WHAT HAPPENS TO INFANTS who are disadvantaged (or advantaged)? Is their fate really determined in the first few years of life? These are questions for longitudinal research. The Brotherhood of St Laurence's longitudinal Life Chances Study commenced in 1990 as a study of children born in Melbourne that year. The study has now followed a group of 140 young people over 18 years. This paper explores the situations at age 18 of the young people who were identified as the 10 ‘most disadvantaged’ and the 10 ‘most advantaged’ infants at the start of the study.
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