We aim to improve our understanding of the many factors that influence young people's health and emotional wellbeing as they transition through adolescence and into adulthood.
Our study began in 2012 when our participants were in Grade three, so we have followed them since they were eight to nine years old. We catch up with them every year for a new 'wave' of data collection to ask about their experiences going through their teenage years and now becoming young adults.
The Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS) is a unique longitudinal study following over 1200 children in Melbourne as they move from childhood, through adolescence, and into young adulthood. This is the first study to look at a population sample of children with this focus.
The focus of the study is on health, emotional development in the middle years of school; looking at the experiences of children and their families, the changing social context as they go through their schooling, the consequences this may have on academic outcomes and their reactions to biological changes of puberty.
CATS aims to improve our understanding of the many influences on the health and emotional adjustment of children as they journey through adolescence to young adulthood. Information collected as part of this large study will help to identify when and how to promote the best health and emotional adjustment.
Professor Susan Sawyer leads the team and is the Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Australia’s leading academic centre of excellence in adolescent health.
Key publications
Contact Us
Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS)
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
The Royal Children's Hospital
50 Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Phone: 0494 629 438
Email: cats@mcri.edu.au
Further information and digital media
Further information on CATS can be found on the
CATS website.
You can also follow CATS on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram.