Growing up in New Zealand Provides New Insight
Growing up in New Zealand Provides New Insight into
the Lives of Our Children up to Two Years of
Age
Auckland, 17 June
2014 – High levels of mobility and the diverse
environment of New Zealand families with young children
challenge the way we provide education, health and social
services, according to a new report from Growing Up in
New Zealandreleased today.
Growing Up in New Zealand, based at the University of Auckland, is the country’s largest and most up-to-date longitudinal study, able to provide a vivid picture of the reality of life for young children and their families in New Zealand today.
The latest report from Growing Up in New Zealand, ‘Now We Are Two: Describing our first 1000 days’ provides new insight into the lives of two-year-olds in New Zealand - describing health and safety, emotional and behavioural development, and early learning of the nearly 7000 children that are part of this research project.
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life - from gestation until the age of two – are critically important for shaping lifetime development.
‘Now We Are Two: Describing our first 1000 days’ builds on the previous reports from Growing Up in New Zealand released in 2010 and 2012 which described these same families and children before they were born and throughout infancy.
As the story of the Growing Up in New Zealand families continues we see that these children remain highly diverse in terms of their identity, development and capabilities. Many two-year-olds are using technology with ease, and a majority are spending an average of 1.5 hours per day in front of television.
These children are also commonly multilingual. Just under half are able to understand more than one language at two years old, most commonly English and Te Reo Māori.
This report also shows that New Zealand two-year-olds are living in a wide range of household types and economic circumstances, and are taking part in a wide range of activities in their communities.
“Our third comprehensive report ‘Now we are two’ provides an overview of milestones the Growing Up in New Zealand children have reached at this point, and the environment within which they live, learn and play. We are building an understanding of what has shaped our children’s development and how their families are supported to help them reach their potential,” says Study Director Associate Professor Susan Morton.
“This information is made available to policy makers so that they can understand what is working well for all our families as well as what we might do better to reach children who are most in need.”
Many things are going well for these toddlers and their families. However, this report also highlights areas where New Zealand could do much better: “Infectious diseases are common, and hospital admissions for respiratory and other illnesses are also high,” explains Dr Morton.
“We are hopeful that the information we are collecting from the families and the children themselves will help us to understand how we can improve these statistics, and importantly how we can reduce the inequities in outcomes some groups of children experience.”
‘Now We Are Two: Describing our first 1000 days’ also looks at how the home environment, childcare arrangements, socioeconomic situation and support structures for families have changed over the first two years of life for these children.
As Dr Morton explains: “Because we now have information over three time points we can begin to appreciate how families and environments change for children over their early years, and how these changes influence growth and development. The depth of information available is an important strength of this type of longitudinal study, and can really help us understand what works for our children rather than just describing the problems they face.”
One of the striking features of change in the lives of our families seen in the Now We Are Two report is the high mobility between and within neighbourhoods. Approximately 2000 families have moved since their child was nine months old, and mobility was also high in the infancy period.
“The high mobility, the diversity of the environment, and the changing circumstances of families challenges us to consider how we best deliver health, education and social services to support these children during their earliest years,” says Dr Morton.
Key results
from “Now we are two”
The
personalities and skills of New Zealand two-year-olds
-
There is significant ethnic diversity within the cohort. One
quarter of the Growing Up in New Zealand children are
identifed as Māori, 20% as Pacific, and one in 6 as Asian.
Multiple ethnicities are also very common (almost half of
the children).
- Two thirds of the children knew
they were a boy or a girl, and the same proportion used
their own name or expressed their independence by typically
saying 'do it myself'.
- Tantrums were the norm
for children at two years, with four out of five often
expressing themselves this way.
- Bananas were the
most common favourite first food; and saying 'mum', 'mummy'
or 'mama' was the most common first word.
- More
than 40% (around 2,500) of our children understand two or
more languages at two years old. Te Reo Māori was
understood by 12% of children in the cohort, and we are
looking forward to exploring the use of language further and
how this may or may not impact with access to appropriate
service and programme delivery.
