Integration: together in poverty? 65 families in Adelaide (`Work-in-progress paper)

This paper arises from The Families With Young Children Project , in which 500 families with young children 0-7 years of age and living in disadvantaged suburbs of Adelaide were interviewed (a) to 'understand the barriers to service delivery perceived by families at risk, and (b) as basis for further development of services, to identify the strengths and resources of these families'. It also explores the level of social capital within the neighbourhoods of these families. Our random method of family recruitment enlisted 65 families with Aboriginal children, including 30 white parents with Aboriginal children. This enables comparative quantitative analysis of project results on the basis of identity.

Results indicate that, overall a high percentage of project families regardless of identity have demographic profiles that present challenges to positive child outcomes (such as early school leaving, low income, high unemployment, teenage parents, high fertility, high mobility). However, both Aboriginal and white parents of Aboriginal children register even higher rates of these challenges. At the same time, there are signs that white parents of Aboriginal children experience different problems from those of Aboriginal parents in their task of parenting their young children. All of these results have implications for policy and service delivery to secure positive child outcomes and positive integration.