The importance of the neighbourhood built environment for Australian children’s development. A report on a data linkage pilot project

The GIS-AEDC linked dataset includes observations for 235,655 children living in urban and major regional areas of Australia (roughly 80% of the Australian child population). We found that children living in areas with more quality early childhood and education care services (ECEC) meeting Australian guidelines, had significantly decreased odds of developmental vulnerability compared to those living in areas with less quality ECEC services, holding socioeconomic factors constant. We also found that children living in areas with the highest dwelling densities had significantly decreased odds of developmental vulnerability compared with those living in areas of the lowest dwelling densities. No other built environment measures appeared predictive of developmental vulnerability at this initial pilot testing stage. The results from this pilot testing indicate a need for more refined measures and geographic buffers, and use of complex modelling.