Abstract
Statistics Canada, supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, recently launched a major new longitudinal survey designed to provide such information to support policy analysis and program development in matters related to child development and well-being. The survey objectives can be summarized as follows:
– to determine the prevalence of various biological, social and economic characteristics and risk factors associated with Canadian children and youth;
– to monitor the impact of such factors, life events and protective factors on the development of these children; and
– to provide information to everyone (policy and program officials, researchers, parents, teachers) concerned with developing effective policies and strategies to help children lead healthy, active and rewarding lives.
Designed to provide both cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates, the survey will collect information every two years from an initial sample of some 25,000 children aged 0–11. These children will be followed into young adulthood, and, to maintain cross-sectional representativity, an additional sample of those born since the selection of the full sample will be included in each cycle of the survey. Data collection has been completed for the first cycle of the survey, and analysis of the results is under way.
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