As the year draws to a close it seems timely to reflect on the last 12 months and to acknowledge some of the significant achievements since the Growing Up in New Zealand journey began. Growing Up in New Zealand was officially launched in April 2008 following five years of development. Approximately 7,000 children born between 25 April 2009 and 25 March 2010, joined the study from within the Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Waikato DHB regions. Since the completion of the recruitment phase we have collected information from our families on a number of occasions and in 2010 we released our first report based on the antenatal interviews. It was exciting to see the incredible diversity of all our families and to begin to understand what makes Growing Up in New Zealand so special. We also appreciated hearing their hopes and dreams for their children. These showed that while we are a country of many backgrounds we are universally joined by a desire for our children to be happy and healthy, and to grow up in a society that acknowledges their strengths and differences. Already these results have provided important information for our stakeholders, including policy makers, and will provide a solid platform against which to measure future results.

The next major report is due in early 2012. This report will take us beyond pregnancy and detail the first nine months of our children's life. We will describe what our parents said when their children were nine months old, and for the first time we will start to put together information that has been collected over time, allowing an early insight into the developmental pathways of children in New Zealand. We will also be able to see whether the intentions our parents had for their children were realised or not after their children were born (such as those regarding taking leave from work and breastfeeding).

We are currently interviewing our parents now that our children are two years old. These interviews are the third face-to-face data collection wave since the study began. They started in May 2011 and will run until May 2012. This data collection wave represents the first direct interaction between our interviewers and our children and I know the interview teams are really enjoying meeting up with our families again.

Central to Growing Up in New Zealand is the relationship we have with our families. Their participation today and into the future is vital to the study and we appreciate their continued generosity and commitment.

I look forward to sharing the next results from Growing Up in New Zealand with in early 2012.

With kind regards,

Dr Susan Morton

Associate Professor Cameron Grant is an Associate Director of Growing Up in New Zealand and the study's Health and Wellbeing domain leader. Cameron is a paediatrician at Starship Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor at The University of Auckland. His research focuses on improving health in early childhood. Cameron's research interests include child health, respiratory infections in young children and improving child health through immunisation and improved nutrition.

Growing Up in New Zealand allows Cameron to look at these issues in the broader context of life for families and through the study gain a much better appreciation of the relative contribution of aspects of child development to improved health over time. Cameron cites an excellent design and leadership as key strengths of the study.

"The design has allowed for the incredible diversity of New Zealand families to participate in a project which will shape our countries future. Two key features of Growing Up in New Zealand are that we enrolled during pregnancy and we enrolled partners at the beginning. The leadership within the study has been focused from the beginning on improving child health and includes a team of experts dedicated to ensuring positive outcomes for New Zealand children."

"We know it is a very cost effective design with long term health benefits. In a challenging financial climate a project such as Growing Up in New Zealand can seem like a luxury, when in fact it is a necessity."

Using pneumonia as an example Cameron explains how Growing Up in New Zealand provides him with opportunities to improve child health. As a paediatrician Cameron cares for many children each year diagnosed with pneumonia. He acknowledges there is little he can do to change the course of their illness which is usually well established by the time they are admitted to hospital.

"If I only worked as a clinician, although I would provide great care to individual children, in 20 years time the knowledge I had gained would not have been used to help reduce the number of children each year with pneumonia that was so severe that hospital care was necessary. Growing Up in New Zealand provides me with the opportunity to apply all of the lessons learnt from caring for sick children to preventing children getting pneumonia and needing to be hospitalised."

Image: Associate Professor Cameron Grant.

The year is flying by and we're pleased to provide you with an update on what's been happening at Growing Up in New Zealand since our last newsletter.

We were incredibly fortunate to have Professor Sir Peter Gluckman present at a Centre for Longitudinal Research seminar in August. Professor Gluckman is the Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and as such is responsible for providing strategic and operational advice on science and science policy issues. He is also on the Scientific Advisory Board for Growing Up in New Zealand. Professor Gluckman was invited to discuss his recent report on the relationship between evidence and policy formation - a topic at the heart of Growing Up in New Zealand. In this newsletter we share some of the highlights from the presentation.

In July members of the Growing Up in New Zealand research team attended the 17th Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA) Conference in Dunedin. AHDA is an organisation which aims to foster and promote research on human development at all stages of the lifespan, including prenatal development, infancy and childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The conference predominantly involved academics from Australia and New Zealand, but also included delegates from further afield. Researchers from Growing Up in New Zealand presented an overview of the project, and also in more detail in the areas of maternal wellbeing, the types of families involved in the project, and the parents' hopes and dreams for their children. We heard about research on child development from a range of experts in areas such cognition, language development, and literacy. It was exciting to be able to showcase the study principles and some of the initial findings to this international group of experts.

The University of Auckland is revisiting its 'Research Works Wonders' promotional series and invited Growing Up in New Zealand to take part again this year. As one of four research projects being showcased by the University, Growing Up in New Zealand welcomes the opportunity to reinforce the value of the study to a wide audience via YouTube. More about our day filming is included in this newsletter.

The next report from Growing Up in New Zealand will be available in early 2012. This report will look at the data collected up until our children were nine months of age and will include the first longitudinal analysis of our data.

