Overview

The 2000 Stories: Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS) is a landmark longitudinal study spanning almost 30 years. The project began in 1992 with around 2000 Year 9 students (14-15 years of age). They completed 6 assessments during school (from Years 9 – 12), three interviews in young adulthood (aged around 21, 24 and 29) and were interviewed at 35 and 41 years of age. 

The first six surveys alone created one of the most comprehensive pictures of adolescent development in the world to date. We looked at many aspects of teenage health and behaviour, including mental health, personality and behaviour, school, family, and drug and alcohol use. This information has been used to improve the health of future generations by influencing policy and informing prevention programs.

More recently, we have focussed on how teenage experiences, health and lifestyles may affect physical and emotional health in adulthood and in the next generation. Our findings have helped bring global attention to the important role of adolescence in shaping future health.

Many of our original 2000 stories participants have now had children of their own, creating the unique opportunity to explore how the health of one generation may be related to the next. The Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS) was launched in 2006 and aims to understand the processes that might influence many aspects of health and wellbeing across generations.

VIHCS looks at the processes of social and psychological development in childhood. It is one of the first studies in the world to embed a study of child development within an existing longitudinal study of parent psychosocial development. 

Between 2006 and 2014, we recruited 1,030 children from 665 of our original 2000 stories participants. We interviewed parents four times: during pregnancy, two months after birth, at their child’s first birthday, and as their child turned eight years old. During these interviews, we learnt about our participants’ experiences of becoming a parent, including the social, emotional and lifestyle changes that take place with this transition; and about the health and wellbeing of their children as they grow up.

From 2022, we will again contact our participants as their children turn 15 years old for the fifth wave of VIHCS. This will be an exciting opportunity to check in with our VIHCS kids at the same age as their parents were when they began taking part in the study.

We hope that the information collected during this stage of the study will significantly improve our understanding of how to best promote the health and wellbeing of the next generation of Australians

Information for participants

Security  

Your privacy is upheld when your contact details are received and that your details are stored securely following strict protocols.

Ethics and Privacy

All information collected is kept strictly confidential. Survey responses are kept anonymous by being coded and stored securely and separately to your name and contact details.

All data is stored securely and in compliance with National Health and Medical Research guidelines, as well as Royal Children’s Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee requirements.

Results of the study are published in professional journals and presented at key health conferences in Australia and internationally. No individual information will be identified in any publication or presentation.  

What's next?

In 2022, we will contact the first of our VIHCS kids as they turn 15 years old. This is an exciting opportunity to interview participants of the family study at the same age as their parents were when they began in the study, allowing us to understand how adolescence in our parent group in the 1990s differs from that of their children.

Research team 

Lead researcher

Founder – Professor George Patton

Professor George Patton was the Founder and Chief Investigator of 2000 Stories until his passing in late 2022.

Professor Patton was a medically qualified epidemiologist with a clinical background in child and adolescent psychiatry. In the early 1990s, Professor Patton established the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study and the ground-breaking Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study, which together form 2000 Stories. In 2012, he also established the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS).

Professor Patton was an incredible researcher who made significant contributions to the adolescent health field.

Project members

Chief Investigator – Professor Craig Olsson

Professor Craig Olsson is a Developmental Scientist specialising in population-based cohort studies of child and adolescent development, and leads two intergenerational studies, the Victorian Adolescent and Intergenerational Health Cohort Study and The Australian Temperament Project and Generation 3 Study.

Professor Olsson is actively involved in other Australasian cohort studies and is the National Convenor of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) Longitudinal Studies Collaborative.

Professor Olsson is the founding convener of LifeCourse and has an active interest in helping researchers gain a better understanding of the cohort studies run on campus and how they might be best used to advance understanding of child and adolescent health and development.

Chief Investigator – Professor Susan Sawyer AM MBBS MD FRACP

Professor Susan Sawyer holds the Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and is the recipient of an Investigator Grant from the NHMRC.

