COMPASS Seminars 2024

Stephen McTaggart
7 May 2024

Marae have been cultural and economic centres for Māori since their arrival in Aotearoa over a thousand years ago. Marae culture was brought from the Pacific and developed uniquely here. Food was exchanged between groups, political relationships were negotiated or defended, and life crises took place, all on the marae. In the 21st century, many rangatahi are experiencing disconnection from their ancestral marae and the whakapapa (genealogy), tikanga (customary practices/behaviours), te reo (language), stories, and Māori history traditionally learned there.

This seminar is drawn from the findings of Question of Identity: How connected are young Māori to ancestral marae, and does it matter, which surveyed 362 rangatahi across eight high schools in four urban areas across Aotearoa New Zealand, between 2019 and 2023:

• While parents/caregivers, whānau, and (mostly rural) marae remain conduits of whakapapa, tikanga, te reo, stories, and Māori history, mainstream schools play an increasing role in assisting rangatahi in learning about their cultural touchstones
• Approximately half of rangatahi could not identify their ancestral marae, and of those who did know it, many had never visited, or did so very infrequently.

This crisis of disconnection is exacerbated by the tyranny of distance. The regularity and quality of connections between young urban Māori and their ancestral marae / marae communities are affected by multiple factors, including the level of engagement by parents and proximate whānau and, significantly, the often large geographical distances between families and their marae.

Stephen McTaggart is a sociologist, action researcher, and musician. He holds a PhD from the University of Auckland in the first of those.

Stephen is director of McTaggart Research Aotearoa and holds an Honorary Academic post with the University. His mahi focus is the gathering and interpretation of Māori focused data using a kaupapa Māori research approach.

Stephen’s current research is investigating the diasporic geographic movement of individual iwi/hapū descendants within Aotearoa, and developing web-based information platforms for Māori, in an examination of the nature of the social communication networks of urban Māori youth and connections with papakāinga – those living close to their ancestral marae.

Sarah Hendrica Bickerton
23 April 2024

Aotearoa New Zealand’s aerospace sector is growing rapidly, but sustainability considerations are often overlooked. From transdisciplinary research using surveys and interviews with key stakeholder groups, this seminar will cover the preliminary themes; namely that the sector largely deprioritises environmental sustainability and compliance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in favour of economic growth. Actors are not incentivised to consider sustainability. While environmental concerns are acknowledged, they are often viewed as technical challenges to overcome by individual companies, rather than global systemic issues that require a collaborative approach. Moreover, the Government's role as a customer, investor, and regulator creates a sustainability leadership vacuum. The results highlight the need for a new approach to balance growth with genuine sustainable development principles using innovative governance models.

Sarah Hendrica Bickerton is a lecturer in Public Policy here at the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau. Before that, she was also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute here, and she has also been a Research & Policy Lead at an NGO working in digital equity & tech policy. In 2020 she completed her PhD in Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka, studying online political participation as part of her wider interest in the intersection of technology and the social & political. Her background is as a Sociologist (though her first degree was in Astrophysics), having studied previously at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha.

Francesca Pigatto
9 April 2024

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There is a growing interest in identifying the risk factors for adolescent depression, as the prevalence of this condition has increased rapidly over the last decade, and it often persists into adulthood with the association of a range of adverse outcomes.

This study included 4,173 young people from GUiNZ who had data for our outcome of interest, self-reported depression symptoms at 12 years, using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CESD-10) short-form questionnaire, and prenatal maternal depression. Cumulative Risk (CR) score was used to investigate the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors on depression symptoms in young people. The perinatal CR score was created by combining prenatal and postnatal risk factors that reached statistically significant associations with the outcome, while early childhood CR included the statistically significant risk factors derived from the 4.5 and 8 years data collection waves. Each CR score included three categories of risk: low CR score (exposure to at most one risk factor), medium CR (two or three risk factors), and high CR (four or more risk factors). The association between CR score and depression score at 12 years was adjusted for covariates.

About one-third of young people were exposed to a low CR score in perinatal or early childhood. The prevalence of high CR scores in perinatal and early childhood was 12.0% and 6.8%, respectively. For perinatal risk factors, young people exposed to medium CR scores had an increase in the depression score by 0.45 units (p-value <0.01), and those exposed to high CR had an increase of 1.64 units (p-value <0.001). For early childhood risk factors, exposure to middle CR score was associated with a one-unit increase in depression score (p-value <0.001), while exposure to high CR score was associated with a-2.2-unit increase in depression score (p-value <0.001).

In the adjusted analysis, exposure to medium and high CR scores, either perinatal or early childhood, was still associated with depression scores. Being female was associated with higher depression scores while having a mother with a bachelor’s or higher level of education was a protective factor for depression symptoms.

Our findings showed that using CR scores is a valuable approach to identifying the subgroup of young people that are most at risk of depression symptoms, which could help inform interventions that address a range of risk factors.

Francesca Pigatto is doing a PhD on the environmental risk factors and genetic markers for depression symptoms in young people enrolled in GUiNZ. She has a background in genetics and an interest in public health.

Paula Araya-Herrera
26 March 2024

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Research on outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have gross motor developmental delay is increasing, although there is still a lack of thorough studies. This longitudinal cohort research examines the trajectories of gross motor development in 6,359 children, utilising data from the Growing Up in New Zealand study, with a focus on 173 children with ASD diagnoses or concerns. Early interventions are crucial for treating gross motor difficulties in children with ASD, providing insights into potential paths for long-term developmental assistance.

Paula Araya-Herrera is a physiotherapist and researcher in the Applied Behaviour Analysis programme at the School of Psychology. Her doctoral research involves exploring the associations between gross motor and other developmental areas for autistic children, and their implications for practitioners. She uses quantitative methodologies to examine these effects from population, evidence and practitioner perspectives.

Stephanie D'Souza
12 March 2024

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There is increasing interest in the long-term health implications of participation in contact and collision sports, particularly the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Recent research has capitalised on large-scale administrative health data to examine health outcomes in contact sport athletes, though evidence is limited on outcomes associated with participation in rugby union. The Kumanu Tāngata study is a retrospective cohort study involving the linkage of first-class New Zealand male rugby union players to the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a comprehensive de-identified whole-population administrative research database. Rugby players (N = 13,227) will be compared to a general population comparison group (N = 2,438,484) on several mortality and morbidity outcomes. The project’s strengths and limitations for understanding the long-term health impacts of contact sports will be discussed, and initial findings on neurodegenerative disease health outcomes will be presented.

Stephanie D'Souza is Deputy Director of COMPASS Research Centre and Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences. Her research involves the application of quantitative methodologies to examine societal, health, and wellbeing challenges across the lifespan, employing survey and administrative data.

Barry Milne
Tuesday 27 February 2024

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One of the most important questions to ponder when considering a policy change or intervention is, "Will it work?"

You could try it out in the real world and see, but that is expensive. As an alternative, simulations can model the impact of a policy change or intervention on a 'virtual' world.

In this presentation I describe 'microsimulation', which simulates individual units, e.g. people, to model the impacts of policies. I describe some of the uses to which microsimulation has been put internationally and in Aotearoa New Zealand, and some of the models we have developed at COMPASS – focusing on recent modelling of interventions undertaken as part of the National Science Challenge: 'A Better Start'.

Barry Milne is Director of COMPASS Research Centre. He has a Masters degree in psychology from the University of Otago and a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from Kings College London. His main interests are in life-course research, survey research, and the use of administrative data to answer policy and research questions.