Report / Aug 21, 2026
Measuring Early Years Mindsets: Patterns of Thinking that Shape Australia’s Future
Measuring Early Years Mindsets: Patterns of Thinking that Shape Australia’s Future
Summary
Advocates and communicators working to promote the wellbeing of young children and families in Australia face critical challenges and significant opportunities. While our research shows there is broad public recognition that children and families need greater support, understanding of the specific factors that shape early development and support for actions necessary to improve the wellbeing of all children and families in Australia remains uneven.
Advancing better policies and changing child- and family-serving systems depends on shifting the cultural mindsets that shape how Australians think about the early years. These deeply held patterns of thinking influence what people see as the problem, which solutions seem appropriate and viable, who they see as responsible and the extent to which they expect and demand change from leaders.
This report is part of a multiyear project undertaken by the FrameWorks Institute in partnership with Curijo and Minderoo Foundation. It is written for advocates and communicators working in and on the systems that affect children and families in Australia — including the early years, housing, employment, justice, health, education, transportation and more.
The larger project aims to measure mindsets about the early years over time, test framing and narrative strategies that can shift them to build demand for change and collaborate with our partners to use project findings to change the public conversation and policy context (see Acknowledgements for the full list of partners).
In this report, we outline a set of findings from a nationally representative descriptive survey conducted in February 2026. In the survey, we measured the strength of a set of mindsets Australians use to think about early childhood and examined how these mindsets vary across groups, how they interconnect or “cluster” and how they relate to support for solutions. Based on these findings, we offer initial recommendations for how to navigate the complex terrain of mindsets that shape public thinking.