Professor Sawyer is Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital. Her clinical, research, education and advocacy efforts have helped shape the field of adolescent health and medicine in Australia, the Asia Pacific region, and globally. In addition to her role in 2000 Stories, she directs the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS) within MCRI. 

Professor Sawyer is the Past President of the International Association for Adolescent Health.

Deputy Director (VIHCS) – Dr Elizabeth Spry

Dr Liz Spry is an investigator and Deputy Director of the Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS). She has been working with the study since 2009.

Together with Dr Chris O’Loughlin, Dr Spry managed the tenth wave of interviews with our original participants in their mid-thirties and the perinatal phase of our intergenerational study.

Dr Spry aims to explore how parents’ developmental histories and life experience impact the resources they bring to parenting, and how best to promote positive mental health outcomes for parents and children.

Chief Investigator – Associate Professor Margarita Moreno-Betancur

Associate Professor Margarita Moreno-Betancur joined 2000 Stories as lead biostatistician in 2016, providing statistical leadership to the study.

Associate Professor Moreno-Betancur is now Co-Director of the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (CEBU). To promote methodological excellence in campus observational research, she has established a hub within CEBU that specialises in innovation and expertise in essential statistical areas like causal inference. This is underpinned by her program of methodological research, currently supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant (2022-26).

Investigator – Dr Jessica Kerr

Dr Jessica Kerr joined the 2000 Stories team as an Investigator in 2021. In this role, Dr Kerr manages the publication strategy and collaborations within the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS).

Harnessing population-based cohort data, her research agenda focuses on life course outcomes associated with child and adolescent mental and physical health.

She aims to identify intervention targets to reduce high rates of all-cause and cause-specific mortality including suicide, substance use deaths, and early non-communicable disease deaths among adolescents and young adults. 

Project Manager – Dr Carolina Murphy

Dr Caroline Murphy has worked with 2000 Stories since 2015. Initially coordinating the VIHCS arm of the study, Dr Murphy took over as Project Manager in 2021.

Dr Murphy has worked with infants, children, and families in several research projects. Her areas of interests include early intervention and child development.

Data Manager – Steph Aarsman

Steph Aarsman started working with 2000 Stories as a Data Manager in February 2018. Steph is particularly interested in learning about the methods involved in analysing longitudinal data, and is passionate about childhood and adolescent development.

Biostatistician – Dr Ghazaleh Dashti

Dr Ghazaleh Dashti (PhD, DDS, MPH) is a biostatistician and epidemiologist within the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (CEBU) at MCRI.

Her primary research interests are developing and using methods to improve causal inference from longitudinal observational studies. She works across a range of health areas, including mental health, adolescent health, and cancer. She joined the 2000 Stories team in 2020, working closely with the core team and the collaborators. She provides high-level support in epidemiological and statistical methods to researchers who are interested in using the unique 2000 stories data.

Biostatistician – Hanafi Mohamad Husin

Hanafi Mohamad Husin joined the 2000 Stories team as a Biostatistician in February 2020. He is also involved in the longitudinal Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (CATS). Hanafi is interested in causal inference methods and analysis of longitudinal data.

Project Assistant – Ariella Graf

Ariella Graf joined the 2000 Stories team in 2022 as a Project Assistant. Her role includes communication with study participants, monitoring and recording data collection, and improving participant engagement and retention. Ari has a special interest in developmental psychology, adolescent health and longitudinal cohort studies.

Collaborations

Thanks to our key partners, funders, and supporters.

• University of Queensland - Centre for Youth Substance Abuse
• National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
• University of Melbourne - Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
• University of Bristol - Centre for Academic Mental Health, and Bristol Medical School
• University of Melbourne - Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
• University of Otago - Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study
• Cannabis Cohorts Research Consortium
• Deakin University - School of Psychology
• University of Tasmania - Menzies Institute for Medical Research
• University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health and Behavioural Sciences
• University of Otago Christchurch - Dept Psychological Medicine
• King’s College London - Section for Women's Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Funding

• National Health and Medical Research Council - NHMRC
• VicHealth
• Australian Rotary Health Mental Health of Young Australians Research Grant
• Australian Federal Government Department of Health and Ageing
• Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Publications

Supporting Mums

Postnatal depression (PND) affects many women around the world and can limit women’s own ongoing wellbeing, as well as their capacity to enjoy being a parent and engaging with their infants. Mothers who experience mental health problems during their adolescence or young adulthood are most at risk. Mothers with previous mental health problems are up to five times more likely to experience PND than those without. 

