Growing Up in New Zealand

Growing Up in New Zealand is a longitudinal study that collects information about children’s development in the context of their families, their communities and the wider physical, social and cultural factors they are exposed to during their lives.

The study follows the lives of approximately 7,000 Kiwi children. Click here for more information.

Policy briefs
Policy briefs provide relevant and accessible information on specific issues. The first two policy briefs are now available.

Keeping our children injury-free (September 2014)

Nutrition and physical activity during pregnancy (September 2014)

Topic reports
The reports use the study’s data to focus on important policy topics and undertake an in-depth analysis of a particular issue.

Residential Mobility Report 1: Moving house in the first 1000 days (December 2014)
This report describes how often and how far New Zealand children are moving at the start of their lives.

Vulnerability Report 1: Exploring the Definition of Vulnerability for Children in their First 1000 Days (July 2014)

This report evaluates how commonly New Zealand children experience 12 family and environmental risk factors that have previously been shown to increase the chances that children will have poor developmental outcomes.

Comprehensive reports
These reports provide comprehensive information on the cohort (the group of children being studied) and are produced at key milestones in the cohort’s development.

Growing Up in New Zealand: Now we are two (June 2014)
Now We Are Two provides insight into the physical health and development, emotional and behavioural well-being, and cognitive development of New Zealand two-year-olds.

Growing Up in New Zealand: Now we are born (March 2012)
This report details the beginning of the children’s journeys in the context of their families and their wider environments.

Growing Up in New Zealand: Before we are born (November 2010)
Before we are born paints a complex picture of a changing New Zealand and shows not only the hopes, dreams and realities faced by soon-to-be-parents, but also the increasing diversity of our families and their children.

Are you a researcher interested in using the data?
Data collected as part of the study is available to researchers. We want the data to be used as widely as possible, informing policy and research decisions. A great deal of useful information has been collected about the children, and in some cases their mothers and the mothers’ partners. By accessing the data you will be able to gain a better understanding of what has led to particular outcomes.

The data is anonymised so study participants can’t be identified. The data is linked, where applicable, to public health records such as perinatal information.

What’s available:

Antenatal data set

9 month data set

For more information about accessing study data, click here to access the Growing Up in New Zealand data access guide.

More about the study
The Growing Up in New Zealand study tracks approximately 7,000 New Zealand children from before birth. The study describes what it is like to grow up in contemporary New Zealand in the 21st century.

The Study has several unique features:

It started before the children were born so useful information has been collected about the mother’s behaviour and her intentions for the future.

The mother’s partners have been involved in the study, which provides a useful and sometimes different perspective on the child.

The cohort has representation from European, Maori, Pacific, Asian and other ethnic groups to ensure that New Zealand’s cultural diversity is captured.

There are six ‘domains’ of the study: education, culture and identity, psychological and cognitive development, health and wellbeing, social context, and family and wellbeing. This multi-disciplinary approach means the information collected can be used by a wide range of agencies, governmental and non-governmental, to address cross sector issues.

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