Updates
The latest from A Better StartCongratulations to this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients
A Better Start congratulates the recipients of this year's Queen's Birthday Honours awards. Distinguished Professor Jane Harding was made a dame for world-leading research into newborn babies. A well-deserved honour and a great recognition of Dame Harding's many...
Resilient Teens team describe the system architecture for Aroha chatbot
A Better Start's Resilient Teens team describe the system architecture for their youth mental health chatbot systems, including the new Aroha chatbot, which supports youth with Covid-19 related issues. See the published pre-print...
The Ministry of Health has put funding into resources to help young people manage anxiety
The Ministry of Health today announced more choice of mental health and wellbeing support for young people. This included funding into providing a variety of tools and resources to help young people manage anxiety due to the uncertainty caused by Covid-19. Read the...
Farewell to our Board Chair, Pat Snedden
After almost six years Pat Snedden has stepped down as the Chair of A Better Start E Tipu e Rea National Science Challenge. Pat’s influence on the Challenge and it’s direction has been enormous and we are hugely thankful to him for this. Pat’s commitments have...
Lockdown study sheds light on Pasifika achievement in education
A study by the University of Canterbury's College of Education Health and Human Development interviewed 134 parents of Māori and Pasifika students to study the impact of lockdown on Pasifika education. The study is related to the Challenge's Successful Learning...
Better Start Literacy Approach launched
The Challenge's Successful Learning team have launched a new resource hub for educators. The Better Start Literacy Approach is based on several years of research trials investigating the most efficient and effective methods to support children's early reading,...
Aroha, clever Kiwi ingenuity to help young people cope with COVID-19 lockdown
Researchers from the University of Auckland and A Better Start – E Tipu e Rea National Science Challenge have developed Aroha, a Chatbot, to help young people manage stress and isolation during the current COVID-19 lockdown. Aroha can be accessed via...
Delivering emotional health treatment to young people on smartphones
The Resilient Teens research team have recently had an article published in ScienceDirect, which describes the design and development of an mHealth app the team co-designed with Māori and Pasifika youth. The app - Quest - Te Whitianga - is designed for young...
Supporting resilience in young people provides a better start
A Better Start National Science Challenge has awarded Dr Karolina Stasiak and Tania Cargo from the University of Auckland $1.4 million over 2 and a quarter years to pilot the implementation of tools into schools in South Auckland, to increase access to quality...
Novel approach enables improved capabilities for mental health research and evaluation in New Zealand
Novel approach enables improved capabilities for mental health research and evaluation in New Zealand A Better Start National Science Challenge researchers, Nicholas Bowden, and co-authors from the Big Data and Resilient Teens research teams have developed a new...
Dr Joanna Chu interviewed on 95b FM radio
Listen to Dr Joanne Chu from the University of Auckland's School of Population Health being interviewed on 95b FM - Ready, Steady, Learn. Joanna talks about texting tips for parenting. Joanna's research focus is on supporting parents through the challenge of...
Bigger babies at risk of obesity in adulthood: study
Big, ‘bonny’ babies are traditionally celebrated as pictures of health, but a new international study shows women born heavy were on average nearly 4kg heavier by their mid-twenties, when they were also 50 percent more likely to develop obesity. The study, an...
