The development of our children

The relative importance of "nature" and "nurture" in the development of healthy, well-adapted children has long been debated.  Current wisdom supports the notion that biological determinants and the environment are in continuous interaction and are crucial elements in giving our children the best possible start in life. 

For example, our researchers have demonstrated that babies who grow poorly in the womb - because their mothers are underfed, obese, or smokers - are at increased risk of diseases such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease as adults. Some of these risks may be the result of quite fundamental changes in the way that genes are switched on or off to control development.  There also appear to be effects on development of the child's brain and hence his or her learning ability.  Support of research in this area will allow our scientists to develop ways of preventing these effects of deprivation during pregnancy, and to address the effects during early life.

The concept of a "mismatch" between our bodies and the world in which we now live adds a new dimension to a complex problem.  The challenge for the modern child is how to be healthy when our bodies are designed for a diet that is high in protein and low in fat - quite different from the kind of diet most western children consume - and for much higher levels of physical activity each day.

The connections between health problems, impaired educational performance and poverty are clear.   It is of real concern that, while the highest achieving students in New Zealand are comparable to the best in the world, our statistics show a long "tail" of educational underachievement, with many children failing.  This problem is most evident among Māori and Pasifika children, and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

New Zealand prides itself on being a wonderful place to bring up children and for many of our children this is so.  Yet young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are significantly under-represented in the upper secondary and tertiary education systems, with major implications for New Zealand's long-term social and economic development.

Our current research programme, spanning growth and development, epidemiology and education, offers world-class expertise as a means of overcoming these problems. Through philanthropic support for more top quality researchers and postgraduate students, the opportunity exists to substantially enhance the rate of research progress and the scale of its impact.