Budget fact sheets 2008 - longitudinal study of New Zealand children and families

The Government is investing an additional $7.9 million for two years from 2009 in a longitudinal study of 7,600 children in the Auckland/Waikato region.

This represents $6 million in new funding and almost $1.9 million in reprioritised funding.

The study, which follows successful longitudinal research in Dunedin and Christchurch, will provide valuable information for shaping policy development regarding children and families for the coming decades.

By following these children from birth and as they develop through childhood and adolescence into adulthood this study can:

• identify factors that pose risks to children’s healthy development and factors that boost development and increase resilience
• help us learn more about enduring social problems, including educational failure, mental health disorders, substance abuse, crime and family violence
• assist in finding opportunities to intervene to improve child outcomes and guide us towards the right mix of interventions.

Fieldwork for the study, which has a sample large enough to capture the experience of our major ethnic sub-populations – European, Māori, Pacific Island and Asian – will begin early in 2009, with the first results expected in 2010.