Research area: Population Health > Centre for Adolescent Health

Overview

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) is one of the longest running studies of social and emotional development in Australia. The study is based on a representative sample of over 2000 Australian children born in the state of Victoria, between September 1982 and January 1983. Since then, parents (Generation 1) and their offspring (Generation 2) have been followed for over 30 years (15 waves) across childhood, adolescence and into adult life.

The ATP Generation 3 Study (ATPGen3) builds on the foundations of the ATP by following over 1000 cohort offspring (Generation 3) from late pregnancy to 4 years of age (5 waves). The study assesses parental emotional health, the parent-child relationship (including observational assessments of infant attachment and parental caregiving behaviour), and offspring social and emotional development. The study has also been set up to study biological (epigenetic) processes linking generations.

The ATP began in 1983 as a collaboration between the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and La Trobe University, Victoria Australia. Over time, the collaboration has expanded to include The University of Melbourne (Department of Paediatrics), The Australian Institute of Family Studies, Deakin University (Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development), the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the University of New South Wales, and Otago University (New Zealand).

The ATP Generation 3 Project is based within the Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, within the Royal Children’s Hospital, and is funded through National Health and Medical Research and Australian Research Council Grants awarded through the Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development. 

Research team

Professor Craig Olsson
Scientific Director, ATP Generation 3 Study (from 2009)

Professor Ann Sanson
Scientific Director, Australian Temperament Study (from 1988)

• Find out more on the Melbourne Children's website
  
  

Collaborators

Our partners include:

• The Royal Children's Hospital
• The University of Melbourne
• Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development
• Deakin University
• The Australia Institute of Family Studies, Australian Government

Publications

Three key publications to date include:

• Vassallo, S., & Sanson, A. (Eds.) (2013). The Australian Temperament Project: The first 30 years. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. 
• Betts, K.S., Alati, R., Baker, P., Letcher, P., Hutchinson, D., Youssef, Y., & Olsson, C.A. (in press). The natural history of risky drinking and associated harms from adolescence to young adulthood: Findings from the Australian Temperament Project. Psychological Medicine, 48(1), 23-32 DOI: 10.1017/S0033291717000654
• Hawkins, M. T., Letcher, P., O’Connor, M., Bant, S., Deery, A., Sanson, A., Toumbourou, J. W., & Olsson, C. A. (2017). The Structural Stability of Positive Development Across Young Adulthood. Longitudinal Findings From the Australian Temperament Project. Emerging Adulthood, 1-17 DOI: 10.1177/2167696817695133
• Complete list of publications
  
  

Contact us

Australian Temperament Project
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Email: [email protected]

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