- We are starting
to see that this new generation of children is a generation
of digital natives. Around 80% watched TV or DVDs daily at
age two, a greater proportion than the 66% who have had
books read to them every day. One in seven had already used
a laptop or kids computer system.
The health and
safety of New Zealand two-year-olds
- 86% of
children were described as in very good or excellent
health.
- 92% of children were fully immunised at
two years of age.
- Just under half of the cohort
had had an ear infection and 14% a skin infection since they
were nine months old; tummy bugs and chest infections were
also common at this age.
- 10% of children had
been told by a doctor that they have an allergy of some
kind, with egg and dairy being the most common
allergens.
- Working smoke alarms were only
present in 79% of the children’s homes and 38%
of
children were living in a house without a fully fenced off
driveway.
- Just under one third of children had
had a significant accident requiring medical help.
-
One fifth of children had experienced at least one hospital
stay by the time they were two years old.
The
families and environments of New Zealand two-year-olds
-
69% were living in a household with two parents present (and
no other adults, but possibly other children), and 20% were
living in an extended family household (including one or two
parents). More children (6%) were living in a household with
their parent(s) and non-kin (such as flatmates) than those
living with a single parent (without other adults, but
possibly with other children; 5%).
- The
proportion of children living in extended family households
differed according to their identified ethnicity.
Approximately 43% of children who identified as Pacific, 27%
of children who identified as Asian and 27% of children who
identified as Māori were living in extended family
households. This is compared to the 14% of children who
identified as European living in an extended family
household.
- Just over half (55%) of the children
lived in family owned accommodation at two years of age. The
remaining 45% lived in rented accommodation, the majority of
which (86%) was private rental accommodation.
-
The families showed high levels of mobility, with around
one-third (approximately 2,000) families having moved house
since their child was nine months. Despite this high
mobility (and the challenge of life with a toddler), 92% of
the recruited families continue to be committed to being
involved in Growing Up in New Zealand. This
commitment reflects how important our families feel it is to
be able to contribute their stories to shaping policy and
programmes in New Zealand now and into the future.
-
We are seeing changes in the children’s environments over
time. For example, approximately 300 children and their
families were living in more crowded conditions in their
homes at two years of age (compared to at nine months),
while a similar number are now in less crowded conditions.
Around 300 families moved out of their own homes into rental
accommodation, while approximately the same number moved
into their own homes.
- While they were recruited
from the Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waikato District
Health Board regions, the Growing Up in New Zealand
children are now living from Kaitaia to Bluff, and many
overseas.
Systems and supports for New
Zealand two-year-olds
- Half of the mums of the
Growing Up in New Zealand cohort were not in paid
work when their children were two, but almost all of the
fathers were in paid work at this stage. On average, the
mothers in paid work were working 29 hours per week.
-
Over half of the children at two years were in regular early
childhood education and care predominantly because of the
work and study commitments of their parents but also because
their parents were interested in the positive impact that
this education may have on the social and language
development of their children. When children were not in
regular education or care, 10% of their mothers described
cost to be a barrier.56% of children were being looked after
regularly each week by someone other than their parents.
This had increased from the 35% of children in regular
formal or informal early childhood education and care at
nine months of age.
- The average length of time
that two year olds were spending in their main child care
type was 24 hours per week. The average cost of childcare
per week was $160 (median $144). A childcare subsidy was
knowingly received by 879 families (23% of the families
using childcare).
About Growing Up in New Zealand
Growing Up in New Zealand is a longitudinal study following the lives of approximately 7,000 families that provides a contemporary, population relevant picture of what it is like to be a child growing up in New Zealand in the 21st century. The ethnicity and socio-demographic characteristics of the children and families in the cohort are broadly generalisable to those of children being born in New Zealand today.
Growing Up in New Zealand is unique for its inclusion of significant numbers of Maori, Pacific and Asian children as well as New Zealand European and other ethnicities, and for the representation of families from across the socioeconomic spectrum. This study is unlike any other data source in its ability to contribute evidence of what works in contemporary New Zealand to inform policy evaluation and development.
Growing Up in New
Zealand is University of Auckland-led research and
funded by multiple government agencies. The government
contract for the study is managed by the Families
Commission.
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