We explored potential ways to prevent PND for at-risk women. We used a sample of 398 mothers (600 pregnancies) from the Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS). We assessed their mental health 12 times over 20 years, from adolescence to the first year postpartum. 

We found that more than half the risk of PND in mothers with pre-pregnancy symptoms was mediated by depressive symptoms and a lack of social support during pregnancy. Partner support was important in reducing the risk of PND for these mothers.

Our findings suggest we could potentially halve the risk of PND for at-risk mothers by effective intervention during pregnancy, to reduce their depressive symptoms and improve their social support and quality relationships.

Even greater opportunities to prevent PND may arise from a greater investment in preconception care, to disrupt the complex pathways increasing the risk of PND. We found persistent mental health problems of adolescence were associated with the greatest increase in risk of PND symptoms. Investing in adolescent mental health and education around healthy relationships may limit mental health symptom persistence and strengthen social support before pregnancy. 

Intervening well before pregnancy benefits women’s health. And, it benefits the health and development of the next generation.

Prospective Parents Mental Health Linked to Premature Birth

Dr Elizabeth Spry published a new study in 2020, one of the 2000 Stories investigators, in EClinicalMedicine. Findings from this study may offer innovative approaches to preconception care. Mum’s health is often the focus of children’s early growth and development. However, this study has shown that both Mum and Dad’s mental health are associated with the risk of premature birth.

Pre-term birth is common ‘but the underlying causes have been unknown’ says Dr Claire Wilson, the study’s co-lead. Dr Wilson notes that 'preterm birth can carry lifelong effects on health and development such as visual and hearing impairments and poor health and growth.' The study found that men with persistent stress and anxiety throughout adolescence and young adulthood were more likely to have a baby born premature. This link suggests that getting mental health right during adolescence may not only help the individual, but could have positive effects for their future child’s health and development.

Alcohol and parenthood

Important new research from our team has examined whether becoming a parent reduces problem alcohol use long term.

A team of researchers, led by Rohan Borschmann, analysed data from 4,015 participants in 3 long-term cohort studies (the 2000 Stories study, the Australian Temperament Project, and the Christchurch Health and Development Study) over a 15-year period to investigate whether men and women drank less when they became parents. They found that while 25% of women who were not a parent reported recent binge drinking, only 7% of women with a 1-year-old reported recent binge drinking.

However, women only took a temporary time-out from drinking and after 5 years, women's drinking had returned to pre-parenting levels. Interestingly, men did not change their drinking behaviours about becoming a parent. We know that having a parent with an alcohol problem can potentially have many adverse outcomes for kids, so these findings highlight the need for investing in alcohol prevention programs in young adults before they become parents. 

Let’s talk about Dads

Research from the 2000 Stories study has shown that men with a history of common mental health problems are four times more likely to experience mental health problems during their partner’s pregnancy. Health services and research have typically focused on the mental health of mothers during and after pregnancy. This paper, led by 2000 Stories researcher Elizabeth Spry, highlights the importance of the mental health of dads and the need to identify and support men with pre-existing mental health issues before they become fathers. 

Adolescence and the next generation

An article in one of the world's top academic journals, Nature was led by the Chief Investigator of our study Professor George Patton. This article, titled 'Adolescence and the next generation', highlights the importance of investing in adolescent health as this impacts on the health of the next generation. We know that the first 1000 days of life are critically important for future health, but there is mounting evidence that influences on health begin well before conception and can track back to the parent's adolescence. With changing social trends, such as timing of parenthood, investments in improving young people's health will yield benefits not only for them but also for future generations. 

• Adolescence and the next generation - Nature

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