Life Patterns

Overview

Life Patterns is a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of Australian youth, which means that it follows young people overtime through the collection of survey data and interviews. Studies like Life Patterns are advantageous for understanding change over time because the longitudinal nature of the data means that the same people can be followed overtime. From this, we can understand what has happened to young people since they left school–where they have been and what their hopes and aspirations are for the future. The quantitative data collected from surveys allows us to track young people’s statuses in education, employment, housing, wellbeing and family, which is complemented by qualitative interviews with respondents whose stories provide context and greater meaning to their experiences.

Life Patterns was established in 1991 by Professor Johanna Wyn and Associate Professor Peter Dwyer with the intent of understanding how young people navigated life following the completion of secondary school.  The first cohort of young people, now known as Cohort 1, comprised of 29,155 students who completed school in the Australian state of Victoria. The majority of young people in this cohort were born in 1973 and have been thought of as members of the Generation X cohort. In 1995, a representative sample of around 10,985 respondents from the original cohort was re-surveyed to detail events and experiences about their life since 1992. In 1996, the sample was reduced to 2,000 respondents largely representative of the original sample and since then, the sample has been re-surveyed every two to three years with individual interviews being conducted with 50 to 100 participants.

In 2005, a second cohort of young people or what has become known as Generation Y, born between 1988 and 1989, was established. Originally, 1954 young people who were in Year 11 in secondary schools in New South Wales and Victoria were recruited and surveyed. A further 2,023 Year 11 students from Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) were included in late 2005 to broaden the geographical sampling frame and both sets were merged into one cohort, which is now known as Cohort 2. A top-u sample of 348 young people who were studying at TAFE in ACT, News South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria were added to Cohort 2 in 2009 to counterbalance the heavy representation of tertiary graduates in the original sample. Cohort 2 has been sampled every year since 2006 and a subset of 30 to 50 participants are interviewed every two years since 2007.

A third cohort of young people will be recruited in mid-2021.

Funding

Meet the research team

What is Life Patterns?

For the past 30 years, the Life Patterns team has followed a group of young people that left secondary school in 1991. The project has now documented the lives of this group from their late teens into their mid-thirties.

Over the past years the project team have been setting up a follow-up study of a new generation. Our study of this new cohort, funded by the Australian Research Council, is following young people across Australia as they progress through their jobs, personal lives, and further study into their thirties.

Why do you need me to participate?

As our previous research has found, the lives of young people today are markedly different from those of previous generations. It is harder for younger people to find quality jobs and affordable housing once they leave school. Understanding the challenges, but also the successes of young people is critical to developing policies that benefit young people now and into the future. Your participation will also build upon the research we have already collected, which will allow us to make comparisons between generations overtime.

What is involved?

Participation will involve filling out a short questionnaire every year and the possibility of participating in an interview if you wish.

• Participants will also be sent a questionnaire approximately once a year from 2021, but can stop participating at any time.
• Surveys take approximately 20 minutes to complete and interviews take 50 minutes approximately.
• If you take part, your involvement will be voluntary, and you will be able to withdraw from the project at any time. You can also withdraw any unprocessed information previously supplied.

What kinds of questions will be asked of me?

• The questionnaires and interviews will ask about your life experiences, including work and study, your plans for the future and your reflections on your progress over time.
• Those who wish to participate in an interview will be asked similar questions but will be provided with more time to discuss these issues in-depth

What happens to my data?

• Participants are assigned a code so that your name will not be used in the data analysis.
• Only one researcher will have access to your name, which will be separated from any data that you supply, for the purpose of sending out further questionnaires. In this way we will protect your anonymity and, subject to legal limitations, ensure confidentiality.
• The information from the project will be stored in a locked filing cabinet, and on a password protected computer.
• Findings will only be made public in a form that does not identify any participant. The information will be held for future reference because it is a valuable database for future researchers.

Who can I talk to about this?

Any questions about this research can be directed to the research team by e-mail: life-patterns-project@unimelb.edu.au