Timeline

April 2008

After three years of extensive work and rigourous academic debate, we were proud to launch Growing Up in New Zealand to our supporters and the wider community.

September 2008

Just like expectant parents, we want to prepare in advance for each new stage the children reach. Our “antenatal class” is a Leading Light group of 200 mothers and their partners who will help us test our methodologies for each step of Growing Up in New Zealand.

January 2009

Growing Up in New Zealand began, with the recruitment of 7,000 pregnant women and their partners from the Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Waikato district health board areas. Growing Up in New Zealand babies were all due to be born between 25 April 2009 and 25 March 2010. The first interview took place before the baby’s birth, and asked about the mother’s and partner’s health and wellbeing, education, family and whanau, neighbourhood and environment.

June 2009

After the babies’ births, researchers used approved data matching methods to obtain birth and immunisation data for this group.

February 2010
The Nine-month interview is the first major interview that focuses on the child since its birth. Parents are interviewed again, this time including questions about the child’s health and development.We’ll interview the 7,000 mothers and partners about their children, their development and their environment. In depth results from these interviews will be ready for publication in May 2011.

April 2011

Our 7,000 children are around two years old, and their parents will be interviewed about the child’s development and environment in the previous 12 months, again helping to test the research questions and methodologies.

Interviews will be scheduled every 12-18 months after this time; the children themselves will be asked questions when they are around six years old.