A safe and supportive environment for children: Key components and links to child outcomes

Abstract

Families are the mainstay of safety and support for children. While most children live in safe and supportive environments, governments are aware that too many children are becoming known to child protection services. This has led to a shift in thinking away from solely concentrating on responding to ‘risk of harm’ reports towards a broader public health approach to protecting all of Australia’s children, reducing the likelihood of children coming to the attention of statutory authorities. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, this report aims to understand more about the prevalence of different types of family environments in society and to explore the influence of these environments on different child outcomes. The family environment (as measured in this report) was most strongly associated with children’s social and emotional wellbeing.