RETURN TO THE EARLY LEARNING MONITOR
Methodology
Data collection and weighting
The data gathered for the Early Learning Monitor is provided by Qualtrics from online panels and run by Essential Research. Data was collected between 22nd April and 7th May 2021. The target population was all Australian residents aged 18+. Participants were invited to participate and completed the survey online without an interviewer present and incentives were offered for participation.
The overall sample was 4,786 and quotas were applied to be representative of the target population by age, gender and location. Weighting efficiency is 91% with an effective sample size of 4,355 (margin of error ±1.5%).
RIM weighting is applied to the data using information sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The factors used in the weighting are age, gender and location.
Some figures in the charts and report will not total 100% due to rounding.
Questionnaire details
The full questionnaire can be found here.
Voting intention
Participants not eligible to vote in federal elections (either for age, residency or other reason) are excluded from voting intention. Eligible participants are able to select ‘Unsure’ for voting intention. There were then asked a ’leaner’ question which also included an ‘Unsure’ option. Participants answering ‘Unsure’ are NOT excluded from published results, or any subsequent questions.
Analysis which includes voting intention shows the participants’ primary vote.
Definition of parents with a child under school age attending daycare / preschool
Many of the charts on this website and the reports compare “parents of a child in attending daycare / preschool” group with “parents of a child not in attending daycare / preschool”.
- For parents with one child under school age, we simply asked if that child was attending centre-based daycare or preschool.
- For parents with more than one child under school age, we first specified that they should answer questions for the child under school age who most recently had a birthday. They were then asked whether that child attended centre-based daycare or preschool.
- 28% of those who said that their preschool-aged child who most recently had a birthday did not attend centre-based daycare or preschool reported that they had more than one child under school age. There is no way of knowing whether those other children attended centre-based daycare – all the survey can tell us is whether the preschool child who most recently had a birthday attends.
The “parent of older children who attended / did not attend daycare or preschool” demographic is made up of those who have dependent children in primary or secondary school, but none under school age. In that case, the relevant question asks whether any of their children attended centre-based daycare or preschool.
Definition of metropolitan and rural areas
The definition of metropolitan, regional and rural areas uses location information sourced from ABS 2016 census.
Definition of lower, middle and higher income
Income brackets are defined using annual household income provided by participants. Lower income is up to $51,999 per year household income, middle income is $52,000-$103,999 per year and high income is more than $104,000 per year.
Professional standards
All Essential Research staff hold Research Society membership and are bound by professional codes of behaviour. This research is compliant with the Australian Polling Council Quality Mark standards. The Australian Polling Council standards can be found here.
