Research Projects

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Exposure to alcohol during pregnancy is one of the prenatal risk factors that can negatively influence child development.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Breastfeeding prevents infectious diseases, particularly, acute respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Breastfeeding is also believed to prevent the development of allergic diseases and obesity and to enhance cognitive development. Currently we do not know what strategies would be most likely to increase the duration of breastfeeding in all NZ children.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  External
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The project will describe and predict respiratory hospitalisations in early childhood.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The project will specifically examine associations within ethnic groups. In particular, rates of antenatal and postnatal depression and IPV are high among Pacific women. These analyses will consider the impact of these risks for Pacific children. The project will also consider whether IPV places children at increased risk on the SDQ, and also whether parenting behaviour and the quality of the parent-child relationship mediates this relationship

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Numeracy skills are important for social and academic success in modern society. The foundations of early numeracy learning are likely to include both inbuilt child abilities and the experiences they have within their environment.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The aim of this project is to examine parenting at age 4 ½ years. We will validate the brief measure of parenting by conducting a factor analysis and examining associations with other aspects of parenting (9 months and 2 years)...

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

A strong ethnic identity can be protective for mental and physical health when individuals experience social disadvantage. Our goal is to understand how important ethnic identity is to the mothers and fathers in the Growing Up In New Zealand study.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This research builds on existing Growing Up in New Zealand analyses about residential mobility and focuses on how often the children and their families move house during the preschool period...

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  External
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The project will determine the prevalence of family violence using the Pacific Growing Up in NZ families and identify the risk and protective factors relevant to preventing and enhancing Pacific family resilience to family violence and related harms.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The proposed research will assess how the interaction of the home literacy environment and the physical environment of home can affect cognitive development during the first two years of life.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  External
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The aims of this project is to examine the temporal trends in the duration and type of screen usage at 2 years, 45 months (3.75 years) and 54 months (4.5 years) in the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort. We will also determine the associations between screen usage at 2 years of age a range of physical, behavioural, and social outcomes. Response to technology use items at 2 years will be treated as exposure variables.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  External
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

NZ children have a high rate of hospitalisation due to infectious disease, and rates amongst Maori and Pacific children are higher than those for other NZ children. This project will identify hospitalisations for infection in the National Minimum Dataset of hospital admission data, and use the GUINZ datasets to identify risk factors for infection admission using unadjusted and multivariable analyses.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  External
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The study will investigate adherence to the nutritional guidelines for New Zealand infants.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This study explores the association between nutrition and physical activity environments (policy and practices) in Early Childhood Education settings with measures of overweight and obesity in 4 year olds. We hypothesise that there is a ‘protective’ effect of attending a health-promoting ECE service, which can be confirmed by lower BMI outcomes for children, when adjusting for family and home characteristics. This research provides important information for the government’s Childhood Obesity Plan, particularly informing health promotion strategies in early childhood education services.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Previous research has used NZDep to demonstrate a deprivation-health gradient for many health outcomes in the GUiNZ datasets.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This study utilizes results from the “Who are today’s dads?” questionnaire. Establishing the role of contemporary fathers in the lives of their children can inform policy that enables paternal involvement in optimising their children’s developmental trajectories

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Compared to other developed countries, New Zealand has one of the highest rates of serious skin infections; particularly among children. Childhood skin infection hospitalisation rates have doubled since 1990. The reasons for this and the mechanisms by which environmental exposures lead to increased rates of skin infection remain unknown.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This project aims to estimate the spatial and temporal distributions of New Zealand pre-school exposure to environmental hazards (e.g. air pollution, indoor and home neighbourhood environment, traffic-related impact, extreme climate conditions, chemical and biological exposures) for assessing the short- and long-term health effects, as well as their interactions with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, comorbidity, seasonality, infectious disease episodes and meteorological conditions.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The Growing up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study presents an opportunity to understand IR relevant outcomes for families over time.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This research focuses on the ethnic identification of the children of Growing Up in New Zealand. Measuring ethnicity clearly and consistently is important in order to make sure that comparisons between groups and across time are clear.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This paper addresses how Pacific families in NZ interact with health information and health services in the early childhood period (2 years – 54 months). We’ll look at such things as attitudes to health care, the way health care and information is delivered, and the impacts of factors like language, migration history, community support and cultural beliefs..

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This paper addresses how Pacific families in NZ interact with health information and health services from before the baby is born to when the baby is 9 months old. We will look at such things as attitudes to health care, the way health care and information is delivered, and the impacts of factors like language, migration history, community support and cultural beliefs.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This paper addresses how Asian families in NZ interact with health information and health services in the early childhood period (2 years – 54 months). We’ll look at such things as attitudes to health care, the way health care and information is delivered, and the impact of factors like language, migration history, community support and cultural beliefs.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This paper addresses how Asian families in NZ interact with health information and health services from before the baby is born to when the baby is 9 months old. We’ll look at such things as attitudes to health care, the way health care and information is delivered, and the impact of factors like language, migration history, community support and cultural beliefs.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

Applying a developmental perspective, we want to understand how the presence of varying risk factors in the first 2 years of life create vulnerability for problematic outcomes at 54 mos and, at the same time, what factors across multiple domains (child, mother, partner, social/community, ethnicity) are associated with resilience in children exposed to high vulnerability, such that they avoid problematic outcomes despite their high risk status. Using GUiNZ we can pioneer an understanding of high risk exposure over time in early development and resilience in young children prior to entry into public schooling, and extend that to diverse groups in contemporary New Zealand.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

In a series of studies, we will explore the main determinants of cognitive functioning among 4.5 year-old NZ children. In this regard, cognition refers to language, motor and numerical ability, as well as working memory and inhibitory control.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The B4 school check is a nationwide programme offering free health checks in 4 year olds and aims to identify and address any health, behavioural, social or developmental concerns that could affect a child’s ability to benefit from school. The B4 School check was implemented in 2008 and has not been evaluated. The study will determine the completeness and effectiveness of the B4 school check programme and identify factors associated with not having the B4 School Check and with having an incomplete B4 School Check.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This project aims to update our current understanding of the enablers and barriers to early childhood education (ECE) uptake, and the relationship between uptake and demographic factors such as socio-economic status, ethnicity and location (e.g. urban / rural), through to age 4.5, as well as patterns of difference in parental satisfaction with ECE providers.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This study will use Growing Up in NZ data to create a school readiness measure for the Growing Up in NZ study that can be used both as an outcome from the preschool years (0-5) and a predictor of future outcomes for the child....

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

The role of the father in promoting healthy child development is becoming increasingly highlighted among research psychologists. Both the presence and engagement of a father (or father-figure) with regard to child-rearing and play has been shown to influence the offspring’s behaviour, cognition and socioemotional outcomes.

• Year: 
  2017
• Access Type: 
  Internal
• Primary Classification: 
• Secondary Classification: 

This paper looks at the health and development of Asian children growing up in NZ, birth- two years. Using a combined health and sociocognitive approach, we’ll use the Growing Up In NZ data to answer the following questions:How healthy are Asian children in NZ?, how do health beliefs of parents and families impact their health, is there a difference between children living in NZ-born and migrant Asian families?