Myron Friesen

As a follow-up to the 2018 Toolbox retrospective study and the development of the Theory of Change Model for Toolbox, the research and evaluation team designed a small evaluation and customer satisfaction survey for all participants to complete at the beginning (first session or before) of the Toolbox course and at the end of the course (last session). The purpose of this report is to describe the results from these surveys for all data collected in 2019. The surveys in this study were specifically designed to assess parent self-reports of changes in parenting and family life according to three of the variables identified in the Toolbox Theory of Change; including relationship quality, parental efficacy, and family atmosphere. A fourth variable, parenting anxiety, was also added due to recent observations from Toolbox and Space facilitators about parents' who seemed quite anxious about their ability to adequately address concerns about their children and home life. This analysis...

Parents in Aotearoa New Zealand have access to a wide variety of parenting resources to assist them with their parenting strategies, improve the social-emotional climate of their home, and manage challenging behaviours in their children. The suite of parenting courses offered by the Parenting Place (Toolbox Early Years, Middle Years, Tweens and Teens, and Building Awesome Whānau) are good examples of homegrown, community-lead parenting education that has broad reach and appeal, consistently attracting over 4000 participants each year. However, the Toolbox courses could also be criticised for lacking an evaluation track record. To address this need for better and more rigorous evaluation, Parenting Place began working with researchers at the University of Canterbury in 2017 and formalised a two-year research collaboration starting in January 2018.

Previous research has documented that exposure to parental separation/divorce during childhood can be associated with long-term consequences into adulthood. This study sought to extend this literature by examining associations between childhood exposure to parental separation/divorce and later parenting behavior as an adult in a New Zealand birth cohort. Data were drawn from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265 children born in 1977 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Information about exposure to parental separation and divorce was gathered annually from birth to 15 years. At the 30-year follow-up, all cohort members who had become parents (biological or nonbiological) were assessed on several parenting dimensions (sensitivity, warmth, overreactivity, inconsistency, quality of child management, and physical punishment). The analyses showed that exposure to more frequent parental separation in childhood and adolescence was associated with lower levels of parental sensitivity and warmth, greater overreactivity, and an increased use of physical punishment as a parent, after controlling for a wide range of family socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, and individual child characteristics. The findings suggest that as exposure to parental separation increases, so does the likelihood of experiencing multiple developmental challenges in childhood and adolescence. As an adult, these life-course experiences can have small but significant associations with the quality of parenting behavior.

Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homely vs. cold and attractive). As predicted, women (relative to men) placed greater importance on warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources in a potential mate but less importance on attractiveness/vitality. In addition, as expected (a) ratings of ideal standards partly mediated the link between sex and mate choices, (b) ideal standards declined in importance from long-term to short-term relationships, with the exception of attractiveness/vitality, and unexpectedly, (c) sex differences were higher for long-term (compared to short-term) mate choice. Explanations and implications are discussed.

BackgroundIn this study, 30-year longitudinal data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) were used to examine the associations between childhood exposure to sexual abuse and intimate relationship outcomes at age 30. In addition, a broad range of early childhood and family confounding factors were tested, and the role of intervening factors from adolescence was explored.MethodThe investigation analyzed data from a birth cohort of over 900 New Zealand adults studied to the age of 30. At ages 18 and 21 cohort members reported on any exposure to sexual abuse prior to age 16. This information, along with prospective data gathered in childhood and adolescence, was used to predict partnership outcomes at age 30.ResultsAfter adjustment for early childhood and family factors, exposure to more severe forms of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was associated with earlier and more frequent cohabitation, higher rates of perpetrated interpartner violence (IPV), and early parenthood...

ABSTRACT Data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a 30‐year prospective longitudinal study, were used to examine the associations between the quality of parent–child relations in adolescence and adult parenting behaviour 15 years later. At ages 14 and 15 years, cohort members were interviewed about the quality of their relationship with their parents. At age 30, those who had become parents underwent a parenting assessment using self‐report and observational ratings of positive (warmth, sensitivity) and negative parenting (overreactive, inconsistency, and physical punishment/abuse). Results showed that adolescents who reported higher quality parent–child relationships were later characterized by higher levels of parental warmth, sensitivity, and effective child management, and lower levels of overreactive parenting. These associations remained after extensive covariate adjustment. Study findings highlight the importance of close parent–child relations during adolescence in preparing an individual for the challenges of caring for and parenting their own children when they themselves become parents.

ABSTRACT Population level shifts in the timing of parenting onset and family composition have been well documented. However, the impacts of these changes on the life course experiences of high risk, teen and younger mothers remain poorly understood To address this issue, this paper examined intergenerational changes in the family formation and parenting experiences of teen and younger mothers who gave birth in the 1970s and the 2000s (G2, N = 108). The study sample consisted of two generations of early parenting women studied as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study in New Zealand Early motherhood (<25 years) was defined relative to concurrent national childbirth data. Results showed that contemporary young mothers (G2) were subject to greater parental, housing and school instability during their childhood years than early parenting women of their mothers’ generation (G1). These risks persisted following their transition to motherhood, with G2 mothers being at increased risk of non-marital childbearing (65 vs. 11%), single motherhood (38 vs. 21%) and welfare dependence (37 vs. 19%) despite gains in educational achievement (36 vs. 18% tertiary qualified). Further examination of the family circumstances and parenting practices of contemporary G2 mothers showed that about half were working in unskilled or part time employment, with many experiencing a range of financial problems (13–40%). Breastfeeding (89%) and infant immunization (92%) were common, but one in four G2 women were exposing their children to passive cigarette smoke, physical punishment (82%) and abuse (14%). These findings provide support for secular changes in the context of early motherhood, with contemporary young mothers raising their children in family contexts characterized by higher levels of psychosocial adversity than the previous generation of early parenting women. Such findings raise significant concerns for the health and wellbeing of these young mothers and their children.

To examine the language development at corrected age 4 years of a regionally representative cohort of children born very preterm (VPT). Of particular interest was the identification of biological and socioenvironmental risk and protective factors that influence VPT children's early language development. Data were collected as part of a prospective longitudinal study of 110 VPT (VPT: ≤ 33 weeks gestation) and 113 full-term children (full term: 37-41 weeks gestation) born in Canterbury, New Zealand from 1998 to 2000. At corrected age 4 years, all children were assessed with the preschool version of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Extensive information was also collected about children's family social background, perinatal health, childrearing environment, education/intervention exposures, and neurodevelopmental progress from birth to age 4. At the age of 4 years, VPT children were characterized by poorer receptive and expressive language development than full-term children. These differences persisted after exclusion of children with neurosensory impairment as well as statistical adjustment for the effects of social risk. Within the VPT group, the key predictors of children's overall language development were family social risk at birth (p =.05), severity of white matter abnormalities on neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (p =.49), observed parent-child synchrony (p =.001), and concurrent child cognitive ability (p =.001). Together, these factors accounted for 45% of the variance in children's total Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool scores. By preschool age, children born VPT show early emerging mild to moderate language delays that are likely to affect their school success and longer-term developmental progress. Findings highlight the importance of potentially modifiable factors such as early brain injury and parenting quality in predicting the language outcomes of children born VPT.

ABSTRACT This article describes a 2-session laboratory project in which students develop, conduct, and attempt to validate an interview-based personality assessment. In Session 1, students learn about effective interview procedures and then design and pilot-test an interview to assess 4 personality traits(emotionality, activity level, sociability, and impulsivity). Each student then assesses the personality of a participant using the interview along with a self-report measure that indexes the same 4 personality traits. In Session 2, students analyze the interview and questionnaire data and examine several topics concerning measurement validation, such as convergent validity, social desirability, and error. Test grades and student evaluations supported the pedagogical value of the project.