What is home to young people in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Associate Professor Polly Atatoa Carr

Building on the researcher’s existing programme of research regarding home and the household environment for children and young people, this project will determine how young people describe what home means to them, whether there are other places (other than home) that feel like home, and what makes these places special. This work will complement a Masters student thesis exploring how rangatahi Māori develop a sense of belonging while living in housing deprivation, and what an ideal home would mean to them. It will also complement the researcher’s project focused on children, young people, and the housing system.

Our Voices – A Māori Analysis

Professor Chris Cunningham

A Māori analysis of the ‘Our Voices’ data will first capture their experience of wellbeing – in their own voices – and compare/contrast with the experiences of other young people in the cohort. The second part of the analysis will be to interpret the voices of young Māori in terms of te ao Māori based on frameworks such as Sir Mason Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Whā. Both parts of this analysis will inform potential service interventions for young people and create a clearer understanding of the resiliency resources they may call upon to support their wellbeing.

Measuring bias in large language models (LLM) in the New Zealand context

Bo Pang, supervised by Professor Yun Sing Koh

This project aims to construct a dataset that measures bias on LLMs in the New Zealand context and assess the bias of existing LLMs in the New Zealand context. Firstly, we will build and validate a dataset from a New Zealand corpus. Once the dataset has been produced, we will begin research to evaluate the bias of the LLM in the New Zealand context.

Multimodal deep learning of unstructured data

Ricky Qiao, supervised by Professors Yun Sing Koh, Chris Cunningham and Dr Caroline Walker

This project aims to construct a dataset that measures bias on LLMs in the New Zealand context and assess the bias of existing LLMs in the New Zealand context. Firstly, we will build and validate a dataset from a New Zealand corpus. Once the dataset has been produced, we will begin research to evaluate the bias of the LLM in the New Zealand context.

“…both a battleground and a serene creek”: Exploring young people’s lived experiences of and with social media in contemporary Aotearoa

Dr Georgia Rudd

This project will capture how young people in contemporary Aotearoa engage with social media, including patterns of use and the motivators for and outcomes of use and non-use of social media. These insights will inform efforts to support young people to engage with social media in ways that are both safe and that make the most of this ever-evolving technology.

Longitudinal trajectory modelling of wellbeing indicators and predictors

Dr Caroline Walker

Growing Up in New Zealand is designed to provide an understanding of how children are growing up in New Zealand. The conceptual model incorporates the theory that child development is intergenerational and begins before they are born, and that each life course outcome is the result of the complex interplay between an individual’s biology and the environment they experience across time. As such, information has been collected since before birth and is centred on the child participant. Longitudinal data collected will be used to determine trajectories of development and what influences these. This data is multidisciplinary and is designed to understand dynamic interactions between the child and their environment across a broad range of influences from the immediate family environment to the wider societal context.

Opportunities for future projects

Given the large-scale nature of the data collected, there are ongoing opportunities to explore and analyse the data in future projects.

Currently we do not have any funded opportunities available, however please contact us if you are interested in using the data in your own research.