With kind regards,
Dr Susan Morton

In this newsletter we continue profiling the research team leading Growing Up in New Zealand. Dr Polly Atatoa Carr is an Associate Director of the study and a specialist in Public Health Medicine. Polly is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at The University of Auckland, based at the Waikato Clinical School. Her major research interests are the societal and cultural impact on health, life course development and equity; research ethics; and the translation of evidence into effective and responsible policy.

Polly's academic career began with studying science and molecular biology at the Universities of Waikato and Auckland. While in molecular medicine, Polly felt that her work was a little too distant from any tangible population impact so she plucked up the courage to apply to medical school, completing her medical training in Auckland and Hamilton. For the next few years Polly conducted her clinical practice in Rotorua until the very premature birth of her first daughter brought her back to the Waikato for family support.

While in Rotorua, Polly found the most satisfying aspect of working with patients was helping them and their whānau with aspects of preventative health and wellbeing. Polly worked with landlords, councils and community advocates to improve the health system journey for patients and their support network.

Polly was able to continue this role in Hamilton working with ACC in injury prevention, looking at barriers to diabetes care for Māori whānau and Pacific peoples, and completing her specialist medical training as a Public Health Physician. During this time Polly has continued to be motivated by her passion for equity and improving population wellbeing by working both within and outside of the health sector. She has worked for Te Puna Oranga and the Population Health Service at the Waikato District Health Board, in partnership with the Waikato Regional Council, for the National Heart Foundation developing a guideline for rheumatic fever prevention, and with the Ministry of Health working on a framework for Māori Research Ethics.

The opportunity to work with Growing Up in New Zealand arose in early 2009, and Polly is now an Associate Director of the study and leads the Culture and Identity Domain. Being based in the Waikato is important to Polly, as this is where her family have lived and worked, and where she was born and raised. Being able to help ensure that participants from the Waikato were successfully enrolled, and continue to be involved in Growing Up in New Zealand is an important part of her role.

"The Waikato region contributes a strong Māori voice to the study, as well as bringing important perspectives from 'South of the Bombay's'. The involvement of the diverse cultures in Growing Up in New Zealand gives the study, and the information that we gather, a unique richness and meaning".

Like many of the parents that participate in Growing Up in New Zealand, Polly is passionate about balancing her work with her own family life and community commitments. Polly's husband is Cook Island, from the island of Mangaia, and with three young daughters and a teenage stepdaughter, cultural, family and community activities are important to her own wellbeing and identity.

We are incredibly grateful to our gift bag sponsors - your contributions are very much appreciated by us and the families we visit. Some of our current partners are listed below, and again thank you. We continue to search for gift bag items and would warmly consider any offers, just drop us an email at contact@growingup.co.nz

Random House Publishing has generously donated a selection of children's books for our gift bags and has also recently released a book by well known New Zealand authors Ian and Mary Grant. The book is called 'Growing Great Families' and covers the following topics: being a parent in the world we now inhabit; building the foundations; what makes a family into a community; molding big personalities into a family; life-defining values; two pillars of great families - fun and communication; and moving from dependence to interdependence.

Once again these successful authors offer us great parenting skills that any family can use effectively, with great practical advice - including smart strategies, action labs and chapter summaries.

If you would like to read a sample chapter of the book please go to www.randomhouse.co.nz and type in the key words 'Growing Great Families'. The book was released on 2 September 2011 and is available at all good bookstores.

The two-year data collection wave is well underway and we're excited to begin this new phase of the study. Significant planning and preparation for this data collection wave has kept the Growing Up in New Zealand team busy over recent months and we're pleased to finally be out meeting our families once again. This is the third face-to-face interview and for the first time we are interacting directly with our children. The activities are (we hope!) fun for the children to do and will be done at the same time as the parent interview.

While the beginning of the two-year data collection wave is a significant milestone for the study it's important we don't lose sight of the medium and long term goals of the study. With each milestone and data collection wave the value and potential of the study significantly increases. We continue to work closely with government policy makers to ensure the collected information gathered (while keeping our participant's personal details private) helps inform current policy and contributes to framing future social policy.

Further analysis of the antenatal results released last year is underway by our interdisciplinary team of researchers. We anticipate a number of papers will be published this year across a range of academic publications providing in-depth analysis of the broad findings in the 'Before we are born' report.

I was pleased to host and present at the recent launch of the University of Auckland's Centre for Longitudinal Research - He Ara ki Mua. Growing Up in New Zealand now sits within the centre and there is more information about the centre in this newsletter. The establishment of the centre reinforces the University's commitment to Growing Up in New Zealand and its potential for improving the developmental outcomes of New Zealand's children.

Growing Up in New Zealand would not be possible without the invaluable and generous contributions of our participants. Their voices and information are very precious to us and each of them has a valuable story that needs to be heard.

Thank you for your interest in Growing Up in New Zealand. If you have any questions or would like more information please email us at contact@growingup.co.nz or call on 0508 476 946.

With kind regards,

Dr Susan Morton

We are incredibly grateful to our gift bag sponsors - their contributions are very much appreciated by us and the families we visit.

Some of our current partners are listed below and again, thank you. We continue to search for gift bag items and would warmly consider any offers, just drop us an email at contact@growingup.co.nz