1.6%, youth with all seven adversities face a 14-fold higher risk of suicide (22.2%). Family-fixed factors explain 7.5 times more of the variation in adversity than community-fixed factors - suggesting that prioritising support for high-adversity families, irrespective of community, would reach more at-risk youth than prioritising specific communities. Effective responses must however be culturally grounded, co-designed with First Nations communities, and draw on kinship networks and local knowledge.
Speaker profile
Lisa Cameron is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. She is an empirical micro-economist whose research focuses on understanding the impacts and behavioural implications of public policy, with a focus on social and economic issues. She is particularly interested in the welfare of disadvantaged and marginalised groups. Lisa received her PhD in economics from Princeton University in 1996. Her research has been widely published, including in Science and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and featured in the New York Times and The Economist.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu
Event Details
- Date:
- 19 August 2026 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- Caulfield campus, Building H, level 9, room H9.21
- Categories:
- CHE Seminar; General
Description
This paper demonstrates that routinely collected and linked administrative data on education, health care use, and contact with the child protection and juvenile justice systems can be used to develop an informative indicator of multi-dimensional adversity for First Nations youth. We use data from a linked administrative data repository which covers all First Nations youth born between 2000 and 2006 observed living in Australia's Northern Territory. We construct a simple index of adversity that counts up to seven exposures to events with assumed negative consequences (low school attendance and achievement, diagnoses of mental health and substance use disorders, child protection notifications and maltreatment substantiations, and criminal charges) between ages 12 and 18. This index is strongly predictive of suicide and suicide attempts, validating it as a meaningful measure of adversity. Relative to the cohort mean of 1.6%, youth with all seven adversities face a 14-fold higher risk of suicide (22.2%). Family-fixed factors explain 7.5 times more of the variation in adversity than community-fixed factors - suggesting that prioritising support for high-adversity families, irrespective of community, would reach more at-risk youth than prioritising specific communities. Effective responses must however be culturally grounded, co-designed with First Nations communities, and draw on kinship networks and local knowledge.
Speaker profile
Lisa Cameron is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. She is an empirical micro-economist whose research focuses on understanding the impacts and behavioural implications of public policy, with a focus on social and economic issues. She is particularly interested in the welfare of disadvantaged and marginalised groups. Lisa received her PhD in economics from Princeton University in 1996. Her research has been widely published, including in Science and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and featured in the New York Times and The Economist.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu